Spring 2024 Sustainability Fellow: Ashley Miller

Partner: Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) 

Project: Food Waste Reduction Toolkit

Student: Ashley Miller

During the Spring 2024 semester, Ashley Miller, a second-year undergraduate in Geography, partnered with Lauren O’Connor at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to work as a Sustainability Fellow. The project's goal was to create a Food Waste Reduction Toolkit that FDEP could display on its website to provide tips and resources to communities across Florida.

Ashley’s background in food waste reduction began at Sustainable Campus, where she worked as the Food Recovery Network Coordinator. The Sustainability Fellows project opportunity seemed like a natural next step for her.

“With food being one of the leading causes of climate change, I was really interested in bringing more awareness to it. I hope this guide can help people reduce their climate impact by reducing methane-causing food waste in landfills,” Ashley said.

FDEP’s Waste Reduction & Recycling Section provides assistance to residents, organizations, and businesses throughout the state on how to reduce food waste. However, they did not have an easily accessible digital toolkit to provide this information. The digital toolkit Ashley created offers key resources to citizens, answering many basic questions regarding food waste, such as best practices for food preparation and proper composting techniques. Ashley initially outlined the five sections, an introduction, and a conclusion, which then guided her research from a total of 40 sources.

The guide is a great starting point for FDEP and will hopefully expand to include resources for restaurants and businesses over time. Ashley's research and synthesis of information helped her understand the big picture of food waste and its relation to sustainability. She hopes to continue her academic career in the Urban and Regional Planning department as a graduate student once she completes her bachelor's degree.

“I also learned more about sustainability, furthering my passion for it and encouraging me to find more related courses and jobs,” Ashley said.

Ultimately, this project sheds light on the issue of food waste. With more than 40 percent of food going to waste in the United States alone, food waste is a major concern economically, socially, and environmentally.

If you’d like to learn more about Ashley’s project, click here.

To learn more about the Sustainability Fellows program, visit sustainablecampus.fsu.edu/sustainability-fellows.