We are more than 5000 FoodLovers sharing the dream of iFood to feed the future of the world. We believe that thanks to the power of technology, we can create a more prosperous, sustainable and inclusive world, where everyone has good opportunities and education.
But to understand how technology can help with this goal, it's worth taking a step back and talking about how iFood reinvented itself over the last year in pursuit of this dream.
Responsibilities beyond our business
In recent months, we have seen the world adapt to a new reality due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In this context, iFood has become an essential service for Brazilians and our ecosystem: we help restaurants to stay open and active, preserving thousands of jobs across the country; we provided support and more security so that delivery people could remain on the streets, guaranteeing their income; and we allowed our customers to receive their orders in the safety of their homes.
In this scenario, it became increasingly evident that the growth of iFood brought us great responsibilities towards society and the world. In addition to the economic impact, we also raise awareness of the environment, as we know that we have an impact on city traffic and the production of disposable packaging. Therefore, our delivery needed to be greater and with a positive impact on society and the environment.
Growing with awareness
The EMI — Education, Environment and Inclusion project was born in line with this purpose, as it brings together a series of initiatives aimed at achieving the objective of being a corporate citizen that generates positive environmental and social impacts.
iFood wants to feed the future of the world through Education, Environment and Inclusion
O iFood Takes Off, on the Education front, hopes to train more than 5 million people through technology in 5 years, in addition to training and employing 25 thousand low-income people in technology, reducing the technological blackout in the country. Already with the iFood Regenerates We want to eliminate plastic pollution in delivery and regenerate all carbon emissions in the environment, emitted by deliveries. And finally, with the iFood Includes, we want to correct historical debts, encouraging plurality and collaboration where everyone will have equal opportunities.
Technology as a fundamental ingredient
Now that you know our purpose and motivations, let's talk about how technology can be an important ingredient to fuel the future we desire.
The answer is simple. We want to be a global reference in sustainability and create a more inclusive and equal world. Even with several impactful actions, we will be more efficient if we encourage and engage iFood consumers and partners to live this dream with us. And it is through technology that we will scale this dream and make it possible!
To stimulate engagement through technology, a group of FoodLovers from the areas of Product, Design, Technology It is Business came together to propose improvements and advances in the iFood app. Our challenge was to talk to consumers, map the main opportunities and understand how the application could be a facilitator for more sustainable choices for consumers and even partners, creating incentives for the ecosystem to adopt sustainable attitudes in their lives and in their businesses.
We decided that we would carry out this process using the Design Sprint, a methodology created by Google that helps solve problems. In theory, the Design Sprint takes place over 5 days, a period in which we are challenged to discover, define, sketch, decide, prototype and validate an idea. But our approach was to use these 6 phases as a guide during the weeks we had to create the EMI vision in the app.
6 phases of the Design Sprint
However, we weren't leaving from scratch, as through the app it is possible to make donations to some NGOs and even choose not to receive disposable items, such as cutlery, straws and napkins through restaurants. Friends of Nature.
During the Design Sprint, we understood that we needed to enhance these initiatives mentioned above, in addition to giving more visibility to the iFood consumer about the actions being carried out by the company on EMI issues.
The first one that gained a lot of attention in the app was the neutralization of carbon emissions in our deliveries.
CO2, is it crazy?
Since July 1, 2021, all orders placed through iFood have had their deliveries neutralized in carbon emissions. This is being made possible due to the purchase of the carbon credit token, in partnership with the Brazilian environmental startup Moss, which allocates part of the resources invested to environmental preservation projects in the Amazon Forest.
During the month of July, we made changes to the app to impact consumers on this topic. Our objective was to provide visibility that he would receive his order without causing pollution to the environment, specifically talking about the CO2 generated by deliveries. The team of Craft, which is responsible for our visual identity, created proposals that permeated the customer's journey through the app. Starting with the animation when the app opens, with green leaves in the iFood logo.
When completing their purchase, the customer was impacted by two elements on the post-order screen: a new green icon, which refers to a sheet and which accompanies the delivery person during his journey, and a banner that directs him to more details about the initiative. And when the order is ready for delivery, the customer now receives the notification “That’s it! Your order is ready for delivery and we have already compensated for carbon emissions.”
Changes to the iFood app that gave visibility to CO2-neutral orders
The campaign was a success! In the first few days, we appeared during halftime of the game on Globo talking about the project, we were featured in major media players and were mentioned by several digital influencers. In the app, consumers could see this story reflected in their purchases. A very well orchestrated work by the Communication and EMI teams, which involved teams of Product, Design, Craft, Technology, Social media, PR, in addition to the fronts of Experience (People, Driver, Customer It is Restaurant).
These examples come to show that we are at the beginning of a story that is still being written. We already know how it ends! What we need now is to make technology continue to work in our favor so that we can generate the impact we hope for and be able to fuel the future of the world.
