Quantifying
Food Banking’s Environmental Impact

A new methodology helps food banks prove their role in cutting food waste and methane emissions.

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FRAME Methodology: Food Recovery to Avoid Methane Emissions

Up to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food that goes to waste. And when food decomposes, it creates methane, a greenhouse gas that traps more than 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over the first 20 years.

Food recovery and redistribution—which is the expertise of food banks across the world—is the quickest, simplest, and most affordable way to reduce methane emissions.

In 2023, through a significant investment from the Global Methane Hub, GFN started building a methodology to quantify and track, in real time, the methane emissions prevented via food recovery by food banks in the Network, which spans 63 organizations in 53 countries. Developed with the Carbon Trust, this is the first methodology for methane using the existing Microsoft Sustainability Manager tool.

With its pilot phase complete, the Food Recovery to Avoid Methane Emissions (FRAME) methodology:

  • Provides credible evidence that food banks help reduce emissions as well as food insecurity.
  • Can help countries achieve their climate goals while also reducing food insecurity.

Check back soon for supporting white papers and case studies.

Explore the Methodology, White Papers, and Case Studies

FRAME Methodology: Food Recovery to Avoid Methane Emissions
Summary: FRAME Methodology
Press Release: New methodology shows that food collection and redistribution prevents methane emissions while reducing hunger and food waste
A staff member at food bank in Puebla, Mexico empties a container of guava fruit into a bin.

Our Top Findings

GFN built a custom emissions dashboard using the methodology for the pilot phase of the project, which took place at five food banks that are a part of BAMX, the Mexican Food Banking Network, and one food bank in Ecuador, Banco de Alimentos Quito.

Analysis of the pilot phase found that:

  • Over a year, the six food banks avoided 816 metric tons of methane, or 20,391 metric tons of CO2 equivalent, while recovering more than 30 million kilograms of food.
  • Each food bank reduces the same volume of greenhouse gas emissions on average as removing 900 gasoline-powered cars from the road for a year or storing the same carbon as almost 63,000 tree seedlings grown for a decade, based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.

"This robust new tool for measuring the methane emissions avoided through food recovery and redistribution helps bring forward the climate benefits of the noble task of food donations. It will help countries deliver on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including commitments made as part of the Global Methane Pledge."

Marcelo Mena, CEO, Global Methane Hub.

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