In food and drink, we know there are significant wastes from making, distributing and discarding. We are also seeing rising interest in urban growing, particularly using container and vertical farms. What if we could connect these at a local level? What if we could use the concept of the circular economy to ensure that the wastes from one part of a city could be used in another part of the same city?

This presentation reports on the activities of academic and commercial collaborators in a STFC Food Network+ project to assess how the use of digital technologies arising out of the "4th industrial revolution" can be used to connect manufacturing, restaurants and urban farming together for mutual economic benefit and lower environmental impact.

Peter Ball is Professor of Operations Management at the University of York. He leads business and community engagement in the University of York Management School and researches at the interface between academia and business. His passion is addressing research challenges and opportunities in manufacturing, especially sustainability.

Peter uses modelling and simulation techniques to understand performance as well as works on practices that underpin performance. Through a management lens, he seeks to understand how processes in industry work and how they can be improved. His work includes circular economy, peer-to-peer learning between companies, barriers and enablers for sustainability advance and more generally addressing productivity.

Recent projects include mapping manufacturing food waste in Yorkshire, environmental practice sharing in brewing, community collaboration opportunities to reduce net carbon in foundation industries and peer-to-peer learning for sustainability practices in the food and drink industry.

This event is organised as part of OPW2022. Find out more via the One Planet Week page on the University website. This year's theme is Equity and Local Economy, which you can read more about on the UoY Sustainability blog. #OPW22

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