nd into more states. “Our strategy here in Australia is to get validity in the market through the IGA network, because they’ve got some great stores in great areas where we can really make a difference, especially to mum-and-dad operators,” Gander Australia co-founder Tim Brown told Inside Retail.  “It helps them to provide something that can help to grow the bottom line, while also introducing an extra sustainability measure into their business.” What a waste Food waste is a huge issue. In fact, climate action group Wrap estimates that it results in around $39 billion in economic losses each year in Australia, not including social or environmental costs. The issue isn’t just exacerbated by customers tossing their scraps, but from supermarkets rejecting oddly shaped fruits and vegetables as well.  In 2017, the Australian Government vowed to halve Australia’s food waste by 2030 by way of the National Food Waste Strategy. But the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed that goal further away, with Australian households estimated to have wasted more than $21 billion worth of food across 2020 and 2021, according to Rabobank’s annual Food Waste Report.  It’s a problem that needs action across government, industry and the community – and it’s one that Gander, which first launched in the UK in 2019, is keen to tackle in Australia. However, it requires a slightly different approach.  The grocery sector in the UK is largely made up of smaller, community-style stores, with larger supermarkets few and far between. In Australia, however, large chain supermarkets are the norm – with an especially concentrated grocery sector made up of few competitors. This has led to a different operating model. The UK business operates on a subscription basis, whereas the Australian business is free for consumers to join, but supermarkets are charged per item they advertise.  “All supermarkets are becoming more data driven, and it’s a fact that they’re using all sorts of technology to try to better understand how their customers are shopping,” Brown said. “The major guys also like to keep things in-house, and that’s fine, but they’re really only selling to their own customers. We provide a platform that can bring people outside a brand’s customer base into their store based on their location.” Tech-based tactics Gander is the latest in a number of tech-based solutions that have launched in an attempt  to help the Australian retail sector shake off its unsustainable practices.  Another solution, Greener, is set to launch later this year and aims to partner with businesses to help shoppers to offset the carbon emissions of online orders, while also pushing them to purchase more environmentally friendly  options.  “If we’re going to drive real impact, we need to drive mainstream consumers to some of these businesses,” Greener founder Tom Ferrier recently told Inside Retail. “We’ve secured over 250 pre-launch partners, and we’re really lucky because we’re getting fantastic brands buying into the idea.” The allure of tech-based solutions to such problems, Brown explained, is the fact that they tend to be low-cost and highly-scalable.  Rather than investing in cost-prohibitive in-store measures, or specialised machinery, scaling a software-based solution across a large store network is a much easier endeavour.  “It’s just another bolt-on, which in Gander’s case is specifically catered to waste. Most of the supermarkets have a 2030 plan to be zero-waste and zero-emissions, but it’s going to be hard to do that,” Brown said. “But we really believe that something like [Gander will help]. And technology is allowing us to do that.”