Too Good To Go

How to Efficiently Cut Food Waste

9E17 153F

Author

LUCIE LALANNE

LUCIE LALANNE

School

Toulouse Business School

Toulouse Business School

Professor

Odile Verdure Labeille

Odile Verdure Labeille

Global Goals

2. Zero Hunger 3. Good Health and Well-Being 10. Reduced Inequalities 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities 12. Responsible Consumption and Production Flourish Prize Honoree - For Business as an Agent of World Benefit - Weatherhead School of Management

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Summary

The company is a hyper-local environmental social enterprise committed to reducing food waste. They help avoid 1,500 tonnes of CO2 emissions and cut 600 00 tonnes of food that is wasted in the UK restaurants.

Their main mission is to raise awareness about food waste, then to save money and protect the planet's resources for the future lives of our children.

How doe Too Good To Go do this? The application enables people to benefit from food for lower price because it would have been thrown away if no one would ask for it. Actually, it creates links between food shops owners and consumers. People choose which restaurant they want to go to, pay on the application and then come to pick up their food at the restaurant/food shop.

This is a good opportunity for people with low incomes to eat decently, and for food businesses to create value out of their leftover food. Thus, It is a win-win solution because both consumers and shop owners benefit from the action of the Too Good To Go application.

Innovation

The action of Too Good To Go is a revolution in the food industry.

  • Shop owners can make valuable their food surplus and make more money of it
  • In the same time, consumers can benefit from low prices when they buy these products
  • Too Good To Go uses a mobile application which is both easy-to-use and very useful. They display on a map all the shops around you that offer lower prices regarding their food surplus.
  • It has a great impact on the way people consume. They become more aware of all the food waste and the importance of not throwing things (not yet rotten) away.

Why is this application a big revolution in the food industry ?

Actually, in France, food is a precious thing because the country is historically one of the best epitome of the best food. Indeed, French people tend to cook with natural products and make tasty things of them. Thus, they are more likely to accept the fact to eat leftover food (which come from good restaurants which use natural products) because they may think that wasting natural products is not a good situation. On the contrary, the Americans would find it harder to accept it as they have a completely different vision of food. They may think " they deserve better than leftover food". However, in France and in Europe more generally, one of the best cooking comes from what is left including the leftover food and the common products.

How to Efficiently Cut Food Waste

Inspiration

The founders were inspired from our environmental situation: in France, about 10 million tons of food are wasted every year which means about 29 kilograms per capita per year. In addition, according to the UNO, one third of resources from the worldwide agriculture is thrown away every year. On the other hand, 1 person out of 8 in the world is starving to death.

Food means also greenhouse gases: indeed, the food industry is one of the most polluting industry in the world. Thus, given that part of the production is thrown away, many gases are emitted all in vain.

Too Good To Go inspiration comes from all of these observations. We need to make something of all this food waste. Therefore, they had their brilliant idea of helping shop owners sell their unsold products and food.

Overall impact

Too good to go has a multidimensional impact. Indeed, it not only promotes not wasting food but enable people to benefit from good food at a lower price.

  • Impact on people: They can benefit from lower prices when they order food in the shops.
  • Impact on the environment: food waste is drastically reduced
  • Impact on the society: a new of method of consumption is born! Too Good To Go is a revolution as it enables people to consume the food surplus of the restaurants at a lower price. Thus, it contributes to the food waste reduction. Finally, it created links within local communities

Business benefit

All the businesses have the opportunity to sell all their production instead of throwing part of it away. Thus, they lose less money than ever. Moreover, they improve their environmental image towards consumers.

Indeed, everyday, tons of fresh produces are thrown away by restaurants and food shops. This is not a good solution neither for the planet nor for the economy. Indeed, businesses lose a lot of money on this. Therefore, they would better sell their leftover food at a lower price than throwing them.

How does it work for businesses ?

Actually, this application is quite easy to use by both consumers and businesses. Indeed, for the latter, they just need to indicate the number of leftover food they have in the evening. The payment is made through the application. Consumers come and pick up their orders. They can choose their products or the business can just make a surprise box with many products that clients do not choose.

Then, businesses can also pay out their raw materials instead of throwing money by throwing their leftover food.

What is the benefit for Too Good To Go ?

This company takes a commission on every transaction made through the application.

Social and environmental benefit

Today's situation: people waste almost 40% of all the food we produce worldwide. In addition, 28% of our planet’s agricultural land is used to produce food that is not even consumed.

  • Too Good To Go solution is an attempt to reduce food waste with sustainable solutions.They raise awareness about food waste and try to prove that much of what is thrown away in many food establishments safe for consumption.
  • They help shop owners not to waste their food surplus by make it valuable and consumable by consumers.
  • They have a partnership with Action Contre la Faim
  • They created a program called "Donne à un sans-abri" that enable people to give 2€ to the application. Then, all the money collected is used to buy food which is distributed to homeless people.

Interview

Elise Garcia, Former Business Developer

Photo of interviewee

Business information

Too Good To Go

Too Good To Go

Paris, FR
Business Website: http://www.toogoodtogo.fr/
Year Founded: 2015
Number of Employees: 11 to 50

Too Good to Go is a mobile application that place the lost value back onto food as something that should be eaten and not thrown away.
Through the application, people can benefit from low prices and good food.
Their mission is to raise awareness about food waste by making surplus food available for collection before a store closes its service.