Too Good to Go
About 75% of food waste goes to landfill, where it becomes one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions at 10% of total emissions. Too Good to Go turns food waste into a win-win situation for everyone, by creating jobs, generating revenue, reducing food waste, and diminishing environmental impacts. At its most basic, the app is a marketplace for surplus food. It enables you to see what extra food is likely to be available that day from nearby bakeries, stores, and restaurants - fresh food that would otherwise be thrown out at the end of the day because it would no longer be considered fresh and salable. Using the app, you can buy a ‘magic bag’ meal for roughly one third of what you would normally pay, then pick it up at the vendor’s closing time. As of June 2022, a total of 141 million bags had been sold, eliminating 775 million lb. (about 387,500 US tons) of CO2 emissions. In the first six months of 2022 alone, 88.5 million bags were sold, eliminating the equivalent of 973.5 million pounds (about 486,800 US tons) of CO2 emissions per year.
Background
About 30% to 40% of food produced today is either lost or wasted - a total landmass about the size of China is used to grow this wasted food. About 75% of that waste goes to landfill, where it becomes one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions at 10% of total emissions. Global warming is accelerated, and resources are wasted needlessly, while a significant number of people go hungry. Co-founder Lucie Basch was working as an engineer for Nestle when she investigated the numbers and realized the scale of the issue. She quit her job so she could put her energy into “something that makes sense.”
Getting Informed
Too Good to Go was first piloted in Scandinavia, where Basch moved upon leaving Nestle. She connected with like-minded developers and the founding team had a basic version of the app by the end of 2015. Too Good to Go saved its first meals in Copenhagen, Denmark in March 2016, starting with buffet restaurants. It soon became clear that the same approach could also be applied to other kinds of restaurants and cafes, as well as bakeries and hotels. It also became clear that over half of consumers didn’t know what the terms “use by”, “Best before”, and “Sell By” meant and misused and misinterpreted date labels.
Delivering the Program
Note: To minimize site maintenance costs, all Tools of Change case studies are written in the past tense, even if they are ongoing – as is the case with this particular program.
Too Good to Go provided a marketplace for surplus food. It enabled users to find food that was likely to be available that day from nearby bakeries, stores, and restaurants – food that these businesses would otherwise throw out at the end of the day because it wouldn’t be fresh and salable the next day. Users could buy a ‘magic bag’ meal for roughly one third of what they would have normally paid, then pick it up at the vendor’s closing time.(Financial Incentive, Overcoming Specific Barriers)
The “magic bag” approach addressed the fact that food waste was unpredictable, and the businesses didn’t know ahead of time what would be left at the end of the day. Each store had the flexibility to fill the “magic bags” with whatever was left over that day. (Overcoming Specific Barriers)
Promotions used YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, press releases, television appearances, radio, magazines, and events, in addition to the company’s newsletter, blog, website and app. There were also many word-of-mouth signups. The promotion campaigns framed food waste as an issue of both international and national relevance. They also promised big savings and ease of use. They called consumers “waste warriors” instead of “users”, and encouraged them to “join the fight against food waste” by joining the community and movement. Building a community had been identified as a key mechanism to enhance normalization of the new buying habits. (Mass Media, Norm Appeals, Word of Mouth)
Signing up was as simple as downloading the Too Good to Go app and registering for a free account. Users could find food close by or search for specific meals based on collection time, location or type of food (e.g. vegan, vegetarian and gluten free.) After selecting and paying for an option, they got a receipt to show the vendor and get the food bag. (Overcoming Specific Barriers)
Users were segmented into four groups for messaging. (Building Motvation, Engagement and Habits Over Time; Overcoming Specific Barriers; Vivid, Personalized, Credible, Empowering Communication)
- Users who had purchased in the last two weeks, received reminder messages like: “What do you fancy today? Open your app and take a look!” Or “What do we have to save today? Open the app, take a look and choose what you fancy the most.”
- Those who had not purchased recently, received motivational messages like: “Hey Waste Warrior It's been a while... Ready for your next magic bag? Open the app and take a look” or “We miss you! And we have much news to tell you…”
- Those who had opened the app but had not bought anything received messages like: “Not feeling like cooking today? Jump into the app and take your pick instead!” or “Save the world by eating! Open Too Good To Go and save your first meal”.
- Those who had downloaded the app but who had not been active in it received messages like: “Hey you. Time to let us surprise you! Get your first magic bag full of tasty treats” or “Psst...wanna make a difference today? Rescue a meal in the app to save the planet.”
Participating businesses paid an administrative fee of 39 Euros per year, and a small fee per meal sold. All new partners received onboarding sessions with the company’s team. To maintain a high standard for food and experience, Too Good to Go worked directly with businesses who received below-expectation user reviews.
Basch had intended to grow the service slowly, but investors soon approached her, and expansion began to speed up. Each time the service was extended to a new country, a team of 20 to 80 people (depending on country size) signed up the restaurants and stores and helped promote the service locally. By the end of 2016, Too Good to Go had expanded to six countries, each with a separate team. The service then united into one global team and launched in eight new countries throughout Europe. By the end of 2018, it employed 200 people across Europe, growing by 150% to 500 people by the end of 2019.
In 2020, Too Good to Go was introduced to North America first in New York and Boston, just when the COVID-19 was spreading quickly. By 2021 it worked with 37,500 stores to reach 20 million users in 17 countries.
Reducing Non-Food Waste Too
To reduce non-food waste such as packaging, the company encouraged its partners to allow consumers to bring their own containers as much as possible. On the mobile application, users could easily see which stores allowed them to do this. When food had to be packaged ahead of time, as with most supermarkets or due to local regulations, Too Good to Go offered to sell the partners packaging made of FSC3 and/or kraft paper.
Including the Supply Chain and Schools
Too Good to Go tackled food waste all along the supply chain and education systems. For example, it developed the advocacy-oriented Movement Against Food Waste to address food waste with upstream and systemic solutions for food systems, by changing regulatory frameworks to enable food waste prevention measures at the national level and within food manufacturers. This project tackles the fact that 20% of all food waste can be attributed to confusion over date labeling and aims to make it clearer when food is still good to eat. In Switzerland, France, Germany, and Denmark, the Movement Against Food Waste ran campaigns and petitions to change the “use by” labels. At the European level, it worked with some of the largest food producers to improve date labelling. (Overcoming Specific Barriers)
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Barrier
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How it was addressed
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Food waste was unpredictable, and the businesses didn’t know ahead of time what would be left at the end of the day.
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Magic bag approach. Each store had the flexibility to fill the “magic bags” with whatever was left over that day.
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Poor access to information on what food waste might be available for purchase
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The app enabled users to find food close by or search for specific meals based on collection time, location or type of food
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Individual purchasers’ food restrictions
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Ability to search by type of food (e.g. vegan, vegetarian and gluten free.)
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Less motivated / engaged users might forget or not want to take the time to participate
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Users were segmented into four groups for messaging. Those that had purchased in the last two weeks received reminder messages, while those who hadn’t received appropriate motivational messages.
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Measuring Achievements
The number of meals served was the main metric. This was converted to C02 emission saved using an average conversion of 1 surprise bag = 5.5 lb. of CO2.
Results
In 2021 there were about 20 million registered users (people who had downloaded the app) and about 50 million meals had been served since 2016. That was only about 2.5 meals per registered user, because many had downloaded the app but had not yet ordered. In any case, individual impact is fairly low, likely eliminating in the order of 10 to 30 pounds of waste per year.
As of June 2022, a total of 141 million bags had been sold, eliminating 775 million lb. (about 387,500 US tons) of CO2 emissions. In the first six months of 2022 alone, 88.5 million bags were sold, eliminating the equivalent of 973.5 million pounds (about 486,800 US tons) of CO2 emissions per year.
In addition to reducing food waste at participating businesses, a study in Denmark found that 43% of users were inspired to throw away less waste at home.
In 2021 the app ranked as the tenth most downloaded app worldwide in the food and beverages category. The company turned a positive gross profit and a positive operating profit in most mature markets.
Contacts
http://toogoodtogo.com/
Notes
- The main innovation is how this approach reduces the huge amount of food waste, by making it easy and rewarding for consumers to buy it. Their segmentation method is also innovative and replicable.
- Too Good to Go has demonstrated that it is replicable to other locations, with its expansion to 17 countries. It is easy to replicate as it is web-based, and most regions have businesses with food waste that could be sold this way.
- A similar approach is widely used for event tickets (e.g. discounted “rush tickets” which are bought and sold on the day of the show. It could also be applied to other “perishables” like nursery plants, cut flowers and hotel rooms.
- In 2022 Too Good to Go made the list of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Companies.
