Áplat makes completely zero waste culinary design products. Focused on the art of sharing memories and stories around food and gathering, their food, wine, and garden carriers are made locally in San Francisco. Founded with zero waste in mind, owner and designer Shu takes her experience from her work in Silicon Valley to the sustainable market.
Relying on geometrical principles and golden ratios, Áplat makes use of an origami folding design to minimize fabric waste. Using squares and rectangles, the design process eliminates negative spaces, and achieves virtually zero offcut fabric remnants.
Using organic cotton and low impact dyeing methods, products are made in small batches, avoiding overproduction and surplus. Any extra fabric scraps are used for packing and shipping materials, upcycled into new products, or sent to a local recycling company that transforms them into insulation materials. Áplat also hosts repair and reuse workshops in their design studio to educate customers and promote circularity in everyday life.
Vermont based Bee’s Wrap is working to eliminate common plastics in the kitchen by offering a natural alternative for food storage. Their compostable, reusable, wraps are made locally in Vermont in a mostly renewable run facility. In addition, their products aim to decrease food waste by making food storage more accessible.
Their unique wraps aim to replace plastic wrap and bags, made out of GOTS organic cotton, responsibly sourced beeswax, organic plant oil, and tree resin. They also offer a vegan option that replaces the beeswax with candelilla and soy wax, organic coconut oil, and tree resin.
At Bee’s Wrap, they believe sustainability starts at home and in the office. On Wednesdays, employees take part in a zero waste lunch, even giving food scraps to coworkers' chickens. Bee’s Wrap also takes to lobbying for governmental reduction of single use plastics, and gives staff paid voting time off. Given the endangered nature and vulnerable state of the bee population, Bee’s Wrap invests in nonprofits educating students and community members on environmentally friendly ways to protect bees.
Sunbasket is working to eliminate food waste by bringing consumers quick, healthy, and sustainably sourced food. Grocery store shopping generates 33% more carbon emissions than meal kit delivery, and by providing specific ingredient sizes tailored to fit the recipe exactly, Sunbasket ensures no food goes to waste. Accommodating to a variety of dietary needs, Sunbasket has paleo, carb-conscious, gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free, vegetarian, pescetarian, mediterranean, and diabetes-friendly meals.
Sunbasket sources their ingredients from ethical, local farms, and adheres to a strict set of animal welfare guidelines. Their weekly rotating menus feature in season products, negating the need for international, carbon intensive shipments of out of season ingredients. They use 99% USDA certified organic produce, eggs, and yogurt, as well as wild-caught or sustainably-raised seafood following guidelines set by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program. Pasture-raised meats are preferred, and are always antibiotic and hormone free. Meal kits arrive at customers doors in reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging. Reclaimed denim and recycled paper makes up the insulation needed to keep products at the proper temperature.
Sunbasket also aims to support their local communities through food bank donations, and recently established their Feed it Forward program, sending meals to frontline pandemic workers, cancer patients, and populations facing food insecurity. They also offer employees a chance to take home surplus produce and vegetables in weekly farmers markets.
Vejo is making access to high quality nutrients convenient, quick, and sustainable. Pioneering the world’s first pod based blender, Vejo is eliminating food and water waste using its unique model. The rechargeable and reusable model serves as an all in one blender, bottle, and drinking cup, minimizing water use and washing cycles. Pods are made from corn and other biodegradable, renewable materials, and filled with freeze dried fruits and vegetables.
The freeze dried process extends products shelf life, and conserves food that is energy intensive to make. Less packaging is required due to the lower volume, and the weight of ingredients is much lighter than non-freeze dried ingredients, allowing products to be transported with fewer emissions. Vejo isn’t picky about the aesthetic appearance of ingredients, saving imperfect produce from being wasted.
Recently, they have launched their Nourish Our Heroes program giving blenders and pods to frontline workers during the pandemic in Los Angeles.
Seattle-based family-owned and operated coffee brand, Grounds for Change, specializes in Fair Trade, organic coffee roasted in small batches. Coffee is a complex and corrupt industry, and Grounds for Change is working to mitigate adverse effects the industry perpetuates.
Grounds for change uses 100% renewable energy for its facilities, and offsets all its carbon emissions completely with tree planting, being 100% carbon-free. All organic waste from coffee grounds, filters, and food scraps is composted, minimising food waste and landfill disposal. Recycling is crucial to the brand's sustainability efforts, as they donate empty burlap coffee bags to local organic farmers for weed suppression and erosion control, as well as their coffee chaffs which can be used as nitrogen-rich soil additions.
The brand is Fair Trade certified, ensuring farmers receive fair wages and working conditions, as well as mandating a portion of their proceeds go to social and business development products benefiting employee communities.
Partnering with a variety of environmental non-profits such as the Rainforest Trust, Save our Wild Salmon, Global Partnerships, Grounds for Change seeks to channel their wealth into positive impacts.
