A Fall 2019 DLab Case Study
This design lab team focused on reducing food waste in Boise. Through their research, they discovered that over 133 billion pounds of food are wasted each year in the US alone.
The team completed several empathy experiences to hone in on a specific problem. Some of the empathy experiences included interviewing the head chefs of Thomas Cuisine and A’Tavola, visiting the Ada County Landfill, and interviewing the founder of the Roots Zero Waste Market. These experiences helped narrow down their problem to food waste created from leftover food, and they formed their How Might We question: “How might we prevent food waste by reducing the amount of leftover food that is thrown away?”
Their prototype consisted of putting labels with expiration dates on leftover food in the One Stone shared refrigerator and noting how much of the labeled food was thrown away compared to unlabelled food. For their second prototype, during One Stone’s Gratitude Feast, the team asked students to bring extra containers for taking home leftovers. They sent out a survey a few days later asking if families ate the leftovers and if the labels helped. The outcome was similar for both prototypes: participants didn’t follow through on reducing their food waste. Nonetheless, the team gained insights as to why this is the case, including challenges like busy schedules and lack of planning.
The team returned to the ideation phase to come up with more ideas to test, including creating smart plastic food containers or connecting low and zero-waste businesses to businesses that would like to learn strategies to reduce their waste.
Design Team: Alec B., Elliot S., Fawn H., Isaac G., Kallie P., Ryann R., Tanner H.
