foodpanda announced its “5G” sustainability initiatives, proposing the new concept of “shared sustainability,”and becoming the first sharing economy enterprise to integrate sustainability into its food delivery business model.
[Taipei] As enterprises across the
globe forges ahead with sustainability initiatives, in response to the United
Nation’s call to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, foodpanda has not only
been dedicated to building a sustainable food delivery service but has also
proposed the new concept of “shared sustainability,” becoming the first
enterprise to integrate sustainability into its sharing economy and food
delivery business model. foodpanda announced its “5G” sustainability
initiatives, comprised of Green Commitment, Green Vendor, Green Panda, Green
Rider and Green Customer, with the hope of expanding sustainability
collaborations with its delivery partners and customers to protect the
environment and to create a more sustainable food delivery business model.
foodpanda hopes to usher in a new era where food delivery services can be
enjoyed more responsibly and where the environment can be more protected.
foodpanda CEO, John Fang said that
the impact of the company’s sustainability initiative can be magnified through
reaching a consensus among stakeholders. “As the environmental sustainability
requires the joint effort of many stakeholders, foodpanda has been thinking of
ways to leverage the influence of its platform to deepen and broaden the scope
of sustainability initiatives, which have become the core of the company’s
future,” Fang said. “foodpanda will continue to innovate upon its existing
business model by leveraging the multiplier effect of its food delivery
platform and encourage more stakeholders to work towards a more environmentally
sound and sustainable future,” Fang said.
Environmental sustainability is a
common challenge for all global citizens. According to a recent survey on
attitudes and behaviors towards sustainability conducted by the Industrial
Technology Research Institute, a majority of the public are not highly
motivated. As Taiwan’s largest delivery platform, foodpanda hopes to address
sustainability head on by maximizing impact through its 5G initiatives and
reach the short-to-intermediate goals including: cutting 20 million kg of waste
before the end of 2022 and further reducing a total 60 million kg of plastics,
waste, and carbon by 2025 as part of the company’s sustainability and emission
reduction effort.
Initiative one: Green Commitment
foodpanda’s 5G shared sustainability initiatives centered on reducing waste,
plastics, and carbon emissions
As the first delivery platform to
commit to environmental sustainability, foodpanda understands the urgency of
current challenges and has accelerated the timetable of its sustainability
blueprint that centers on commitments to reducing waste, plastics and carbon
emissions, aiming to catalyze positive economic, social and environmental
impacts for current and future generations. Together with customers, vendors,
and delivery partners, foodpanda strives to realize its promise of building a
sustainable food delivery chain and share the sustainability achievements with
the world.
Initiative two: Green Vendor
More than 780 sustainable “Green Vendors” on board across Taiwan’s 21 cities
To address the merchants’ pain
points in improving sustainability, foodpanda has teamed up with the
environmental group RE-THINK to launch the Green Vendor program, a program that
encourages restaurants to implement sustainable practices. As a result, nine
environmental sustainability standards that focus on vendors’ in-store
environment, as well as management of takeout and delivery packages and food
ingredients have been established with the hopes of attracting voluntary
participation. Since the launch of the Green Vendor program nearly a year ago,
the number of certified Green Vendors has grown to 780. Through measures including
reducing food packages, offering discounts for bring-your-own-cup, and
providing options on the food portions, the 780 Green Vendors are expected to
collectively reduce around 161,624 kg in waste each year, equivalent to 8.08
million 700 ml plastic drink cups, meeting the initiative’s objective of
reducing the toll on the environment by cutting waste from the source. A wide
variety of well-known foodservice chain brands with locations across Taiwan
have joined the Green Vendor program, including Starbucks, Burger King, 21Plus,
Ootoya, Da Yung’s, bb.q CHICKEN, and Go Lean x Just Kitchen, providing
consumers with many sustainable options. Concurrently, progress in Taiwan has
encouraged the launch of the Green Vendor program in foodpanda’s other markets
including Hong Kong and Singapore. Currently foodpanda has gathered more than
1,500 Green Vendors in the Asia Pacific Regional Market.
Improving environmental
sustainability is very important! To celebrate the amassing of 780 “Green
Vendors”, foodpanda launched a special voucher that provides a NT$30 discount
on order above NT$299 at select vendors until July 22. Each customer may use
the code twice while supplies last. Please enter the code “友善環境” to help protect the earth with
foodpanda Green Vendors.
Initiative three: Green Panda
As the most sustainable delivery
platform, foodpanda actively cut plastics waste by introducing sustainable
packaging made with plant fibers
foodpanda believes that cutting
waste at the source is the key to building a sustainable food delivery chain.
To do so, foodpanda introduced a sustainable packaging sold with a reasonable
price to encourage adoption by restaurants as the first step towards
eliminating plastics waste. foodpanda’s sustainable packaging are entirely made
of plant fibers without plastic coating, effectively reducing the impact on the
planet. Currently, 20 Go Lean x Just Kitchen restaurants have adopted this
sustainable packaing. foodpanda is continuing efforts at building consensus
with likeminded vendors to take action on sustainability. At the same time,
foodpanda actively raise employee awareness toward sustainability by
encouraging employees to order from Green Vendors or vendors that use reusable
containers so that they may all serve as sustainability ambassadors raising
awareness of sustainability on behalf of the platform.
Initiative four: Green Rider
foodpanda encourages delivery partners to prioritize electric vehicles for
delivery, cutting up to 1,300 tons of carbon emission annually
Apart from leading restaurants in
transitioning towards sustainability, foodpanda has been tackling carbon
emissions as the result of food delivery journeys. To build a low-emission food
delivery ecosystem, foodpanda is actively in talks with five electric scooter
brands to provide delivery partners with promotional discounts to boost
adoption of electric vehicles for delivery. Following a year of hard work, the
proportion of foodpanda delivery partners using electric scooters is
approaching 9 percent, or 2.25 times higher than the average electric scooter
ownership among Taiwanese total scooter riders.[1] On a
year-on-year basis, the proportion of foodpanda delivery partners using
electric scooters has reached 70 percent by April 2022, indicating that the
importance of sustainability is growing among delivery partners. Separately,
estimates show that due to rising adoption of electric scooters, foodpanda
delivery partners have saved nearly 1,300 tons of CO2 emissions over 61 million
km traveled in the past year, or 3.3 times the amount of carbon sequestration
by Taipei Daan Forest Park.[2] In line with global trends,
foodpanda will continue to encourage the adoption of electric scooters among
delivery partners to catalyze change in the food delivery industry.
Initiative five: Green Customer
Customers demonstrate better understanding of recycling after foodpanda’s a
series of acts to raise environmental awareness
foodpanda in 2020 began working with
RE-THINK in launching the largest survey on recycling as well as a series of
online and offline courses on recycling. A follow up survey conducted in early
2022 showed improvements in both sustainability awareness and knowledge in
recycling.
- Better recycling awareness: while more than 80 percent of
consumers are able to correctly recycle trash from food delivery orders, 60
percent of consumers didn’t know that leftover food and sauces should be
classified as kitchen waste. The outcome suggests that there is
much work to be done on improving awareness of recycling.
- Rising awareness of Green
Vendors: nearly 80
percent of foodpanda users have heard of the Green Vendor program, with many
voting with their wallets, leading to a 68-times increase in orders compared to
last year.
- Rising willingness to spend more for
supporting sustainability: more
than 80 percent of the public are willing to spend more on sustainable options,
representing a 6.2 percentage point increase from 2020. The survey also found
that 73.2 percent of consumers are willing to order from restaurants that are
committed to reducing use of single-use packaging, suggesting that consumers
are now more aligned with sustainability and the need to reduce waste from
packaging.
To make it easier for consumers to
take part in recycling, foodpanda shared 3 steps for becoming a Green Customer:
Step 1: opt-out single-use cutlery when ordering to help cut waste at the
source; step 2: prioritize Green Vendors when choosing restaurants; and step 3:
properly recycle waste from food delivery orders to further reduce carbon
emissions from garbage incineration. foodpanda not only provides discounts and
wider opportunities to participate in sustainability for consumers, but is also
encouraging participation among vendors and delivery partners. The result is
that lowered thresholds for the reduction of waste, plastics use and carbon
emissions. By inviting consumers to take action and join in the 5G initiatives,
a little can go a long way towards positive change in the industry.