GoNiña - Zero Waste, Maximum Taste
Every year, 1/3rd of the world's food production - that's 1.3 billion tonnes - is wasted, accounting for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. GoNiña aims to dramatically reduce this by providing a platform for vendors to sell their surplus food to consumers at a discount, as well as by providing smart demand forecasts that minimise waste at its source.
Who are the people behind the project and what is your background?
We're a trio passionate about climate tech:
Aleksandar founded Positive Tech and is an expert in mobile & frontend development. He has a Software Engineering degree from Novi Sad.
Ferdinand co-founded edtech start-up GoStudent and is in charge of backend, data & infrastructure. He graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree from ETH Zurich.
Matthieu headed Strategy and M&A at SaaS start-up Smallpdf and wears all non-tech hats. He holds Business degrees from St. Gallen & Rotterdam.
How did your idea come into being?
Confronted with the immense environmental impact of food waste, we identified that existing platforms which offer surplus food to consumers were falling short of expectations.
Vendors we interviewed were unhappy with the lack of flexibility and high fees, while users grappled with a poor mobile experience, which both lead to unnecessary food waste.
Frustrated with these limitations, we were motivated to conceive GoNiña - a fairer, more efficient platform to address food waste, which leverages AI to predict consumer demand and tackle food waste at its source.
What is your idea to impactfully design a climate positive FOODprint for Switzerland?
At GoNiña, we believe the heart of a sustainable future lies in changing our everyday habits.
We contribute to this vision by enabling consumers to make it easy to save food on a daily basis, by treating our partners fairly and investing into long-term relationships, by building a community with shared goals, and by leveraging technology such as AI-based demand predictions to turn this vision to reality as soon as possible.
How do you define the positive impact of your solution on the problem described above?
We measure our impact by the amount of food waste prevented, which translates into a reduction in CO2e emissions.
In our first year, we aim to onboard a total of 1'000 vendors. At ~50 meals saved per vendor per month and assuming linear growth, we anticipate saving ~300'000 meals in the next 12 months. This equates to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 750'000 kg of CO2e.
