With the beginning of a New Year, comes New Year’s resolutions. These are the personal commitments we make to ourselves to achieve certain goals. Eating healthy, exercising more, learning a new subject, spending more time with friends and family are usually at the top of the list.

As I was thinking about writing a New Year’s resolution post, I started wondering about the collective impact of many people committing to the same goal of eating healthy for optimum health. I got this idea from a conversation I had with Di-ann Eisnor, Head of Growth at Waze. She mentioned how just saving people 10 minutes of stressful commute time every day could result in billions of financial savings in the form of productivity, fuel and wear and tear—just from congestion avoidance. At the time of our conversation Waze had 40 million users, which also translated to about 9 billion pounds of CO2 not put into the environment. This is what she called the power of creating collective surplus. That’s amazing!

Being able to make healthy eating choices is a function of access to and availability of those options. My definition of healthy food is non-chemically treated, non-genetically modified, whole unprocessed food that strengthens your immune system, promotes energy, and reduces the risk of illness and disease, which I call nouri.

What if?

  • 10 hotel chains offered 2 organic and local menu items (breakfast and dinner)?
  • 100 companies recommended healthy (nouri) restaurants to their business travelers?
  • 1000 restaurants pledge to source organically and locally?
  • 10,000 people took the nouri pledge, changed the word from food to nouri to describe what to eat for optimum health, and ate 1 nouri meal a day?
  • 100,000 business travelers committed 10% of their travel meal per diem to local and organic food (nouri)?

If 10 hotel chains, 100 companies 1,000 restaurants, 10,000 people, and 100,000 business travelers committed to the 5 resolutions above, respectively, that would result in a $1 billion market impact, a 679% increase in market demand and supply for non-chemically treated, non-genetically modified, whole unprocessed food, and an $8.3 billion potential savings in healthcare costs! Here’s the breakdown:

Resolution

Impact

10 Hotel Chains Offer 2 Organic and Local Menu Items

$54 million per year in organic and local food production, a 37% increase in market demand, and a potential $975 million in healthcare costs savings

100 Companies Recommend Nouri Restaurants To Traveling Employees

$655 million per year in organic and local food production, a 445% increase in market demand, and a potential $728 million in healthcare cost savings per year

1,000 Restaurants Pledge To Source Organically and Locally

$213 million per year in organic and local food production, a 145% increase in market demand, and a potential $3.5 billion in healthcare cost savings per year

10,000 People Take The Nouri Pledge and Eat 1 Nouri Meal Per Day

$34 million per year in organic and local food production, a 23% increase in market demand, and a potential $2.8 billion in healthcare cost savings per year

100,000 Business Travelers Commit 10% Of Their Travel Meal Per Diem To Nouri

$2.9 million per business trip in organic and local food production, a 30% increase in market demand, and a potential $14.6 million in healthcare savings per trip.

New Year’s resolutions are always about us as individuals. Why don’t companies and organizations make New Year’s resolutions? While many use New Year’s resolutions as a marketing opportunity, rarely have I ever seen a company make a New Year’s resolution to its employees and its customers. If 100,000 business travelers, alone, committed 100% of their travel meal per diem to nouri, that would result in a potential $2.2 billion savings in healthcare costs to individuals and companies. Make a New Year’s resolution to invest in a corporate travel culture of healthy eating. Start by taking the nouri pledge today!