Corporate Responsibility
- April 22, 2022

Doing our part: Working towards a greener future

As a global company that operates in around 50 countries, our shared values are a uniting factor that allows us to build the foundation that Delivery Hero operates on.
Caring is a cornerstone of everything we do, so much that it is reflected in our core value of “we are Heroes because we care.” 


For our Local Heroes Stories series, we want to take the opportunity to emphasize local initiatives across the company that speak to this shared value. As April 22nd marks World Earth Day, for this edition, we are looking at some of the amazing work being done to help create a more sustainable restaurant and delivery ecosystem. In this Local Hero Stories we are looking at the collaboration between the OLIO app, PedidosYa, and foodpanda, see how Baemin is tackling food waste, and finally a beach cleaning initiative from talabat Bahrain.

Saving food with foodpanda, PedidosYa, and Olio

To tackle the issue of food waste, foodpanda Singapore and PedidosYa Latin America, have partnered with the food sharing app OLIO. OLIO is an app that connects neighbors with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be easily shared, instead of being thrown away.

The collaboration began in Singapore with an initial trial of the app in December 2021, in its Whampoa pandamart. The aim being to redistribute surplus food, which would otherwise be thrown away, to the local community through the app.

In just three months, the partnership has effectively redistributed close to 400 kg of food, providing an equivalent of over 900 meals to 180 local families – from just one pandamart store. The program was recently extended to two more pandamart outlets at Tampines and Bukit Batok, and plans to be expanded to include all 15 pandamart stores by the end 2022. 
Through its partnership with OLIO, foodpanda is stepping up its efforts to support Singapore’s Zero Waste Master Plan and prevent edible food surplus from ending up in landfills.

In Latin America, more than 40% of the food produced is wasted, this amounts to 220 million of tons per year. This has a great impact on the ecosystem -water, and power resources and the materials used for planting, producing packaging, and transport among others. For this reason, PedidosYa has also started implementing the use of the OLIO app. The trials started in January 2022 and in only three months PedidosYa was able to recover and donate over 21,000 kg of products which translates to 21,000 plates!

Collaborations between delivery platforms and apps like OLIO are playing a big part in reducing worldwide food waste and contributing to a better future, more fair than the one that came before.

Eliminating food waste with Baemin

In October 2020, Baemin partnered with university students for an initiative called the Impact Project, which aims to identify social problems and ways to solve these problems utilizing Baemin platform.

The Impact Project shed a light on the reality of what happens to the complementary side dishes that are commonly included in Korean meals. Often these side dishes are thrown away uneaten, resulting in significant amounts of food waste as well as unnecessary use of small plastic containers. Statistics show that in South Korea on average 71 kg of uneaten side dishes are thrown away per person per year.

To tackle this issue a month-long event was held from September to October 2021 using the hashtag #Nosidesplease hashtag, found that approximately 18,000 order requests were submitted requesting no side dish.

Taking in the customer’s preference of opting out of getting side dishes, Baemin introduced a new option on their app on December 21, 2021, that let users check a box if they don’t want to receive a side dish with their meal. This is just the start of Baemin’s commitment to further reducing food waste, with hopes to expand the program beyond their apps to their restaurant partners as well.

Bahrain beach clean-up initiative

In March 2022 talabat Bahrain organized a clean-up of the Karbabad Beach in cooperation with the Capital Governorate. With more than 200 participants the event was attended by employees, riders, families, and the management team. Refreshments and snacks were offered to volunteers some of whom had come with their children. The rubbish included an overwhelming amount of plastic.

The beach clean-up initiative is a yearly occurrence at talabat Bahrain. Beach and water pollution is a major problem in Bahrain with 470 to 700 Kg of trash generated per capita per year in Bahrain and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

In 2019 it was reported that by October, 20 tonnes of waste had been collected from Bahrain’s waters, as part of a major nationwide clean-up drive. 
Senior Director of Communications, Government Relations, and Social Responsibility at talabat Fatima Al Bastaki reiterated talabat’s keenness to participate in community activities and programs and contribute to social responsibility activities. Initiatives like this are part of talabat’s ongoing efforts to contribute to a greener planet.

Written by


Katharina Grob

Content Writer Delivery Hero

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