Leanpath CEO receives recognition for fighting food waste

Beaverton, Oregon-based Leanpath co-founder and CEO Andrew Shakman has been named one of this year’s Meaningful Business 100, a global group of leaders combining profit and purpose to tackle the world’s most pressing issues.

The fifth edition of the award recognizes social entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and impact investors whose work supports the United Nations Global Goals; including Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 to halve global food waste by 2030, which Leadpath is working toward.

“Food waste is an environmental, social and financial crisis,” Shakman says. “Leanpath is proud to work with food service organizations around the world who recognize the urgency in addressing this crisis and are providing the leadership necessary to meet SDG 12.3. We are humbled by Meaningful Business’s recognition of our work.”

The winners hail from 39 countries and were chosen from more than 800 nominees in key industries, including technology, healthcare, financial services, recycling, education and agriculture.

The year-round Meaningful Business 100 program is designed to help inspiring leaders increase their positive impact.

“Congratulations to Andrew Shakman whose work at Leanpath is an inspiration,” Meaningful Business founder and CEO Tom Lytton-Dickie says. “We are at a critical juncture in the 2030 agenda, and there is a lot of work to be done in order to achieve the [UN’s] Global Goals. Leaders like Andrew provide a benchmark in the profit and purpose space, and we look forward to supporting their work as they continue to scale and make a substantial difference.”

Shakman co-founded Leanpath in 2004, creating the automated food waste measurement and prevention segment. From the beginning, he has worked to catalyze the global movement to address the food waste crisis. He has been featured in BusinessWeek, NPR, Forbes and Fast Company. He has presented at the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Culinary Institute of America and Harvard.

Leanpath operates in more than 45 countries and works to identify root causes of food waste and change behaviors that lead to that waste. Since 2004, Leanpath and its food service partners have prevented more than 90 million pounds of food from going to waste, an average of 50 percent reduction per kitchen. Global clients include Sodexo, Aramark, Compass Group, Hilton, Marriott and Google. Leanpath has offices in Portland, Oregon; London and Shanghai.