The Big Food Redesign Challenge - how I built, funded and delivered a programme that changed what we know about food and nature
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation had secured a grant of over £1 million to prove that circular design principles could make food better for nature. I inherited the idea, rebuilt the team, doubled the funding to over £3 million, and delivered a programme that brought 141 products to market across 57 brands, 7 retailers and 12 countries - proven to be 20% better for nature than their industry equivalents.
When I moved across to lead the food team at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, I inherited an idea, a £1.25 million Dream Fund grant, and almost no team. What the grant was supposed to produce was still largely undefined, and the original plan to outsource delivery to another organisation quickly proved unworkable. I made the call to build it in-house, reshaped the budget, rebuilt the team, reoriented the Food Advisory Board to bring in the right retail and producer voices, and found the right data partner to provide credible proof points.
Over the duration of the programme, I doubled the philanthropic contribution to over £3 million - unlocking a Latin American chapter and significantly greater communications reach. An additional £600,000 in corporate input was used to provide grants to SMEs and innovators, and participating retailers committed shelf space worth over £1 million.
Three years later, at an evening at Fortnum & Mason, the products launched to the world - 141 in total, across 57 brands, 7 retailers, and 12 countries. When measured as a basket against their industry equivalents, they were 20% better across indicators such as greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, biodiversity, soil health and animal welfare.
The Big Food Redesign Challenge proved that applying circular design principles to food product design can meaningfully change food's impact on nature - and that the right leadership at the right moment can turn a fragile idea into something that actually does.