Belinda Li

Biography

Belinda is a Co-Founder of Food Systems Lab and an environmental engineer on a mission to create a sustainable and just food system. She is also a PhD student in Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. Building on her diverse experience in consulting, international development, and grassroots organizing, she uses a combination of participatory design and data-driven approaches to develop, test, and evaluate solutions to improve food system sustainability from farm to fork.  As a consultant, she has worked across Canada and the United States on a variety of projects, including launching food waste reduction and food scraps recycling programs, conducting multi-city and multi-season food waste audits, developing food and organic waste models, and engaging stakeholders in food systems planning. Her major projects include the Commission of Environmental Co-operation’s Characterization and Management of Food Loss and Waste in North America Foundational Report, City of Los Angeles’ Food Waste Reduction and Food Scraps Collection Pilot, and Vancouver Park Board’s Local Food Systems Action Plan. She has also provided ongoing research support to the National Zero Waste Council’s Love Food Hate Waste Campaign. 

With the Food Systems Lab, Belinda brings theory into practice, creatively turning new ideas that start as a rough sketch on the back of a napkin into implementable research projects with robust measurement and evaluation.