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Where Are They Now? OLIO’s Leading the Sharing Revolution
Over the years the Global Good Awards have celebrated hundreds of organisations for the actions they take for the environment, community and business.
Throughout the year, we are looking back at previous winners to share news of their growth and success.
This week we feature OLIO, awarded One-to-Watch in the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Award category in 2017 for their revolutionary food sharing app.
And what a revolution it has been. The speed of OLIO’s growth and reach over the last five years has been nothing short of supersonic.
The OLIO app connects members of the community with neighbours and local businesses to share surplus food that might otherwise be thrown away. This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local supermarkets, a bumper crop of home-grown vegetables unlikely to be used, unsold fresh bread from the local baker, or groceries in your fridge when you go away.
Anyone wishing to give or receive such goodies downloads the OLIO app and lists what items they have to offer or browses for what is available locally to them. It’s a win, win!
Small Actions That Lead to Big Change
When OLIO won their Global Good Award, their free sharing app had been downloaded 120,000 times. This saved 150,000 items from going in the bin – the equivalent of 35 tonnes of food and 65 tonnes of CO2! This was at a time when UK households were throwing away 13 billion tonnes of edible food every year.
Fast forward five years and, to date, five million people have downloaded the OLIO app and 40 million portions of food have been given away. OLIO now also encourages its community to share non-food items, 3 million of which have found new homes instead of being binned. The environmental impact equates to a staggering 120 million less car miles on the road, saving 6 billion litres of water and 36,000 tonnes of CO2.
Back in 2016, 40% of food items listed on the OLIO app were claimed in less than an hour. Now, half of all the food is requested in under 21 minutes and non-food listings in less than four hours.
By 2022, OLIO’s workforce has grown from nine to 70 employees and their 8,500 volunteers have jumped to over 90,000 in total – 50,000 ambassadors and 40,000 food waste heroes – with their overseas reach doubling to 62 countries where items have been successfully shared.
Sharing is Caring for People & Planet
OLIO’s mission epitomises the community spirit that blossomed during the lockdowns.
In a year that saw a record 2.5 million Brits rely on food banks and inflation reach its highest level in nearly 30 years, OLIO rolled out their Food Waste Heroes programme across 2,700 Tesco’s stores, providing unsold surplus food still fit for consumption to people in the community, avoiding waste. This was a real industry first. Saasha Celestial-One, co-founder of OLIO said:
“Our partnership with Tesco has been a huge success and we’re incredibly proud to have delivered so many meals that would have otherwise been wasted to communities across the UK.
We hope this partnership encourages other businesses to follow suit and consider how they can take a more proactive approach to minimising waste and supporting local communities. Just imagine what we could achieve if every business followed their lead.”
Since OLIO received their Global Good Awards ‘One To Watch’ the value of edible food that is wasted annually in the UK has risen to £14 billion, according to sustainability NGO, Wrap. It is not surprising that OLIO says food waste is one of the biggest problems facing humanity today.
But they aren’t stopping at food. OLIO have just launched a new initiative called “Borrow” that helps neighbours lend and borrow everyday household items to reduce the need to buy single-use or infrequently used ‘stuff’.
OLIO want 1 billion ‘OLIOers’ by 2030 to have even greater impact in tackling the imbalance between limitless consumption and the waste it creates.
Tessa Clarke, co-founder & CEO said:
“Receiving a Global Good Award in 2017 provided much appreciated recognition of OLIO’s impact, but most importantly, our potential. The early stages of a start-up are often the hardest, as that’s when you have maximum doubt and the challenges ahead can seem almost insurmountable. However, receiving an award like this gives you just the validation you need to keep fighting another day”.
For more information about OLIO and how to download the free sharing app please look at their website.
You can see the full listing of all our 2021 winners here.
