2025 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit
June 23-25, 2025 | Seattle, WA
Hyatt Regency Seattle
Minnie Ringland
Climate Analyst
ReFED
Bio:
Minnie Ringland is a Climate Analyst with ReFED, a national nonprofit dedicated to ending food loss and waste across the food system by advancing data-driven solutions. ReFED provides the most comprehensive insights on where and why food waste takes place, and connects organizations working to address these problems. Minnie's role at ReFED includes studying the emissions factors used to link food waste to climate change, translating these findings to support ReFED's partners and solution providers, and generally working to improve our understanding of food waste's impact. Minnie has followed an interest in food systems since college, where she led the Food Action student club, working on food waste and nutrition issues, and helped organize the annual Yale Food Systems Symposium in 2015. She recently graduated from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, where she worked on a master’s capstone project studying emissions and carbon sequestration associated with Santa Barbara County's agricultural lands.
Schedule
Wednesday, June 25
10:45am - 11:45am
[Breakout Session III] The Environmental Effect: The Nexus Between Surplus Food and Land, Biodiversity, Water, and Climate
The numbers are staggering—140 million acres of land, enough water for each American to shower seven times a day all year, the same emissions as driving 54 million cars annually—surplus food has an outsized impact on our natural resources and climate. Zeroing in on methane, 10% of emissions of this potent greenhouse gas come from surplus food, which is one reason why reducing unsold and uneaten food is a key strategy to pull the “emergency brake” on climate change. Join this session and hear how food loss and waste intersects with and impacts larger environmental pressures around land conversion, biodiversity, water, and methane.