The 8% Quest: How We’re Reducing Carbon Emissions

Food waste makes up 8% of global carbon emissions. That’s a huge number. And it’s a number that we need to get under control. 

The truth is that carbon emissions don’t need to be reduced incrementally - they need to be cut drastically, and we all need to be playing a part in making that happen. As a business, we feel an even greater responsibility. We’re a community of people who have a shared vision, who are dedicating themselves to a cause.

When food winds up in a landfill, it breaks down releasing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. With no way for it to break down harmlessly, we’re winding up with steadily rising levels of methane pollution and a climate problem. The numbers behind that rise are staggering to us. Australia is wasting over 7 million tonnes of food per year, much of which still goes to landfill, and it’s all contributing to a carbon problem that is hurting us today. 

We don’t think about food waste as just being a market opportunity. If that was our approach, it would be a huge one. But we go far beyond that. 

Our mission at Goterra is to look that 8% in the eye and take it on.

Here’s how we’re doing it.

Building a better alternative to managing food waste

The Goterra installations that we’ve already built and begun operating are the best at what they do. Because we are the best at what we do. We use robots in harmony with maggots to break down food waste live on site. The maggots eat their way through the waste, and produce animal feed that we can sell to farms, giving them a cheaper, more environmentally friendly option for their livestock. For our customers, this means cutting costs on their food waste transportation, storage and disposal. For farmers, it means cutting costs on feed and reducing their environmental impact...

Reducing the environmental impact of agriculture

Farming isn’t optional. We need to continue to provide food for our communities. What we need to do is reduce the environmental impact of farming, reaching for a point of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, no matter what that takes. Crushing the food waste problem is a clear path to doing that. Particularly if we can continue our trajectory and roadmap of delivering animal feed produced by breaking down food waste, in a circular and sustainable way.

Creating a roadmap for climate innovation

We’re only getting started. We have a living roadmap of clean tech tools and innovations that we’re building out to tackle every aspect of waste reduction and management, far beyond organic and food waste. And we’re working on ways to begin producing food for humans as the output of our food waste management. These moves are going to make a significant contribution to levelling food waste carbon emissions, and beginning to drive them down to zero. 

At Goterra, we are passionate about one thing - above all else. We’re passionate about working to solve the climate crisis and help humanity survive. If that sounds like a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) it’s because it is. 

And we’re proud of that.