Midd Moment

Middlebury College

A podcast of ideas with Middlebury’s leaders: independent thinkers who create community. Hosted by Laurie Patton, president of Middlebury and professor of religion. Email: [email protected] Website: go.middlebury.edu/middmoment go/middmoment Social Media: #MiddMoment

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No Time to Waste feat. Nick Whitman ’97

Midd Moment

01/10/24 • 43 min

Food waste is a major issue not only in the United States, but around the world. Whether it's the mass waste that gets dumped by restaurants and grocery stores or the bag of lettuce that was never opened, rotting away in the back of your refrigerator, it touches each of us daily.

Nick Whitman is the co-founder and COO of Divert, an impact technology company on a mission to Protect the Value of Food. Fueled by the vision of a waste-free future, Nick co-founded Divert in 2007 to prevent wasted food through the creation of advanced technology and sustainable infrastructure.

He sits down with host and Middlebury President Laurie Patton to chat about his time at Middlebury as a Poli sci major, his ADHD diagnosis and his understanding of the value of neurodiversity, and his work with Divert to tackle the human and environmental crises caused by wasted food.

MiddMoment is a production of Middlebury College and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

How did Nick develop the love for sustainability?

[04:38] I think my 20s were, in some ways, the opportunity for me to figure out what I wanted to be. And I spent a lot of time trying different roles and trying on different roles. And it wasn't until later on, when I went back to business school, that, for me, marrying the love of sustainability and the love of the environment with my love of entrepreneurship really started to bring out Divert and how we created Divert and how it started. But sitting at the intersection of those two parts—entrepreneurship and the environment—is, for me, a formative experience.

The power of technology is to give data

[34:15] The power of technology is not to sell more technology or products; the power is to give you data and to shed light on what is happening on the ground level so that you can make meaningful changes.

On embracing the power of thinking differently

[16:01] I'm a huge believer of neurodiversity. I'm a huge believer that, in some cases, it's a little bit underrepresented on the diversity spectrum because it brings people together who think differently. It's such an important part of that, and people's brains look at problems, right? They may not be the most organized; I'll never be the most organized person, but I can approach problems and come up with solutions that other folks can't. and I think that's a really important skill.

Stop throwing away data

[38:19] We have to get away from the idea of calling it waste. We have to get away from the concept of just throwing it away because we're really throwing away data. We're throwing away insights and have to figure out how to take that, digitize that information so we understand what it is. And then, tell us, let's figure out what that tells us about the operations, the performance, and society as a whole.

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