September 12th, 2023 — An immense amount of valuable goods end up as waste, with dramatic societal, economic, and environmental consequences. When garbage trucks haul food, medicine, and supplies past shelters and after school programs in need of resources to instead deposit them miles away into landfills, not only do people in need go without, but it creates a direct and avoidable climate impact: the machinery to haul garbage and maintain landfills emits greenhouse gasses, the waste decomposing in the landfill gives off methane, and the disposed product represents an entire chain of embodied emissions that provided no value. It is a failure to efficiently use our energy and natural resources that reverberates up and down the supply chain.
The economic magnitude of this waste is staggering. Take food alone: ReFED estimated that surplus food accounted for $441B in waste in the United States in 2021. To be sure, companies do not forgo the value present in their waste out of laziness or malice. They do so because it can be complicated and expensive to find partners who can receive their goods, and to deliver those goods safely.
Through its surplus redistribution and tracking platform, Copia empowers companies and organizations to easily distribute hard-to-donate goods, earn tax deductions from their donations that can make every donation profitable, and effectively track their waste to improve future procurement. To date, Copia has proven its model through an initial focus on hard-to-donate food surplus and is positioned to expand its market and its impact exponentially by facilitating the donation of hygiene products, over-the-counter medicines, household goods, clothing, and more.
Redistributing and reducing waste is a single action with a triple value proposition
Redistributing surplus and reducing waste directly improves organizations’ bottom line. When organizations donate their surplus, they’re able to claim enhanced tax deductions. And because Copia helps companies better track waste as they make their donations, the insights its platform provides let organizations make better informed and cost-efficient procurement decisions.
Redistributing and reducing waste also directly reduces an organization's greenhouse gas emissions. Every pound of waste a company or individual sends to a US landfill generates an average of 3.5 pounds of CO2 equivalent. Food and other organic waste play an outsized role in total emissions, because as it decomposes it emits the potent greenhouse gas methane. In part because of this, municipal solid waste landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, according to the US EPA.
Companies using Copia also see a boost in employee engagement, as they become active participants in turning waste into value for their community. Similarly, because Copia facilitates local donations and provides companies with details on where their goods are donated, it creates a seamless way for organizations to highlight how they positively impact their communities.
A focused approach creates clear differentiation while tackling a massive market opportunity
According to the US EPA, Americans generated over 294 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2018, the equivalent of 4.9 pounds per person per day. A challenge of this magnitude requires a vast range of different solutions.
Instead of moving up and down the supply chain to serve producers or end-use customers, Copia is focused strategically on helping food service, retailers and other consumer-facing organizations redistribute their hard-to-donate valuable goods within their communities.
This lets Copia focus on what it does best - matching goods with local nonprofits who are well positioned to receive them in a timely manner - while still serving a massive market.
Copia uses data, algorithms, and integrations to make hard donations easy
Underpinning Copia’s offering is a recipient agency database and matching algorithm that allows users of its platform to match their donation with a local recipient. To date, Copia has achieved a 99% match rate while serving over 500 distinct locations across 42 states.
Copia’s intuitive front-end user experience makes it easy for users to categorize their waste, schedule donations, track their tax write-offs, analyze how they can improve their procurement, and pull statistics for their annual impact reports.
Copia also integrates with third-party delivery providers. This allows it to provide reliable delivery service across the country without investing in its own delivery fleet.
Powerhouse Ventures is proud to join Copia’s $4M seed round, led by Branded Strategic and Third Nature with additional participation from Woven Earth Ventures. We look forward to working with CEO Kimberly Smith, the rest of Copia’s leadership, and the entire Copia team to turn corporations’ hard-to-donate surplus into value.
Special thanks to Marie Thompson, Gabe Cuadra, and Sam Wohlforth.
To read more about our work at Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures, visit our Insights page.