These local businesses help you live greener, creating jobs while they're at it

“Ten million tonnes of food that’s being wasted. And that’s 34 to 40% of all food produced in South Africa that never ends up on the table,” said Jakob Holbak, the founder of Refreshi, an app-based food rescue initiative.

“Our mission is to save food from going to waste in South Africa.”

Hunger and food insecurity are significant issues in South African urban areas, driven by poverty, unemployment, inequality and rising food prices.

Refreshi is a digital platform on which users can buy surplus food from supermarkets, coffee shops, bakeries, restaurants and hotels at discounted prices in the form of “surprise bags”. A surprise bag is typically 1kg of food that would have gone to waste if it were left on the shelves for a few days longer.

“No one would want to eat waste,” said Holbak, “so we have stopped calling it that because it is surplus food. Nothing has expired. And it’s something that the store would have sold at full price during the day. It just happens that the store is about to close.”

Holbak and his team — he employs 11 people — launched the app and platform in March. Since then, they have grown the Refreshi community to more than 95,000 active users and over 280 partners across South Africa, including in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Gqeberha and George.

“We started with a pilot in Stellenbosch, working very closely with the university, its faculty and student residences,” said Holbak.

Before the app was launched, he presented Refreshi as an idea to student residences in Stellenbosch.

“Typically, the original price is between R100 and R150. That’s the value you get in the bag, and typically, three or four or five items. And what you will pay is often between R49 and R69. And sometimes you’re even lucky that the store has more, and they will just fill the bag to the top.

“To date, we have saved over 600 meals daily through a Surprise Bag model,” said Holbak.

Kate Tonkin, a Stellenbosch University student, told Daily Maverick she first heard about Refreshi when Holbak came to talk to their residence during a welcoming activity about food insecurity.

“I immediately loved the concept, and I still think it ticks all my boxes, being socially beneficial, environmentally helpful, a fun little adventure, and it’s a bargain.

“Knowing I have a Refreshi bag of surprises waiting for me at the end of the day really gives me something to look forward to. My roommate and I always have an unboxing ceremony,” said Tonkin.

The app has ESG (environmental, social, and governance) reporting built into it, where customers can see their positive impact on the environment improve with each Surprise Bag they save.

“Our goal is to save millions of meals yearly,” said Holbak. “People often feel like an environmental issue is beyond their control or above their pay grade, but this can help them play a role and feel good about that.

“If you look at food waste, it’s actually responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. And if you look at the airline industry, it’s responsible for 4%. There is also a lot of talk about flying less — which is equally important —  but waste is actually 2½ times worse than flying.”

Challenges

Holbak says his two biggest challenges have been getting the app up and running correctly and convincing stores to join the app and prepare the bags daily.

“Initially, we tried to send them emails. But these guys are not much on emails. They don’t reply much. If you give them a phone call, they have thousands of people calling them every day,” said Holbak.

When digital communication failed, Holbak went to the stores physically, asking for the owner and pitching the app. “And if they’re open to the idea, we can put them on the next day. It takes half an hour and then they’re up and running,”

Green jobs 

Much like Holbak, more South African entrepreneurs and companies are creating sustainable business models that create green jobs.

Gugu McLaren-Ushewokunze is the head of social transformation and economic inclusion at the National Business Initiative (NBI), which has helped create jobs in the green economy for more than three decades.

McLaren-Ushewokunze said green jobs are the future, with the public gaining greater awareness of sustainability, which is near the top of the business and government agendas.

“We have always worked at ensuring that the private sector is active, is participating, is contributing towards our socioeconomic and environmental issues and challenges,” she said.

Their latest programme trains young people in sectors such as renewable energy.

McLaren-Ushewokunze said the NBI aims to help small to medium enterprises identify economic opportunities within the green economy and upskill the workforce for green jobs.

“The NBI published, a few years ago, the climate and just transition pathways, which mapped out across industries what it means to transition, and what it will take. We then understood that the skills element is critically important and launched the JET Skilling for Employment Programme, which is our response to ensuring that we have a good understanding of what those green jobs are.”

One beneficiary of the programme is Rixile Mbungele (29) from Mbaula Village in Limpopo, who currently lives in Alexandra, Johannesburg.

“When I applied for the programme, I was unemployed, looking for something to do with my hands, as I love doing things with my hands. I was in the process of completing my [Higher Certificate in Animal Welfare] at Unisa,” said Mbungele.

She discovered NBI’s solar panel installation programme through a friend who had recently installed solar panels at their home.

“The programme provided comprehensive training on solar panel installation, which enabled me to secure a job in the renewable energy sector. I’m currently an employee at Amandla Africa Energy as a solar maintainer or solar cleaner, a company that works with NBI.”

Mbungele said her goal was to be an entrepreneur in the green commerce space.

“I applied the skills and knowledge I gained from the programme to install solar panels for residential and commercial clients, reducing their energy costs and carbon footprint.” DM