ALEXANDRIA, Va.—SPAR International announced another significant milestone in its partnership with Too Good To Go, having now saved two and a half million meals across European markets. Since the inception of the international partnership in December 2020, the collaboration between SPAR and the social impact company has expanded to 14 overlapping markets, playing a key role in helping SPAR retailers distribute surplus food that could otherwise go to waste. The partnership now sees over 2,360 stores actively curbing food waste with this innovative digital solution.
In line with SPAR’s ethos of “better together,” Too Good To Go’s app solution enables customers to pick up bags filled with quality products close to their expiration dates at a much-reduced price, thereby helping SPAR reduce food waste. This option has proved to be particularly impactful for fresh foods and short shelf-life items.
Food waste exacerbates the climate change crisis since it creates a significant greenhouse gas footprint, with food production, transportation and handling generating significant Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions, says SPAR.
In 2022, new developments within SPAR markets have boosted the success of this partnership. After successfully trailing the Too Good To Go app solution for several months, SPAR Scotland rolled out this option in all 107 company-owned stores. SPAR Italy partner Gruppo 3A offers products to consumers using this app solution in 22 stores. After rolling out the Too Good To Go app solution in October 2021, SPAR Austria had by August 2022 saved more than 700,000 meals from going to waste. SPAR Netherlands has saved over 500,000 meals from going to waste by October 2022. These savings have avoided more than 1.8 million kg of CO2 and 1.4 million kg of CO2 emissions across the two markets, respectively.
In March this year, SPAR was honored to be awarded the Best Connected Retail Solution by EHI, a research, training and consultancy institute for the retail industry. The award recognizes retail enterprises that connect online and offline worlds. The collaboration between SPAR and Too Good To Go to tackle food waste by offering consumers a digital solution led to winning this valued award. The other two winners selected this year were a textile manufacturer and a clothing brand which offer connected retail solutions.
Here is more about SPAR’s overall responsible retailing strategy, as well as an outline of the areas SPAR focuses on within its environmental impact reduction program.
NorgesGruppen ASA won the 2021 NACS European Convenience Retail Sustainability Award for its SPAR Snarøya store in Norway. NorgesGruppen operates the KIWI, MENY and Spar grocery chains in Norway.
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