Harriet Lamb joined WRAP as Chief Executive in March 2023.
WRAP is transforming the global food system, working with partners to build a new system that is sustainable and fit for the future. It convenes the Courtauld Commitment, a pioneering effort by 180 major food businesses in the United Kingdom, to reduce food and packaging waste, and runs the Love Food Hate Waste Campaign to help citizens reduce food waste at home.
The Courtauld Commitment seeks to deliver against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3: a 50% per capita reduction in food waste by 2030 vs the UK 2007 baseline (covering manufacture, retail, hospitality, and food service, and household), as well as cutting carbon and protecting critical water supplies.
Progress made to date includes:
- 300 food businesses committed to the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, including nearly a third of all large food businesses in the UK.
- UK post-farm food waste reduced by 21% per capita between 2007 and 2018 with a 27% reduction in edible food.
- Surplus food redistribution more than tripled between 2015-2021.
- Retail food waste was reduced by 8% from 2018-2021.
- Adoption of best practices in the retail environment to help people make the most of the food they buy. For example, several UK retailers have removed best-before dates from their range of fresh produce to reduce food waste.
- 4.4 million people claimed to have changed their behavior because of Food Waste Action Week 2022, part of our Love Food Hate Waste campaign.
WRAP has initiated and supports food waste prevention voluntary agreements in Australia, Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, and the USA.
Harriet is passionate about environmental and social issues with a track record in making a difference around the globe. She is an experienced CEO who built the global movement Fairtrade – a certification scheme that sets standards to make trade fairer, working with producers in the developing world as well as thousands of companies and retailers and creating a vibrant grassroots movement.
Following 15 years with Fairtrade – as CEO of the UK Fairtrade Foundation and then of Fairtrade International – Harriet led International Alert, a peacebuilding organization whose work included addressing the links between the climate crisis and conflict. She was then appointed CEO of Ashden, which promotes just climate solutions including sustainable energy in the UK and globally.
Harriet has won a number of awards including a CBE, Orange Businesswoman of the Year, and Cosmopolitan EcoQueen. She was also the first woman Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.