By Andrea Segrè
Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Bologna, President of Last Minute Market

Last Minute Market supports Hera in the CiboAmico project, launching a collaboration on a common project aimed at decreasing waste and enhancing sustainability and solidarity.

Decreasing refuse and the war on waste: this is the goal of the CiboAmico project, launched in November 2009 by Hera and Concerta, a leading company in business catering, in collaboration with Last Minute Market (LMM), a spin-off founded at the University of Bologna.
The project aims to collect uneaten food from Hera Group canteens and distribute it to charitable associations throughout the country.CiboAmico is supported by a partnership with Last Minute Market, a company founded at the University of Bologna, which developed an innovative model for recovering unsold goods that can still be used by charitable organizations.

LMM was founded in 1999 as a research project and today operates over 40 active projects in eleven regions throughout Italy. The idea originated years ago based on a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes at supermarkets: all items nearing their expiration dates are withdrawn from the shelves and thrown out. A closer look, however, reveals a potential supply of products. And an unexpressed demand exists for that which is not supplied. Just take a look around and it’s easy to find a large number of charitable organizations and associations that assist the poor, consumers who lack purchasing power. Here’s the flip side: what for many is abundance and thus waste, for others is scarcity and thus hunger.

This was the inspiration for LMM. ‘Last’ because the recovered goods are in their last minute of life and because those who benefit are the ‘last’ of society. The company has initiated a virtuous circle, an exchange that benefits everyone who participates, but, differing from traditional markets, the intermediary step is not money but a donation from those with too much to those with too little.
Since last November, the canteens at all Hera Group locations (Bologna, Granarolo, Imola and Rimini) have been collaborating with CiboAmico and estimate that total donations for the entire year will reach 15,000 meals.
Environmental impact studies performed by the LMM spin-off have shown how 15,000 meals thrown away per year equal 8.7 tons of CO₂ emissions. Thanks to CiboAmico, a large quantity of feared greenhouse gases will not be emitted into the atmosphere, thus protecting the environment while supporting the weakest sectors of society.

In compliance with new EU standards that expressly indicate the need to strengthen preventive actions and product reuse, placing these at the top of the hierarchy of waste management actions, LMM and Hera, a long-time leader in sustainability, plan in the future to design and develop projects throughout the country that aim to reuse goods, both food and non-food items in domestic and non-domestic contexts.
This new collaboration, made possible by the synergetic partnership of three companies that boast sustainability as their strong point, paves the way for the development of projects focused on protecting the environment and the weakest sectors of the population. Waste prevention, the war on waste, sustainability and an economy that supports the environment and society: these are the values that CiboAmico represents and defends.