Food Savior

Whether a local or expat, you’d be no stranger to the city’s food waste problem: approximately 3,400 tonnes of food is sent to the landfill every day, enough of a mass to fill 220 double-decker buses. Among those who find such waste of resources outrageous - and a pressing issue to tackle - are the founders behind Food Savior, a green start-up that is dedicated to food waste reduction by linking up surplus food supply at local restaurants and cafés with consumer demand for high-quality food at bargain prices. Yes, that actually means that you could be paying less than HKD50 for scrumptious meals by some of the city's much-loved foodie hotspots the likes of Cali Mex, SpiceBox Organics, La Cabane Wine & Cheese Cellar, 208 Duecento Otto, Jinjuu, Café D'i, Tartes & Pop, Café Sausalito, Rummin' Tings, Commissary, Monsieur CHATTÉ.

Read on and find out why you, as a responsible global citizen, should be part of Food Savior’s #endfoodwaste and #nofoodwasteHK campaigns. 

1. Who are the amazing founders behind Food Savior? 

We are Liz Thomas (journalist), Florent Sollier (finance), and Adrien Hay (finance).

Florent and I are married and have a two-year-old, and Adrien is a good friend also married with a child the same age 

2. How did the idea of Food Savior come about? 

[Liz Thomas] The past few years have felt quite bleak in terms of world affairs and I think it is easy to despair. Perhaps becoming parents triggered it - thinking about the kind of world our children will grow up in. But the three of us felt it was time we actually did something, instead of ranting on Facebook. That if we wanted the world to change, then we needed to actively do something about it.

Food waste has always bothered me - I used to take doggie bags home if I couldn't finish my meal at restaurants. In Hong Kong there are endless buffets and free-flow brunch deals, plates piled high, mountains of food continually replenished, and there is always plenty left towards the end of the sitting. I started to wonder what happened to all the surplus - the realisation that much of it was thrown away was grotesque.

We noticed too how much people loved the discount corner at the supermarket, and felt there must be a way to do something similar with restaurants - to highlight last-minute deals or special offers in a bid to reduce waste.

3. How does Food Savior Work?

[Adrien Hay] We came up with essentially a digital version of the discount corner. It connects customers with restaurants who have a surplus of excellent food left at the end of service, and are happy to sell it at bargain prices. Restaurants can also list last-minute deals or special offers for their quiet periods to help ensure nothing is thrown away.

You can just input your location and see what's available near you - or hit ‘SHOW ALL’, and it lists all the discount deals across the city.

The pickup window is set by the restaurants and café to suit their needs. The eateries schedule the collection window to coincide with the end of their different service schedules. This means that you are likely to get food at different period of time: Around 12pm at the end of the breakfast service, around 3pm for the close of the lunch service, at 7pm when cafés close and from 10pm when restaurants close. There should be something to fit different working hours and different lifestyles, and the range of options will only increase as the number of restaurants we work with expands. We started with restaurants but we hope supermarkets and caterers will come on board later too. We're also looking at ways we can work with food redistribution charities, so that people can buy and donate.

4. What is the goal of Food Savior? 

[Florent Sollier] To curb the amount of food waste in Hong Kong, to get people to think differently about throwing out food and our consumption culture.

The aim of this is to get the whole industry to see there is an opportunity - for them to make money on surplus food, and to do their bit for making Hong Kong a cleaner, greener, place to live. But also for consumers, to realise how much power they have. Want cleaner air in Hong Kong? Well, food waste rotting in landfill is a big contributor to that. So why not use Food Savior, get a bargain, but also show restaurants - and food and beverage industry - that this matters to you. If you have a favourite restaurant that isn't working with us - ask them why not.  

We're building up a little community in Hong Kong for people who want to get more involved in these issues, but also to highlight some brilliant companies already innovating to help curb food waste. The more people know what's out there, the better.

5. What are the pros and cons of launching a food reduction initiative in Hong Kong?

[Adrien Hay]

Pros - People in Hong Kong are incredibly receptive to new ideas in that there is a lot of good will that you succeed. The green sector is growing, we know that as people understand the gravity of the issues we face, they are keen to make small changes to make a difference. People love to eat so anything that involves offering special deals or food at bargain prices is met with a good response. It is a small city so you don't have to go far to find a participating restaurant. 

Cons - People here don't yet realise how much damage food waste is doing to the planet. It's a huge contributor to air pollution and it is a massive waste of our resources. So much energy goes into producing food, transporting it, preparing it, cooking it - what a tragedy it is to see all that just end up in the bin. If people stopped to think about that, they might be much more cautious. Hong Kong is a fast-paced consumption-led city where people generally want things quick and easy, so getting people to stop and think about changing their habits takes time. Most people go to the same few places for lunch every day, but our hope is that one day, people will check Food Savior first whenever they are hungry and see what they can ‘save’.

6. How has the public's response to Food Savior's food waste reduction effort been so far? 

[Liz Thomas] Everyone loves a bargain - and the people of Hong Kong are savvy about shopping so using our site makes sense. Restaurants update in real time and there are offers available throughout the day, so people are finding they can pick up something yummy for more than 50% off the original price whenever they feel hungry. In fact, we've had demands for us to work with more restaurants across Hong Kong, so we are really hoping to make sure we have options across the city. If you like the idea, make sure your favourite restaurant knows about it - ask them to work with us! We also really want to work with more local restaurants, and we'd like to meet with Cantonese speakers who are interested in working with us to help make that happen. 

7. Why do you think more people should be part of this initiative? 

[Liz Thomas] We are at a turning point in terms of our environment that will shape our future, and that of children, and grandchildren. We already know that if food waste were a country, it would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the US, and we already know that this is contributing to global warming, and if current temperature rises continue we are heading to catastrophe. But I think sometimes people find that too big a concept to really take in - it's hard to see how we can turn things around. 

So our view is to start small, to make the changes we can, and to build up from there. Use Food Savior, bring your own box, bring your own water bottle, reduce single use plastic, don’t bother with straws. 

I think former US President Barack Obama says it better than us:  "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” We want people to be part of the change!

8. What’s the best thing about being the founder(s) of Food Savior right now? 

Florent Sollier - The brilliant people we are getting to meet. There are so many people doing small things to try and make Hong Kong a cleaner, greener city. And there are even more doing so worldwide. We hope that Food Savior will be doing lots of collaborations with all sorts of companies and start-ups trying to tackle environmental issues. 

We are slowly building a little community on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/foodsavior/), and here we hope to publish interviews with other great environmental and anti-food waste organisations, and generally highlight the other great initiatives out there (as well as the bargains on our own). We are running social media campaigns with #endfoodwaste and #nofoodwasteHK which we would urge people to join. 

We would also love to hear from anyone interested in this issue so if you want to join the conversation, please do follow us and get in touch!

More info here www.foodsavior.hk

Turning Food Waste into Nutritional Powder

Credit: Fast Coexist

Sorry to be talking about food waste again, but it IS a big issue, an ironic one at that too, with approximately 791 million people in developing countries going hungry while those in developed countries dump hundreds of thousands of tonnes of food waste into the landfill on a daily basis. The good news, however, is that individuals and organisations worldwide are increasingly devising ways to tackle the problem, not least by turning food that is intended for the landfill into something useful.

A Swedish startup, for instance, is drying fruits that are about to go bad into a nutritional powder called FoPo, which can be mixed with water or sprinkled on yoghurt or ice cream. According to Kent Ngo, one of the founders of FoPo, the shelf life of fruits can be extended from two weeks up to two years simply by drying them. Incidentally, the drying process can retain between 30% and 80% of the original nutritional value, and the fact that the fruits are now in powder form means easier logistics – they can be shipped to people living in hunger in parts of the world. Also, refrigeration, which could be an issue due to lack of electricity supply in developing countries, is not necessary for the fruits, now in powder form.

The founding students from Lund University in Sweden will be piloting FoPo this summer in the Philippines, where an enormous amount of food grown is wasted because of poor storage and transport. Who knows, food in powder form could be the food of the future if we’re to live sustainably. 

Getaway and Have a Taste of Minimalist Living

Credit: Getaway

To a local Hongkonger, a ‘tiny house’ may not carry much of a positive connotation, considering that much of the city live in shoebox-sized apartments as a result of land scarcity and astronomical property prices. Yet with an increasing awareness on the benefits of minimalist living, tiny houses have recently acquired a rather different status worldwide, and start-ups like Getaway are opening up opportunities to interested individuals for a taste of minimalist living.

Launched at Harvard’s Innovation Lab, Getaway offers the chance to try living in a tiny house for a night or a weekend with its 160-square-foot, off-grid tiny house in the woods near Boston, before people make up their mind on whether they really want to live in a tiny house. The houses will be placed on land leased from local landowners, who don’t get to earn much from their land otherwise. The house, mind, is not built into the ground but rather a mobile home that is complete with solar power and composting toilets, and can be assembled in an hour, or driven away, leaving zero traces behind, when needs be. With their location completely secluded in the natural setting, equipped with comfortable beds, propane stove, and accessible just two hours’ drive from the city, these houses offer a great getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city – start campfires under the stars with freshcut firewood, or bike in the woods if you wish. Getaway also makes sure it is a sustainable business too, by investing money from you into the locals whose land makes Getaway possible.

So, what do you reckon? 

Deal with Your Monthly the Eco-friendly Way

Credit: THINX, Fast Company

Sorry blokes, this is an exclusively female article but the story of this alternative to the menstrual pad is worth a read nonetheless. According to unofficial research, women on average spend approximately seven years on dealing with menstruation, assuming it starts at age 12 and ceases at 55. That’s a lot of time, not to mention the sheer amount of pads or tampons dumped into the landfill.

 

In an attempt to make the monthly less insufferable and more eco-friendly, sisters Radha Agrawal and Miki Agrawal and their friend Antonia Dunbar took matters in their own hands and created THINX, a period underwear that has won award and its own patented technology, and – more importantly – that keeps you clean and dry during those seven days every month. Despite its physical similarities to the normal knickers, THINX has all the qualities to keep you dry even when you’ve had a spill, fight bacteria with an invisible silver treatment, hold up to two tampons’ worth of liquid, and it is leak-resistant to make sure even your white pants are safe. The fact that THINX has a top layer that wicks all liquid into the super thin absorption layer right beneath it means that THINX can be worn all day long, without the need for a change during the day. What’s more, THINX comes in three different styles (thong, cheeky, hiphugger) with varying levels of absorbency and areas of protection, so as to ensure absolute peace of mind.

THINX’s eco-friendliness aside, this result of the founders’ three years’ worth of research is deserving of support because, as a brand, THINX is committed to breaking the taboo surrounding menstruation, through the reimagination of feminine hygiene products to provide support, comfort, confidence and peace of mind. Oh, and for every piece of THINX purchased, the company would donate seven pieces of recyclable pads, called the ‘Afripads’, to women in undeveloped countries to help lessen the pressure on insufficient resources. 

A Sweatshirt That’s Built to Last

Credit: The 30 Year Sweatshirt

Unless you’re frugal like my father, chances are that you have a seasonal change of clothes, partly to manifest that you’re in the trend instead of out, partly because of natural wear and tear. To quote my father, clothes and shoes and bags (a.k.a. his briefcase) shouldn’t require often changes if you pay enough attention to their maintenance. And he speaks as he finds, as a man that owns shirts, suits, and leather shoes that are over 10 years old and still in pristine condition.

Increasingly, people are coming to the realisation that my father is right. Of course they don’t know my father personally, but it’s the rationale that he upholds regarding consumption: spend only when necessary to conserve the earth’s resources and minimise our waste to the planet. And that is how The 30 Year Sweatshirt was born.

Currently pledging funds on kickstarter, The 30 Year Sweatshirt is the brainchild of UK menswear designer Tom Cridland, who believes the prevailing trend of built-in obsolescence – big fashion powerhouses’ practice of making their clothing fragile enough to get their customers to return and buy more – has to stop, because “our natural resources deserve a higher level of respect and so do you”. And so he embarked on the mission to prove that clothing can, and should, last a lifetime.

The 30 Year Sweatshirt, as it turns out, is made with Cridland’s partnership with a group of old school Portuguese craftsmen, who have been hand-making clothing since 1964, to create a premium knit crewneck sweatshirt that is made ethically with organic cotton, crafted out of luxury fabric from only the finest quality yarn, and backed with a 30-year guarantee. If you’re worried a sweatshirt that is built to last a lifetime will end up making you look naff, know that Cridland has made clothing for Leonardo Di Caprio, Ben Stiller, Stephen Fry, Hugh Grant, Robbie Williams, Nigel Olsson, Daniel Craig, just to name a few from the designer’s star-studded client list.

By supporting Cridland’s project you’ll also be supporting a change towards sustainable fashion, and you’ll be rewarded with the cutting out of GBP75 of pointless retail markups, so that your sweatshirt will be delivered to your door at just GBP55.

The Mighty Lemon

Credit: Ecozine

So your truly has started a new routine of daily lemon water intake in the hope of well, staying healthy and ridding my body of toxins – regular consumption of lemon-infused water is believed to be effective in preventing formation of kidney stones. And by end of the day, I’d use the lemon slices to clean the flask that I use to contain the lemon-infused water with. Turns out there’s a whole lot more things you can do with lemon, such as an all-natural odour-remover.

With half a lemon and ½ cup of water, you can make a chemical-free odour-remover and cleaner for your microwave oven, for instance. All you need to do is to squeeze the lemon juice into the water, heat it up in the microwave until it boils, and let it sit for five minutes and let the steam do the work. To bring back the glimmer in silverware, mix lemon juice and baking soda (4:1) and wipe the silverware with the mixture or let the silverware sit in the solution for three minutes. Got sweat stains on your clothes? No matter, add ½ cup of lemon juice into the water during the rinse cycle of your laundry, and the clothes will come out of the tumbler all bright and smelling fresh. Apparently, you can unclog and freshen drains with ½ cup of baking soda, ½ cup of white vinegar, and one cup of lemon juice too by simply pouring the baking soda down the drain, followed by vinegar, and the lemon juice at last.

The health benefits and household uses of this amazing citrus fruit is abundant, go explore, and stay clean and healthy the natural way!

Recycling Food Waste into Soup

Credit: Kromkommer

Did you know about 3,200 tonnes of food is wasted and dumped into the landfills in Hong Kong every day? If that doesn’t appall you, know that 30% to 50% of all the food in the world goes to waste, while 1 billion are starved. What you may not know is that approximately 5% to 10% of fruits and vegetables are wasted because of their looks – yes, thanks to an obsolete EU legislation that restricted the sale of wonky vegetables. But as awareness of sustainable development picks up the world over, individuals and nations are devising ingenious or pragmatic ways to rescue food waste, as an attempt to conserve the earth’s resources and create a sustainable future. First there was France’s unprecedented ban of food waste in supermarkets, and then there’s this brand called Kromkommer.

Literally ‘crooked cucumber’ in Dutch, Kromkommer is a brand started by two girls, Jente and Lisanne, who, when attempting to seek solutions for major environmental issues such as climate change and food waste, started collecting fruits and vegetables that were dumped because they were too small, too big, too crooked, had a funny shape or were unsold at a local market. Like any conscientious individual the two realised something had to be done, and in 2014, they started a crowdfunding campaign to bring the wasted fruits and vegetables back to the consumer with their own soup line. The campaign proved a massive success and the soup, made with rescued vegetables, is available at over 50 stores throughout the Netherlands. In fact, it was so successful that they managed to raise sufficient awareness of food conservation to sell a whopping 6,300kg of crooked vegetables and fruits that otherwise would have been dumped.

As consumers we need to acknowledge the fact that most wonky vegetables and fruits are just as fresh and tasty, and perfectly good to be eaten as their better-looking counterparts. If, god forbid, you need a reason to conserve food, try growing some tomatoes on your window sill. 

Sustainable Seafood Week

Credit: WWF-Hong Kong

So you knew Hong Kongers are mad about seafood, but did you know we also are the second-largest per capita consumer of seafood in Asia? From lobster served with e-fu noodles in cheesy sauce to the ordinary home-steamed fish, there isn’t a dearth of seafood traces in our staple diet. But as overfishing and overconsumption is pushing many marine species towards extinction, it’s about time we started thinking twice about what we put on our dining table.

As an attempt to promote and encourage a more sustainable seafood consumption habit across the city, WWF-Hong Kong has announced its annual Sustainable Seafood Week, held from 27 June to 5 July this year, partnering with over 100 restaurants scattered all over Hong Kong, just to show that a sustainable seafood menu can – and should – be had anywhere in Hong Kong, by people from all walks of life. From all 32 Tsui Wah Restaurant’s outlets to 44 Maxim’s MX outlets, Congress Plus at HKCEC to Steakhouse at Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, Plat du Jour to The Continental, you’re literally spoilt for choice when it comes to a seafood feast matching various budget concerns.

Go on, check out WWF-Hong Kong’s list of partnering restaurants and do your bit as a responsible global citizen!  

Pee, Poo, Fertilise

Credit: Peepoo

Did you know that over 2.6 billion people in the world lack access to basic sanitation, and up to 40% of the world’s population don’t have access to even the simplest latrine?

To tackle the issue, Peepoo, a personal, single-use, self-sanitising and fully biodegradable toilet was invented to prevent faeces from contaminating the immediate area and the surrounding ecosystem, while solving the problem of scarce water supply by saving the need to flush – water is only needed for washing hands afterwards.

Weighing just 10 grams, Peepoo is really a slim biodegradable bag with an inner layer that unfolds to form a wide funnel. It’s designed to be easy to store, handle, and use in complete privacy. With the ability to remain odour-free for at least 24 hours, Peepoo can be stored in the immediate environment without endangering it. What’s more, it also transforms the faecal matter into high-value fertiliser to benefit the local organic farming industry.

Don’t you just love innovative, green and community-driven inventions like this? 

Eat Cruelty Free, with Beyond Meat

Credit: ecozine, Beyond Meat

Despite the drastic increase in vegan and vegetarian dining options, Hong Kongers are constantly looking for options that enable them to eat cruelty-free, without compromising on food quality. So good news to those of you, as Beyond Meat, the top brand of plant-based food that has attracted investment from Bill Gates and the likes, is available in Hong Kong.

Free of antibiotics, hormones, cholesterol and gluten, Beyond Meat’s products are rich in high-quality protein and are cooked and pre-seasoned, meaning all you need to do is to add them to your recipes. From Italian Meatballs (HKD64) to Beefy Beef Crumbles (HKD59) and Beyond Chicken Strips (HKD59), Beyond Meat makes sure its products can fool even the most fastidious foodie by recruiting food and chemical experts to realign the molecules of plant proteins, so that they would have the same texture as meat.

And the best thing of all? These cruelty-free products are available at Green Common, Green Monday’s organic, healthy living store in Wanchai!

Green Common
Location: 222 Queen’s Road, East, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2263 3153
Email: info@greencommon.com
Opening Hours: 9:30am to 8:30pm Monday to Saturday, 10:00am to 8:30pm Sunday

Zero Energy Home with One Kit in One Week

Credit: Fast Company

It’s almost too good to be true: a group of innovators in the Netherlands have created a device that could turn an old house into net-zero energy homes in just a little over a week. How neat is that?

The device was invented to show that you don’t have to be loaded or extremely environmentally conscious to be able to own a net-zero energy home, and the point the project is meant to start will be the mid-century, low-income rental houses that all share similar layouts. What the kit includes is a system of prefab parts that can be easily installed on existing properties, from a roof covered in solar panels to facades onto old walls without the need of demolition, and a cube-shaped energy module that holds everything necessary for the generation of sustainable heat, hot water, power and ventilation.

The best thing of all? The kit is also designed to ensure that the retrofits will cause the least disruption to the lives of the renters. According to Linda van Leeuwen of the BAM Group, one of the construction companies behind the project, residents won’t have to move out; if anything, they’re only required to move the sofa or television a bit for the removal of window frames to make room for the installation of new front and back façade.

With the advancement in technology and increased support from material suppliers, the cost of the project has dropped drastically from USD144,000 two years ago to USD45,000 per townhouse today. Needless to say, utility bills for the renters will drop just as exponentially, for now their houses will be able to create renewable energy by themselves.

The system is said to work in many different world countries, and we in Hong Kong can only hope the engineers could come and make the net-zero energy houses a reality here! 

That Good Old Qipao

Credit: Classics Anew, lifestyleasia.com

If you’re a fan of the traditional Chinese dress called qipao, you’d want to meet Janko Lam, a fashion designer and also founder of Classics Anew, a brand that began with upcycling end-roll fabrics into qipao. It all started with her job at the costume department of a local television station, where she fell head over heels in love with the traditional dress.

What makes Janko’s qipao different, so much so that it won an EcoChic Design Award in 2010, is the contemporary touch. From patterned fabrics one would easily associate with qipao to denim, Janko is a master of creating qipao of various cuttings and styles to meet the fastidious needs of fashionistas. But if you wish to jazz up your normal office attire with a hint of qipao-style too, Classics Anew is where you’ll be spoilt for choice.

How many ‘likes’ for this young lady’s respect for and preservation of the quintessential Chinese culture? 

Meet Hong Kong’s First CGS

Credit: www.info.gov.hk

If you’re still griping about the insufficient government effort in battling environmental pollution, it’s perhaps time you stopped and take a serious look at Hong Kong’s first Community Green Station (CGS), just opened in Sha Tin less than a month ago.

Run by non-profit making organisations, the CGS’s, expected to acquire a presence in each of the 18 districts to promote environmental education while serving as a spot to collect different types of recyclables, are designed with aesthetics and practicality in mind, and have therefore incorporated elements of sustainable development and green buildings. The Sha Tin CGS, for instance, is now a public place composed of container modules, reformed from the temporary parking space it previously was. A quick tour at the Sha Tin CGS reveals the multi-purpose rooms and ancillary facilities built for exhibitions, seminars, workshops and other kinds of educational activities.

Now, although there are already existing recyclers (with whom the Sha Tin CGS will be working closely with to provide a better recycling solution), one thing you should note about the CGS is that it will focus on the provision of collection services for recyclables of lower economic value, such as electrical appliances, compact fluorescent lamps and tubes, glass bottles and rechargeable batteries. The materials will then be delivered to trustworthy and qualified recyclers to turn the waste materials into useful resources.

The operator – Christian Family Service Centre, in the case of Sha Tin CGS – has already established collaboration arrangements with over 70 housing estates, institutions and schools in the district as we speak, and the network is expected to expand further in the future. For so long we have been wanting more government subsidies and support for the local recycling industry to ensure more waste materials are recycled, and it looks like now that the government has done something conducive to a sustainable future, as a response to the hitherto unsatisfactory recycling situation. Surely the CGS initiative deserves some applause? 

Grow a Book Tree

Credit: Fast Company, Pequeño Editor

If you need one more reason to get your children to read, Pequeño Editor has come up with a solution to make reading not just intellectually beneficial, but also environmentally educational.

Titled Mi Papá Estuvo en la Selva (‘My Father was in the Jungle’), the book – which has been made available in its standard format for quite a while – has recently been given a redesign to remind readers of resource conservation. The ‘resource’ in this case is trees, which are cut down to make books.

With each page printed with non-toxic inks and sown with seeds of the jacaranda tree, readers of the children’s book are encouraged to water the book cover to help the seeds germinate, before planting the book in a garden once the seeds have sprouted. To quote Raquel Franco, editorial director of Pequeño Editor, the book is a metaphor that “everything we read also takes root in us and is part of our mental library, our culture, of who we are as people”. 

Poop Power

Credit: Fast Company

If you told your friends last year that your dog could be your source of renewable energy, you could easily be taken as a fool. But not anymore, with the conceptual design Poo Poo Power by Geneva-based designer Océane Izard, also the human parent of three dogs.

The way the device works is simple: place a biodegradable bag of dog poop inside, let the sludge-eating bacteria belch out methane that is then converted into power, and the electricity is stored in batteries to be used to power your appliances. Naturally, the amount of poop produced by different sizes of dogs matters too, so a German Shepherd produces around 500 grams of waste a day, which is enough to keep your fridge running. The Beagle, on the other hand, produces around 250 grams of waste per day, which would suffice to power a fan for two hours.

As gross as the idea may sound to some, powering your home with dog poop is nothing but ingenious. Not only does it help cities save up the cost of cleaning dog poop on the streets, it also prevents the emission of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere where dog poop is dumped into landfill. Additionally, it helps to keep the city clean – cities where dog owners don’t have the good manner to clean up after their dogs, that is.