SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 announced today the addition of Copia as an official member of Pac-12 Team Green, the Conference’s sustainability platform.  With the announcement, Copia will serve to ensure all remaining Pac-12 championship events, the 2019 Pac-12 Sustainability Conference and other major Pac-12 events, are zero food-waste events for the 2018-19 season.  To kick off the initiative, the 2018 Pac-12 Football Championship tomorrow, Nov. 30, at Levi’s Stadium will become the first ever college football championship to be a zero food-waste event. 

 

Copia, a for-profit technology company, helps businesses and event organizers prevent food waste and donate excess food to nearby nonprofit organizations. Copia’s platform works in real-time to connect surplus food to those who need it most, all while helping businesses and event organizers understand and reduce their food waste with AI-driven predictive analytics.

 

"We are thrilled to welcome Copia as our newest Pac-12 Team Green partner and are excited we will now ensure that all of our championships this season will be zero food-waste events," said Jamie Zaninovich, deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the Pac-12. "We hope our work with Copia not only results in solving issues of hunger across our footprint, but also serves to bring awareness to such an important cause in all of our Pac-12 communities."

 

As part of the agreement, the Pac-12 will utilize Copia’s technology to ensure no food goes to waste at any Pac-12 Championship events this season, as well as major Pac-12 events and the 2019 Pac-12 Sustainability Conference set for June 25-26, 2019 at the University of Washington.  With over a dozen championship events remaining this season across the Conference’s footprint, Copia will tap into a pool of more than 300,000 nationwide drivers to deliver food donations to nonprofits within its network of veteran agencies, homeless shelters, senior care facilities and after-school programs.

 

The Pac-12’s work with Copia is part of the Conference’s larger sustainability efforts with Pac-12 Team Green, a first-of-its kind sustainability platform in collegiate athletics that aims to promote all of the greening efforts taking place on and around Pac-12 campuses. More information on Pac-12 Team Green is available at Pac-12.com/TeamGreen.

 

“We’re excited to be a part of the Pac-12’s greening efforts. They are ahead of the curve in transforming college sports into a platform for environmental progress and social good,” said Komal Ahmad, CEO of Copia. “With the help of the Pac-12, Copia will divert millions of pounds of excess food from the landfill. This year, Copia will feed more than 2 million people with food that would have otherwise gone to waste.”

 

Copia is no stranger to food donation logistics at Levi’s Stadium. In 2016, the company provided logistics for the first-ever zero food waste Super Bowl and since then, has worked with the 49ers to pick up food from its player’s cafeteria throughout the year and at the stadium on game days.  

 

Every day in America, we waste 3 times more food than there are hungry mouths to feed. The truth is: hunger is not a scarcity problem, it’s a logistics problem, and Copia is out to solve it. Copia’s technology platform helps businesses track and manage food waste; donate edible excess food to those in need; and reap significant financial benefits from reducing waste and feeding the community. This year, Copia will feed more than 2 million people with food that would have otherwise gone to waste. Copia is recognized as one of the top 8 startups coming out of Y Combinator. Copia’s founder and CEO, Komal Ahmad, was recently awarded Forbes 30 Under 30, the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award, and was named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business.” To learn more about how your business can reduce food waste and feed the community, visit gocopia.com.