TabeCoop

Part of

Sustainability

From Plate to Planet: Sustainable Restaurant Owners’ Co-op

MA 2024

Keywords

Sustainability, Food Waste, Japan, Cooperative

Overview

“You have to taste a culture to understand it.” - Deborah Cater, British travel and food blogger.

In Japan, food waste in restaurants has become a significant issue that can no longer be ignored. TabeCoop is essentially a community initiative for Japanese independent restaurant owners, aiming to incentivize them to take a step back, consider food waste management and create a sustainable food chain.

Collaboration

We are partnered with the DLX Design Lab at the University of Tokyo, which is developing a bio-composting machine that uses Black Soldier Flies to convert food waste into organic fertilizer.

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Problems

· Around 1.5 million tons of food are wasted in Japanese restaurants annually.

· Approximately 80% of this food waste is not recycled in Japan.

· The Japanese government has already spent about 15 billion pounds to address these issues.

Despite this, independent restaurant owners in Japan struggle to manage food waste on their own due to the complexity of the process. They are often too overwhelmed with the daily operations of their businesses to consider food waste management. Additionally, most independent restaurants—about 500,000—are not obligated to recycle food waste under Japanese food recycling laws, creating a significant blind spot in the industry.

Research In Japan

To gather practical insights, we conducted a prototype study in Japan with a restaurant owner. From this, we gained valuable insights. For instance, restaurant owners prioritize relationships with farmers over other owners because they want to know exactly who benefits from their efforts to address food waste. Interestingly, we also discovered that restaurant owners place a high value on the atmosphere of their restaurants.

Our Mission

How might we incentivize restaurant owners to improve food waste management by adopting bio-composting technology in order to contribute to the sustainable food chain?

Service Model

TabeCoop, a cooperative, serves as a community for restaurant owners. Unlike a traditional company, a cooperative aims not only for profit but also for mutual support. Through TabeCoop, restaurant owners can learn about food waste management step by step and use a bio-composting machine provided by our partner to turn food waste into fertilizer. This organic fertilizer is then sold at a lower price to farmers who are also Coop members. Farmers, in turn, sell their produce back to the restaurants at fair prices, creating a sustainable loop within the local ecosystem.

Value Proposition

How does TabeCoop incentivize restaurant owners to address food waste?

· TabeCoop offers an easy-to-implement and sophisticated bio-composting machine without efforts provided and managed by our partner.

· TabeCoop facilitates direct connections between restaurant owners and local farmers, ensuring fresh ingredients and fair deals.

· TabeCoop offers green certification which boosts restaurants’ reputation in the long run, attracting eco-conscious customers.

SPECIAL
THANKS

We are grateful to our tutor Federico Vaz for his valuable feedbacks, continuous support and encouragement throughout the project.

DISCLAIMER

This project is solely for academic purposes, with no commercial intent, and will not be commercialized or practically applied. All outcomes will be strictly used for academic purposes only.

Team

Hiroyuki Okuda

[email protected]

+447708770525

Portfolio

Approved

Jiuhou Liu

[email protected]

7544579268

Portfolio

Approved