Key Takeaways:

• You don’t need perfect data to start a pilot program. Align early efforts with your company’s values and measure as you go.
  

• Cross-functional “tiger teams” help break down barriers to collaboration.
  

• Setting aside time and budget for a few pilots each year builds momentum, creates real-world proof points, and normalizes experimentation within the organization.
  

• Pilots aren’t just for solving today’s problems — they help organizations test ideas, build foresight, and shape more sustainable business models for tomorrow.

Across industries, pilot programs have been a way to turn sustainability goals into action. For organizations tackling food waste, they can offer a practical path forward—testing ideas on a small scale, gathering data, and building the case to expand the initiative or program.

During the 2025 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit, we hosted a breakout session titled "It Makes Cents: Building the Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste," featuring business leaders who have used pilot programs as part of their organizational food waste reduction strategies:

• Julia Ruedig, Senior Program Manager, Sustainability, for Amazon Fresh & Grocery’s Private Brands division
  

• Rebecca Chesney, Director of Sustainability Innovation at Guckenheimer, the North American culinary division of the global workplace facilities management firm ISS

Their conversation, moderated by David Ly, Senior Manager of Business Initiatives at ReFED, illustrated how pilot programs can spark large-scale progress. By starting with values, building cross-functional teams, and normalizing experimentation, they’ve created pathways to impact—without waiting for the perfect time, situation, or data to address challenges.

Start with values, not perfect data

“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good,” Julia reminded us. Amazon recognized they didn’t need to know exactly how much waste they had before beginning the pilot. Instead, they aligned efforts with brand values and their identity as a company.

Rather than waiting for a flawless tracking system, Julia’s team focused on actions that reflected who they were as a brand—then refined their measurements along the way. By rooting early pilots in company values instead of data perfection, teams can learn in motion—building the roadmap and the evidence at the same time.

Build a “tiger team” to remove barriers

Departments like finance, operations, and marketing often speak different languages when it comes to food waste—a challenge the panelists agreed can slow progress. Julia shared how Amazon brought those perspectives together through what she called a “shrink tiger team”—a small, cross-functional group empowered to act quickly and test solutions around the issue of shrink.

“It’s a group of people … coming together to solve this problem in a cross-functional way,” said Julia. “They have buy-in from senior leadership to go execute programs that cut across different areas … to overcome the barrier of those silos.”

Led by a former finance leader and including technical product managers and operations experts, the tiger team focused on upstream prevention—figuring out how to sell more product and reduce shrink before it becomes waste. With direct support from leadership and dedicated forums to share updates, the team was able to move fast, experiment, and gather data to scale the plan.

The collaborative tiger team model turns isolated pilots into coordinated efforts that cut across functions—and, ultimately, make food waste reduction top of mind across the entire organization.

Normalize experimentation

Julia emphasized that innovation doesn’t have to wait for a perfect business case. What matters most is creating space—and a budget—for teams to test new ideas and learn from them.

“When you want to try something new and innovate, you need a way to fund that and to get people excited about it,” she said. “Twice a year, three times a year, we’re going to have three pilots a year where we try new things, and this is the budget. That will grease the gears for you to try new things and maybe sometimes fail or, in some cases, succeed wildly.”

Each experiment provides real-world results—data, metrics, and stories—that can later become the foundation for a stronger business case.

By making pilots a regular part of the workflow rather than one-off experiments, organizations build momentum. Small tests become a way of working—proof that innovation can be structured, supported, and celebrated — not just squeezed in when time allows.

Build today’s pilots with tomorrow in mind

Rebecca reminded the audience that innovation isn’t just about solving today’s problems—it’s about testing what the future of business could look like.

“We live in a world in which our existing business case has created the problems we’re trying to solve,” she said. “So we also need to create the business cases of the future, which is what B Corps are trying to do.”

Pilots make that kind of thinking possible. They give organizations permission to imagine new models, try them on a small scale, and collect evidence for what might work long term.

“You have to both help make the business case for today’s business, which is quarterly earnings and all of these other things,” Rebecca said, “while at the same time pointing to a future where our business is actually different, or the business case will be different.”

Drawing from her experience at the Institute for the Future, she emphasized that foresight is a practical tool — not a theoretical one. Each pilot is an opportunity to practice that forward thinking, to look beyond immediate returns, and to design a future where sustainability and business success are naturally aligned.

You can watch the recording of “It Makes Cents: Building the Business Case for Reducing Food Loss and Waste” below. Read “Beyond the Summit: Building the Business Case” for additional insights.

Want to connect with our Business Services team to learn more about turning your sustainability goals into action? Contact David Ly at [email protected].

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