Sustainy Step

A mobile app focused on creating a collaborative food network in order to avoid food waste from establishments and our homes.

Every day the world is paying more attention to the problem of food loss and waste and calling for effective measures to address it. According to a FAO report, approximately 1/3 of the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted. Of this amount of food, 17% is wasted during the distribution and consumption stages (at retail, foodservice and consumer level), equivalent to 931 million tons of food wasted, while 828 million people suffer from hunger in the world. 

The causes of food waste at the retail level are related to limited shelf life, the need for food products to meet aesthetic standards in terms of color, shape and size, and variability in demand. Consumer waste is often due to poor shopping and meal planning, excessive purchases, and poor home storage.

The high level of food waste not only aggravates food insecurity in the world, but also has dire environmental consequences. When we waste food, we also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport and package it. And if food ends up in the landfill and rots, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide. Food waste generates about 8% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.

As the world's population continues to grow, our challenge should not be how to grow more food, but to feed more people and waste less of what we already produce.

A mobile app focused on creating a collaborative food network in order to avoid food waste. The app is designed for both individuals and establishments, such as supermarkets, restaurants, and many other businesses that are prone to waste food if it is not sold.

The app will be divided into 4 main functions, which will be the pillars of Sustainy Step:

DYK? This section shows interesting scientific data about the environmental pollution generated by food waste, the social and economic problems that this represents and the amount of water needed in the agricultural and livestock sector to obtain the final product. All this is to make the user aware of its purpose in the app.

Eco-Post: Both consumers and establishments must post a photo of the product they want to donate (consumers) or sell (establishments) and must post certain information such as: name of the product, expected expiration date, price and discount of the product (establishments) and if the product meets the standards to classify it as safe. All this in order to let the interested user know about the most important information of the product.

Map: A map is displayed based on the user's location and shows all those points near the user where other people "publish" the food they have and that will soon expire, in order to avoid wasting food that the person will not need and that someone else needs it. In addition, it will be possible to visualize the different anti-waste offers posted by the establishments.

Recipes: Different recipes are presented that are easy to make using leftover food that is in good condition or with food that the user does not know what to do with them, so it's a help that is provided and with this, avoiding food waste and throwing it away.

Our application is designed for both individuals and establishments, such as supermarkets and restaurants. 
Individuals will benefit because they will be able to see the different offers that establishments will post, so they can get certain foods at a lower price and with the same quality. In addition, they will have access to a large number of recipes so they can use the products they have in their homes that are close to expiring, or else they can easily post the food and donate it to those who need it most.

The establishments will also benefit, since businesses such as restaurants and supermarkets waste a large amount of food in perfect condition and this represents a great loss for these businesses. Sustainy Step represents a very good option for these establishments, since it will allow them to generate some kind of profit with what was destined to be wasted and become an economic loss for the business.

Sustainy Step is a win-win solution for everyone: users, businesses and the environment.

In our team we believe that we are all in this world with a purpose, and that each one of us must leave a footprint in this world that is for good and that lasts. We are two young people from Central America willing to live new experiences and fight for the welfare of our planet and its people and we are convinced that we have the necessary characteristics to provide a solution in this world full of challenges to meet. 

Daniel Mata is a national public speaking champion (in his country El Salvador) and that same quality has led him to participate at the international level, he has also participated in various leadership activities that have made him realize that our planet needs an inevitable change.

Paula Cascante is an environmental health student at the University of Costa Rica committed to reducing the impact of the food waste problem in her country and subsequently, in the world.

We both have similar interests, and we are willing to do whatever we can to do good in our countries, in the region and in the world. We have both witnessed the problem of food loss and waste, and how stores throw away huge amounts of perfectly good food just because it doesn't "look good" or because it didn't sell for a certain amount of time.
We firmly believe that our differences in nationality, age, gender and skill sets provide a well-rounded team capable of making the change we seek. Although we only know each other by line we have been able to carry forward the idea of this great project, so we believe that we are a team that adapts to each situation in the best way and that we have the determination to continue researching and improving this idea. We hope to continue working together and that our differences enrich our project in the service of others and of course in favor of our environment.

Our idea has been the product of a long research process, in which we have learned a lot, and this has allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the problem to be solved and how our app plans to make communities more sustainable and aware of the impact of food waste.

The team members have held meetings (via Google Meet) with the organization Greentalist (from Costa Rica), where we have discussed the effectiveness of the project and how it could impact in the desired way. In addition, we have had meetings with FAO El Salvador, where the representative of that organization, who participated in the meeting, validated our project and contributed new ideas to it. We also had meetings with FAO Costa Rica, where the representatives who participated in the meeting contributed their ideas and validated our project. It is worth mentioning that all the organizations contacted showed their interest in the project and committed to continue supporting us with our idea.

We are willing to continue taking action and that this will allow a good and perfect development of the app to be the right solution to this problem.

Although there are applications similar to ours, there is still no app that allows the creation of a food collaboration network, where both consumers and companies can publish their food (when it is close to expiring). In addition, our app has a section that seeks to sensitize the user so that they understand their purpose in the platform and its objective, and also has a section of easy recipes to make at home to avoid wasting food if the consumer decides to use them.

Similarly, the app will feature a map, which unlike a common map will reflect where a food publication (eco-post) was made whether it comes from an individual or a business. In addition, the map will show the points where a local merchant is located, with the objective of supporting local commerce to create a community where sustainable gastronomy is practiced.

What distinguishes Sustainy Step is its focus on both consumers and businesses and, in addition, its purpose of impacting communities positively and generating win-win situations for businesses, users and, above all, the environment.

Our impact goal is to consolidate our app and get people and businesses to start using it, in order to achieve communities where food waste is considerably reduced. In addition, we seek to create communities that are more aware of the issues addressed in Sustainy Step to achieve a greater understanding of the problem in our region and later in the world.

Timeline:

January 2023 - May 2023: Intensive research to gain a deeper understanding of the impact the app will have.
We start contacting more national and international organizations in addition to the ones we have already contacted, in order to validate our idea and make some changes if suggested and necessary.

June 2023 - September 2023: Development and programming of the app.

October 2023: Launch of the Alpha version of Sustainy Step

November 2023 - December 2023: We begin to analyze how the app works with businesses and users and analyze if other options or changes are required.

January 2024: Launch the Beta version of Sustainy Step.
Start interviewing users and businesses about the positive aspects and those that need to be improved in the app. 
In addition, we begin to implement a new section with advanced software so that businesses can register the products they purchase (in large quantities) in a simple way, so that when they are about to expire, they receive an alert so that businesses can take action and make a publication or can donate the products.

February 2024 - May 2024: Get the support of more organizations and also get at least 10 retail companies, such as supermarkets or restaurants that are willing to use our app, by doing this we will be able to visualize how Sustainy Step is used by these businesses and be able to generate certain changes if required.

June 2024: Public launch of the official version of Sustainy Step.

Our solution has technology at its core. In this case, all this would be reflected as a mobile app, so the technologies that will be used are software and blockchain. 

It should be noted that Sustainy Step is to take a step beyond what would be an old practice such as food donation, since in our solution this practice will be done more easily, in a more technological way and most important of all is that this practice will have a well-defined purpose with an environmental approach. 

Our app has not yet been launched, however, the target population we want to impact are mainly consumers and businesses in Central America, since so far, the team members have knowledge of the problem addressed in the solution only in these countries. Therefore, we hope that our project can make a great impact, significantly reducing the 15.2 million people who go hungry or have difficulty accessing the minimum food in Central America, mainly because food waste impacts the sustainability of food systems.
It is worth noting that once our app is perfectly adapted to our region, our solution could be gradually implemented throughout Latin America (where 59.7 million people suffer from hunger) and subsequently be used anywhere in the world.

The main barrier is financial. In our project, we need funding to be able to carry out the extensive development of the app and, in addition, we do not have enough financial income to be able to launch the app to the public and to be able to promote it properly. However, once the app is up and running, it can become profitable and will make very good profits with the business model we have in mind.

We were able to maintain contact with FAO El Salvador, FAO Costa Rica and Greentalist (a Costa Rican organization), in order to get to know other perspectives, improve our project and strengthen our bases with the project. Thanks to these meetings (via Google Meet), we were able to devise a better app for the use of the user and that this is friendly and not so difficult to understand for the different public that will use it.

It is worth mentioning that the organizations contacted committed to give us their support, participate in other meetings with us (if necessary) and at the time of launching the official version of the app, FAO El Salvador committed to help us with our project to publish the app on its official website and advertise it so that it becomes better known.

Both members of the team plan to reach financial sustainability in the following way: our app will have a revenue model where we can advertise in the app to some businesses that are registered in our app and they would have to give us a percentage of what is sold within the app (food that are close to expiring and were sold thanks to the app). This advertising that would be given to these businesses would be implemented through sudden but well thought out ads so as not to disturb the user in their experience through the app.

We also plan to team up with other national or international organizations to join forces and improve the development of our project.