Congratulations SPUD.ca! 2022 Business of Good Award Winner for Environmental Sustainability
Congratulations to BBOT member SPUD.ca, winner of BC Business magazine’s 2022 Business of Good Award for Environmental Sustainability. The awards shine a spotlight on BC organizations large and small that are making a big difference in the world.
Helena McShane didn’t always know that supermarket produce displays are just for show. “Not to shame other grocery stores, but I never realized that those piles of oranges are there for me to look at, not to buy,” says McShane, communications and sustainability manager with Vancouver-based online grocer SPUD.ca. “There’s so much waste in displays and what they think consumers want.”
About 2.5 billion tonnes, or 40 percent, of all food goes uneaten each year, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature and grocery chain Tesco. Meanwhile, food waste accounts for 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Canada loses or wastes 58 percent of its food, found a study commissioned by Toronto-based charity Second Harvest.
SPUD, which claims to have the lowest food waste of any grocery retailer in Canada, has taken several steps to make waste reduction part of its business strategy. For starters, it has no food displays, and fewer hands on produce means that less gets thrown away. The company’s FoodX technology flags when a product with a short lifespan needs to go on sale. By looking at how customers fill their online shopping carts, SPUD can also forecast demand as far as two weeks in advance, McShane says. “That means we can buy just what they need.”
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