A. Exploratory research

Project 1: BARCODISCOUNT

  1. Project carriers

    2. Institution: National Taipei University of Technology

  2. Beneficiaries

    3. Staff at fresh produce supermarkets (Cashiers, Replenishment and system backend management) , Customers

  3. Users

    4. Staff at fresh produce supermarkets

  4. Need

    5. Fresh produce supermarkets avoid wasting ingredients by promoting products that are close to their shelf life. However, supermarket staff need to manually apply discount stickers at fixed points in time to promote products nearing their expiry dates. This process is both time-consuming and labour-intensive. It is also easy for counter staff to overlook entering discounts when customers are at the checkout. If the colour of the discount could be changed on the same sticker according to a set time, there would be no need to stick the sticker repeatedly.

  5. Principle

    6. The "Barcodiscount" colour-changing label will change colour within a set time frame. The discounts offered are changed by time and colour. The discounted price is scanned directly by the counter staff at the checkout. Timing is activated at the same time when the label is applied with the handheld labeller.

  6. Main technologies involved

    7. The main focus is on colour-changing technology. It is difficult to achieve a double layer of colour change and printing. This project is to do a fixed single colour change in overlapping areas of colour to achieve a two colour change effect.

  7. Sources

    8. https://www.jamesdysonaward.org/en-GB/2020/project/barcodiscount/

Project 2: Too Good To Go

  1. Project carriers

    2. The company was created in 2015 in Denmark by Brian Christensen, Thomas Bjørn Momsen, Stian Olesen, Klaus Bagge Pedersen, and Adam Sigbrand. In 2017, Mette Lykke (co-founder of Endomondo) joined as CEO.

  2. Beneficiaries

    3. Households,Businesses,Schools

  3. Users

    4. Around 38,000 partners(Busiensses), and more than 36 million users(Individuals).

  4. Need

    5. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), approximately US$2.6 trillion worth of food is wasted globally every year. Too good to go sells food at a low price, avoiding food waste, reducing carbon emissions and helping businesses to gain potential customers and broaden their market.

  5. Principle

    6. Too Good To Go primarily matches app users with restaurants - users can buy leftover food from restaurants through the app. Users can get this food at a lower price than regular takeaways, as restaurants are happy to sell food that would otherwise be discarded at a discount. Also, the Magic Box feature is an innovation and for consumers, the contents of the "Magic Box" are a surprise - you won't know what's in it until you have it in your hands. For the user, it not only allows people to eat at a cheaper price, but also contributes to reducing food waste; for restaurants, bakeries, cafes and other businesses, the app helps to reduce food waste in the shop and also allows businesses to gain potential new customers, so to speak, and expand the consumer market.

  6. Main technologies involved

    7. The use of APIs connects supply and demand and scales, for example Uber connects drivers to travellers. Airbnb connects landlords to tourists. And Too Good To Go connects restaurants and shops with leftover food to hungry people.

  7. Sources

    8. https://toogoodtogo.org/en
    https://www.chinaz.com/2020/0728/1163798.shtml

Project 3: XIAOHUANGGOU

  1. Project carriers

    2. CEO:Zeming Wang,
    COO:Yinan Wang,
    CFO:Zhengfeng Xia,
    Vice President: Pengcheng Zhao, Yiru Wang,
    Director of Operations Management Centre: Yong Lv

  2. Beneficiaries

    3. Urban residents，Underprivileged areas with a lack of clothing

  3. Users

    4. Urban residents,Communities

  4. Need

    5. Figures show that around 26 million tonnes of discarded clothes are thrown into the rubbish each year in China. This figure is still climbing, and the recycling rate of discarded clothes is low.Although there are few markets for used clothes in the city, there are still many children and even adults in poor areas who lack clothing. Internet surveys show that a large number of users have expressed a desire to donate used clothes, but are just struggling to find a place to do so. Some volunteers suggest that the best way to donate is to make a targeted donation, find a reliable recipient location on the internet, wash the old clothes, and then pack and mail them to the post office. But the obvious disadvantage of this is a long process, and most people still prefer to just throw away their old clothes.

  5. Principle

    6. The emergence of its intelligent rubbish sorting and recycling machine is an important transformation of the rubbish recycling scene, adopting the "Internet of Things + Recycling" approach, setting up recycling machines with positioning functions in the community or other public areas, users can find nearby recycling machines through the mobile phone app, fixed-point drop-off and independent sorting. Free door-to-door collection of discarded clothes nationwide. As long as the clothes are intact, clean and dry, and weigh up to 5kg, you can place an appointment on your mobile phone and a courier will come to collect your old clothes for free in 400+ cities nationwide.

  6. Main technologies involved

    7. The front-end intelligent hardware products and APPs are used as service ports, relying on the back-end Internet of Things and intelligent operation systems to build a classification operation model for urban scenarios. Realize the one-stop service system of sorting and collecting, sorting and cleaning, and sorting and disposing of domestic waste, and improve the recycling rate of urban renewable resources. Facilitate the construction of smart communities and smart cities.

  7. Sources

    8. https://www.xhg.com/
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-10-18/china-s-big-fashion-problem-is-recycling-26-million-tons-of-used-clothes

Project 4: BackMarket

  1. Project carriers

    2. Co-founder & CEO: Thibaud Hug de Larauze
    Co-founder & CTO: Quentin Le Brouster
    Co Founder & CCO: Vianney Vaute

  2. Beneficiaries

    3. Professional electronics refurbisher，People who require used electronic equipment for sale， Customers who require electronic equipment，

  3. Users

    4. 1000+ refurbished manufacturers,5 million customers globally

  4. Need

    5. Worldwide a record 48.6 million tons (53.6 million metric tonnes) of e-waste was generated in 2019. The scale of the problem is only accelerating. From 2014 to 2019, global e-waste grew by 21%. Many of the materials required to make electronic devices work are toxic and hazardous and need proper disposal to ensure they don’t pose a risk to people’s health and the environment. However, in 2019 only 17.4% of discarded electronic devices were appropriately recycled. Europe leads the world in e-waste recycling at 42.5% for 2019, with Asia (11.7%) and the Americas (9.4%) lagging behind.

  5. Principle

    6. Back Market is a platform for selling refurbished electronics equipment, founded in 2014 with the aim of providing consumers with affordable and professionally refurbished electronics. Used electronics on the Back Market platform are not simply evaluated for price and sold directly, but have been refurbished by professional manufacturers - The platform screens and integrates refurbished vendors and rigorously tests the refurbished electronic equipment they offer. The platform requires all products to come with at least a one-year warranty, and consumers are also entitled to a 30-day trial period. In addition, Back Market monitors the quality of sellers' goods in real time, and in addition to customer feedback, the platform's in-house experts make weekly anonymous purchases to personally verify the quality of sellers' products.

  6. Main technologies involved

    7. Using APIs to integrate multiple platforms will connect refurbishment factories with interested consumers. There is also a need to integrate repair manufacturers around the world with information management systems to form a complete supply chain.

  7. Sources

    8. https://www.backmarket.co.uk/
    https://www.tonerbuzz.com/blog/e-waste-facts-statistics/

B. Deepening

Selected Project: Too Good To Go

  1. Carriers and actors of the project

    2. As our CEO, Mette leads a team of more than 1200 talented Waste Warriors in inspiring and empowering consumers and businesses alike to fight food waste together. That's more than 36 million app users across the world, who have collectively saved 69 million meals to date! In 2007, before joining Too Good To Go, Mette co-founded fitness community app Endomondo, with the mission of making fitness fun. The app sold to American sportswear brand Under Armour in 2015, and soon afterwards, Mette had heard of Too Good To Go and insisted on providing support to the young founder. In 2017, it became official - Mette was onboard as CEO. Mette is driven by business with a larger purpose, and building teams of talented people to make things happen. She regularly speaks on issues of food waste, leadership, entrepreneurship, business for good, and navigating the world of start-ups and scale-ups.

    Household level: To reduce daily food waste by better purchasing, storing and cooking. To bring back an understanding of the value of food.
    Corporate level: Starting with retail and food services to address food waste and losses that occur further up the food value chain.
    School level: Education aimed at the younger generation, including practice and guidance for students, with To Good To Go posters in many schools.
    Public Affairs level: The company wants to engage with the public. Influencing policy makers to ensure that the right regulatory framework is adopted to reduce food waste and make the food system more sustainable.

  2. Research question

    3. How can we make organisations and individuals collaborate effectively on the issue of food waste?

  3. The reason for choosing this project

    4. The project is based in Europe and is highly connected to our daily lives.The waste caused by the food issue is quite visible in all aspects. I also have friends who used the app，so it is easier to get feedback from users. Moreover, the collaboration model is familiar (e.g. Uber and Airbnb) and uses API technology.

User scenario

  1. Users

    2. The primary users are individuals and merchants, who use it to post information about surplus food for individual users to see, and individual users to choose according to their preferences and needs.

  2. Persona

    3. The objective of this project is firstly to target a wide range of businesses such as cafes, restaurants, bakeries, and supermarkets. An example is a bakery that does not sell a lot of bread before the end of the day and if it would be wasteful to throw it away because it would not be fresh the next day, it could post a message to sell the food at a low price. For the business, there is a profit to be made by being able to sell the food again at a lower price than by throwing it away. With the help of the project, it is possible to reduce the amount of food waste that is still edible, but not sold in the shop.
    The second goal is to save people a lot of money, and the extremely low prices on Too Good To allow people to buy things they could not afford in the past. This is especially true for the poor and students who need to control their budgets. At the same time, buyers can rate the restaurants based on the quality and quantity of food they receive, the friendliness of the staff, which makes it possible to guarantee the food they receive. And the company is also building community platforms on social media and posting events to gradually encourage people to choose sustainable consumption.

  3. Key features
  4. UX storyboard

Technical analysis

  1. General principle

    2. Eliminate information asymmetry between merchants and customers

  2. Technical overview - API version

    3. User access to store information
    Confirmation and cancellation of orders by merchants
    Order tracking
    Similar ports are also used by UberEats and Deliveroo. They provide customers with the opportunity to learn about the store and access the remaining food uploaded by the merchant.
    The API is called when the customer enters the shop page and the user can see the history of reviews of the merchant, the rating, the history of orders, etc. This information is used to present directly to the user so that they can make a personal judgement about the merchant. Use the POS Provision API to programmatically provision and launch stores with POS integration. Your registered app will authenticate the merchant with Uber Eats and request permission from the merchant to access stores on their behalf. The Store & Menu API provides the ability to manage menu items as well as store hours and status. Create, retrieve, and update menus; make changes to individual items; and set stores on and offline with the Store & Menu API endpoints. Ingest and manage incoming orders from Uber Eats with the Order API. The API includes webhooks for incoming order notifications and cancellations from Uber Eats. Retrieve, accept, deny, and cancel orders with the Order API endpoints. Use the Reporting API to request and access standardized reporting. The API includes a notification webhook once a report is completed.
    https://developer.uber.com/docs/eats/introduction

  3. Added value thanks to APIs

    4. The use of APIs brings together the parties that are mutually beneficial from a business transaction as well as those that would otherwise not meet. Each party can state what they think of the other and rate it, with scores usually ranging from one to five stars. Ratings force service providers to take responsibility for their own actions and the quality of their services