savori - social cooking platform for FOODprint reduction
savori is a social cooking platform that enables food waste reduction and promotes sustainable food choices. Users share their recipes and creations, and are awarded virtual trophies for mindful consumption, building a sense of accomplishment and reward. On the other hand, the community offers a glimpse into various eating habits, making low-FOODprint diets more approachable. Moreover, savori intelligently finds recipes for using leftover ingredients and offers an ingredient management feature. It’s available on the App Stores and the web, currently supporting both German and English.
Who are the people behind the project and what is your background?
My name is Tim and I am the solo founder of savori. I am a software engineer in the robotics field with 8+ years of experience from NASA JPL, Disney Research, GoPro and Leica Geosystems (current employer). Working part time allowed me to work on savori (formerly UseUp) for several months. I participated in the Impact Hub Basel Incubator program in 2022, where I received expert coaching. This allowed me to refine the initial app’s concept significantly, which lead to the rebranding to savori.
How did your idea come into being?
As someone who cherishes the beauty of nature and enjoys spending time outdoors, I have gradually become more concerned about climate change. Driven by an urge to contribute something to solve today’s challenges, I have asked myself how I can utilize my skills, and combine my interests to make a positive impact. Interestingly, I didn't have to search far for an answer. Our dietary choices have a significant influence on climate change. I believe our diet is an area of life where even small changes in our habits can have a significant effect on a larger scale. With this belief in mind, I created savori.
What is your idea to impactfully design a climate positive FOODprint for Switzerland?
The savori platform is built upon three core concepts: rewarding sustainable food choices, fostering community exchange, and providing tools for food waste reduction. Users within our community share their culinary creations and receive trophies as recognition for cooking seasonally, locally, zero waste, and embracing vegetarian or vegan options. This approach highlights and rewards sustainable choices, promoting a positive sense of accomplishment. Additionally, the community offers a glimpse into the eating habits of others, making sustainable choices more approachable and inspiring. Furthermore, savori includes features for ingredient management and a smart recipe search, assisting users in utilizing leftover ingredients creatively. Similar to messaging apps like Signal or Telegram, savori will be monetized through voluntary and/or premium membership fees.
How do you define the positive impact of your solution on the problem described above?
Savori aspires to become the distinguished platform that inspires and promotes sustainable food choices, guiding individuals towards adopting plant-based, seasonal, locally sourced, and zero food waste diets. Alongside sharing meals, the app allows users to mark ingredients as used up vs. wasted. This data is then compared against statistical information on current dietary and consumption patterns from Switzerland. Such a comparison serves two purposes: to validate the overall impact of savori and to provide individuals with personalized insights on areas of improvement in reducing their FOODprint.
