Meal kit company Marley Spoon has released its sustainability plan for 2025, announcing it will switch to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2022. The company achieved carbon neutrality earlier this year.
CEO Rolf Weber said the company has prioritised four areas for the next five years: carbon reduction, packaging, sustainable sourcing, and food waste.
“Taking action to minimise our impact on the planet cannot be delayed any longer. Since our launch, we’ve tried to consciously grow without further increasing our footprint and are continuously implementing actions to measure, reduce, and where necessary, offset that footprint,” Weber said.
Marley Spoon said a study by the University of Michigan in 2019 found meal kits had a lower overall carbon footprint than the same meals purchased at a grocery store, despite having more packaging. It found average greenhouse gas emissions were one-third lower for meal kit dinners than the store-bought meals when every step in the process – from farm to landfill – was considered.
Weber said the company is aiming to make further advances on its commitments.
“Our customers are vocal about their experience with Marley Spoon, and one of our most common pieces of feedback is around packaging and sustainability,” he said.
Carbon reduction and offsetting
The company’s new 14,200 square metre fulfilment centre in Sydney’s Wetherill Park, is powered by renewable energy, with a 500kw solar power installation on the roof. The site allows for triple the production capacity with a lower carbon footprint.
To counterbalance emissions and reduce their overall environmental impact, Marley Spoon is working with accredited CO2 offset partner, ClimatePartner, on projects that meet international certification standards set by programs like Verra and Gold Standard for the Global Goals. Through the partnership with ClimatePartner, Marley Spoon is contributing to projects that plant trees in Venezuela and Uruguay, and provide families in Zambia with clean-burning, efficient cookstoves.
Weber said: “To date, we've planted over 44,000 trees in Venezuela and Uruguay, supporting the absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere. We’ve also distributed 4000 clean, efficient cookstoves to families in Zambia, who would otherwise be cooking over open fires that cause respiratory and environmental damage by releasing greenhouse gases and soot.”
Packaging
Marley Spoon is setting the goal to have all packaging in each box be curbside recyclable by the end of 2025. Currently any soft plastic packaging in a box can be taken to a RedCycle drop off point for example at Woolworths stores. As the network of appropriate recycling facilities and understanding of soft plastic recycling increases, Marley Spoon is working to create solutions that make the process simple and convenient for all Australians.
The company is a member of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO. It has achieved packaging and recycling milestones both in the box and at its production facilities, Weber said.
Last year, Marley Spoon worked with suppliers to replace all shipments of food in cardboard boxes to crates. Nearly 600,000 crates are now being used in rotation amongst suppliers, completely removing single-use packaging from the supply chain.
Sustainable sourcing
Marley Spoon has a ‘local first’ policy and works with local farmers and suppliers wherever possible. The policy means that any new ingredients added to the menu need to be made or grown in Australia.
Every element is taken into consideration when engaging with potential suppliers, including water, energy, soil management, diversity, carbon footprint and animal welfare.
The only time internationally produced ingredients feature in a Marley Spoon box is due to the high quality of certain products from their native regions, e.g. coconut milk, chipotle chillies, and gochujang.
In 2020, Marley Spoon began a partnership with Ardmona Tomatoes, reducing the carbon emissions created by international imports, creating new opportunities to serve customers more of Australia’s best, sustainably grown produce and supporting the Australian economy.
Since launching, Marley Spoon has only served free-range chicken as part of the Better Chicken Commitment.
Food waste
The supply chain of meal kits means the company orders what they need to fill customer orders, meaning there is no over-ordering and less than one per cent of food is wasted and anything that isn’t delivered to customers is donated to food rescue organisation OzHarvest. Last year 325,000kg of food was donated to OzHarvest, providing almost one million meals to underserved communities, the company said.
Since it launched six years ago, Marley Spoon said it has managed to maintain a waste rate of less than 1 per cent, despite increasing the number of orders in 2020 by more than 90 per cent.
“Being a sustainably conscious company is more than just recycling and reducing waste; being a sustainable business or organisation is all about consistently improving,” Weber said.
“Our business model already helps customers easily act sustainability through reducing food waste and working with sustainability-focused suppliers. As we grow, we need to continue to ensure we’re delivering a product that not only fills a need in their lifestyle, but also allows them to easily live their lives sustainably.
“I am a member of Leaders for Climate Action, which I take seriously as an individual and as a business leader. It’s on all of us to contribute and make a difference, so we encourage our teams to find new solutions to a very old problem.
“We are working closely with our partners like APCO and OzHarvest to ensure that we’re not only making positive changes in our business and for our customers but also the wider global community.”
