Escape 100 Winner Spotlight: Too Good To Go

The Escape 100 is back for a fourth year! Our campaign aims to shine a light on the organisations doing things differently: the ones that really are progressive, mission-oriented and care about the people in their teams and the planet around them.

To mark the launch of our big annual campaign, we’ve been looking back at organisations that won last year (P.S. You can still apply with your organisation by Tues. 6 June - more info here).

Our top-ranking organisation of the whole list was Too Good To Go, a free app fighting food waste where you can find surplus food from local shops and restaurants to buy at a reduced price. They gained an incredible average score of 9.8/10 from their employee reviews. We caught up with Co-Founder Jamie Crummie to get the inside scoop on life at Too Good To Go and reflect on what it means to be an Escape 100 winner.

"We have big goals and high standards at Too Good To Go, but we’re always looking to “raise the bar” (another one of our values!). The Escape 100 is a great way to reflect on our plans and check in on what we’re trying to achieve...If you're thinking of applying, just go for it!".

Firstly congratulations on being an Escape 100 winner in 2021! Can you give us a brief introduction to Too Good To Go and your role at the company?

I am the co-founder of Too Good To Go, the world’s largest marketplace for surplus food. The app lets consumers buy unsold food from restaurants and retailers so that it doesn’t go to waste. 

Now, thousands of Magic Bags are rescued from businesses such as supermarkets, restaurants, and bakeries every day. The success of the app powers our wider efforts to drive a food waste movement, working with schools, industries and governments to build a planet-friendly food system.

What makes you proudest to work at Too Good To Go? 

That we’re actually making a difference in the fight against food waste. The rate at which Too Good To Go has grown shows that the solution works and I’m proud to have been instrumental in getting us here. 

In the UK, since launching, we have signed over 17,000 partner businesses onto the app and together our users have rescued over 8 million meals from going to waste. That’s an incredible amount! By saving these meals, we’ve saved a whopping 20,000 tonnes of CO2e which is the equivalent carbon footprint produced by 3,937 around the world flights or 121 years of continuous hot showering! 

When you look at our impact globally it’s even more incredible. We’ve saved just over 111 million meals (and counting!) across the 17 countries we operate in across Europe and North America. In doing so, we’ve saved the CO2e equivalent as that emitted yearly by 32,647 people. 

Did the process of the Escape 100 application help to identify your organisation’s core values, or help celebrate certain successes? If so, what were these? 

We’re proud of Too Good To Go’s values and the behaviours and actions they encourage us to take every single day. For instance, one of our values is “We Build a Legacy”. This helps us to focus on the long term impact we’re making, share important learnings with each other, and celebrate the successes and achievements we make. So in this way, completing the Escape 100 application was us living these values and acknowledging the legacy we’re building every day.

On the other hand, were there any gaps or areas for improvement that the Escape 100 process helped you to identify? If so, have the development of these areas been part of Too Good To Go’s journey over the past year?

We have big goals and high standards at Too Good To Go, but we’re always looking to “raise the bar” (another one of our values!). The Escape 100 is a great way to reflect on our plans and check in on what we’re trying to achieve.

There has been so much going on over the past couple of years that has affected people, organisations and the world. Has Too Good To Go changed during this period and if so, how has it evolved?

The pandemic has had a huge impact on our business. We work with restaurants, retailers and producers, and many of these have been forced to close or scale back at multiple times over the last year. We have had to adapt and ensure that we have been able to inspire and empower everyone to fight food waste so that it hasn’t dropped off the agenda. Whether looking to prevent food waste further up the supply chain or working with partners for ad hoc surplus, we’ve been able to become much more agile to fight food waste wherever we can. 

This agility has filtered through to the way we work as a team as well. We’ve rarely been able to be all together over the past year due to various restrictions and this has changed things. We’ve recognised that we don’t need to be in the office every day so have changed our policy in this regard. And, on top of this, our culture is very important so we have made sure that we’re able to remain connected through regular all-team meetings online, cross-team collaboration and social events so that we can celebrate our successes together wherever each employee might be. 

We realised quickly that what worked before might not work now so by listening to the team we’ve brought wellbeing to the front and centre. We have more Mental Health First Aiders, organised numerous things to get people physically active during the winter months, reduced screen time, and encouraged a healthy work/life balance even when there has been less for us all to do with our lives out of work. 

What piece of advice would you give to other organisations that are hoping to be in the running for The Escape 100 in 2023? 

Just go for it! 

For more information and to apply to the Escape 100 2023 click here (deadline: Tuesday 6 June). The highest scoring 100 organisations will benefit from an accreditation, visibility, benchmarking insights and a prize package! Plus it’s free, so why not give it a go!