Turn Your Sustainability Efforts Into a Competitive Edge

Turn Your Sustainability Efforts Into a Competitive Edge

Join us for an eye-opening Upcycled Food Month webinar where you'll learn how to showcase the sustainability work your company is already doing and get the credit you deserve. Hear from UFA members Del Monte, Matriark Foods and Planet FWD and explore how to leverage data to highlight your brand’s unique upcycled story, helping you stand out in a crowded market and attract more customers.

25% discount on Planet FWD services is currently available to Upcycled Food Association members who register.

Speakers:

Julia Collins, Founder & CEO - Planet FWD

Julia Collins is a serial entrepreneur, sustainability leader, and champion for equitable innovation. She is the Founder & CEO of Planet FWD, the leading sustainability and supply chain intelligence platform helping global consumer brands reduce their climate impact. Inspired by her own climate-friendly snack company, Moonshot—which she successfully scaled and sold to Patagonia Provisions—Julia launched Planet FWD to empower brands with the data and tools they need to decarbonize their value chains. Previously, Julia made history as the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company with Zume Pizza, which reached a valuation of $2.25 billion. Her career began in hospitality, where she co-founded celebrated restaurants including Mexicue and Murray’s Cheese Bar, and was a founding partner at Harlem Jazz Enterprises, the group behind The Cecil—named one of the Best New Restaurants in America by Esquire magazine. Julia holds degrees from Harvard University and Stanford Graduate School of Business. She serves on the boards of the Climate Collaborative, FertilityIQ and the Town School for Boys, and is deeply committed to building a more regenerative and inclusive future across food, technology, and climate. She lives in San Francisco, CA with her partner and two boys.

Maggie O'Connor, Senior Manager, ESG - Del Monte

As the Senior Manager of ESG at Del Monte Foods, Maggie leads the company’s work around sustainability strategy, reporting, and implementation. She has extensive experience in food system sustainability, responsible sourcing, and ESG reporting. Maggie holds an MS in Agriculture, Food, and the Environment from Tufts University and a BA in International Affairs from George Washington University.

Anna Hammond, Founder & CEO - Matriark Foods

Anna Hammond is the Founder and CEO of Matriark Foods, an environmental impact food company building a circular food future. Matriark solves for inefficiencies in the supply chain by partnering with large vegetable manufacturers and regional farmers to upcycle byproducts and surplus into delicious, healthy, shelf-stable ingredients for institutional foodservice, retail, and emergency food with data-backed environmental and health impacts. Matriark launched its first products in 2019 and now works with the nations largest foodservice operations, can be found on shelf at Whole Foods and Fresh Direct, and in 2023 launched the first carbon-neutral healthy meal for foodbanks sourced from New York State farms and now available on the Feeding America National Marketplace. 

Amanda Oenbring, CEO - Upcycled Food Association 

As the CEO of Upcycled Food Association (UFA) Amanda Oenbring brings a wealth of experience in community collaboration, climate philanthropy, and global movement building, previously scaling international membership at 1% for the Planet and leading environmental nonprofit network expansion at EarthShare. She found the perfect blend of her interests in business, sustainability and food via an MBA in Sustainable Systems and a Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems Certificate from Bainbridge Graduate Institute (now Presidio Center at University of Redlands) having previously completed her B.A. in Communication Studies at Westmont College. 

Miranda Gorman, Head of Climate Solutions and Science - Planet FWD

Miranda Gorman, Ph.D. is an environmental engineer with a background in analyzing sustainability of material resources. She is the Head of Climate Solutions and Science at Planet FWD, where she leads a team of Research Scientists in developing and implementing the most up to date methodology for environmental assessments into a software solution. She leans on her background in circularity and life cycle assessments to contribute to Planet FWDs scientific methodology and rigor. 

Before joining Planet FWD, she has published research on the topics of material flow analysis, resource availability forecasting, the circular economy, and non-fuel mineral mining. Miranda completed her Ph.D. in the Environmental Engineering, Sustainability and Science Group at Carnegie Mellon University, where she developed a framework for assessing the complete life cycle of a resource as well as future projections for material flows. She was also a Senior Research Fellow at Project Drawdown, leading research in the Industry Sector, where she identified and quantified the climate impacts of various solution technologies in the materials, waste, and industry spaces, including plastics, bioplastics, waste management, and more to advance the circular economy.