Ben and Lily tackle food loss

Why We Boldly Go: Ben and Lily Tackle Food Loss through Operation Possible

Everyone has a different reason why they are inspired to act. Ben and Lily share how they’re addressing hunger in their community through Operation Possible.

We dare to do things differently by constantly pushing boundaries and embracing innovation that can have a positive impact on our planet – and everyone on it.

When it comes to innovation, an important first step is to build a deep understanding of the people you want to help. For some of us, those people may be in our own family or community - so we don't have to look very far for insight and inspiration. For Benjamin Ming Zhao and Lily Li Juan Yao, both engineers based in China, that was the case when it came to finding solutions to reduce food loss and hunger. Through Operation Possible, our employee-powered innovation program, Ben and Lily had the opportunity to boldly challenge what’s possible for a sustainable world.

Here's their story.

Why We Boldly Go: Innovation is Personal for Ben & Lily

My grandparents are farmers and my parents did some farm work when they were young.

They had the experience of hunger because in 1960 the Chinese people faced a serious food crisis. So they know what really hunger is. They hate all the food waste all their life.

We are influenced by them so we think that it's good to avoid any food waste in my life.

Hunger actually in Shanghai it's really far away from our daily life but food loss and food waste that really exists in every aspect of our life.

For example, people may throw out some food because it does not taste good or it's expired before it's eaten or some food might be thrown away when people bought more than they need.

Isn't it hard to grow grapes? Hard work! It's so hot these days. How is the grape harvest this year? Not bad. I think the grapes are just ripe. Yes. Will there be a problem with such ripe grapes being shipped to customers? It's acceptable. We transport by cold chain, by express to guarantee freshness.

Avoiding food waste should be an education it's an attitude of life. The current solution from team incorporated solar energy as a power input because it's easy for the regions where the power is not stable we can make the storage modular, movable different sizes to fit different needs.

When Operation Possible launched I noticed that it's an employee empowered program that's an innovative program. As I always enjoyed innovative work so I'm excited for that.

We hope our work can contribute to our sustainability. If my idea can help reduce global warming I think it will be the most proud thing in my life

Thought Leaders

Scott Tew

Vice President, Sustainability and Managing Director, Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability, Trane Technologies

Carrie Ruddy

Senior Vice President and Chief Communications and Marketing Officer

Mairéad Magner

Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Trane Technologies

Donny Simmons

Group President, Americas, Trane Technologies

Deidra Parrish Williams

Global Corporate Citizenship Leader, Trane Technologies

Jose La Loggia

Jose La Loggia, Group President, EMEA

Keith Sultana

Senior Vice President, Global Integrated Supply Chain, Trane Technologies

Paul Camuti

Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer, Trane Technologies

Steve Hagood

Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Trane Technologies

Chris Kuehn

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Trane Technologies