How do you define innovation?
Innovation is actually a difficult idea to define. Based on the (Merriam-webster) dictionary- “to do something in a new way” is still too broad to be useful since not all new can produce real value. So for us, It’s important to utilize the design thinking approach to innovation.  It’s all about gaining an empathic understanding of the problem and stakeholders needs as a first step. Then be challenged to think critically and out-of-the box to conceive exciting and effective solutions that give value to the problems we would like to solve. Innovation can be defined operationally in the Philippine context  as creating easily accessible, available and user-friendly solution/s to a specific issue one wants to address. 
 
How did SoilMate come about and what is innovative about the platform?
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines’  The Sustainable Diner (TSD) project has been engaging with several members of the hospitality sector eager to find green solutions to their food waste conundrums. TSD focuses on empowering companies to reduce their food waste at source, exploring the possibility of donating surplus food, and diverting unavoidable food waste from landfills. This third approach proves to be especially challenging to pull off for businesses, particularly those in urban areas. Composting has been the gold standard in managing unavoidable food waste but requires a good amount of time and space, all too often something they cannot afford. Other concerns raised included odor; hygiene and sanitation; pest control; and irregular waste collection schedules (that may exacerbate the former).

The Sustainable Diner project seeks to address these concerns by teaming up with Green Space— a company solely focused on food waste composting. Together, we have been working on SoilMate: An IT solution on food waste landfill diversion. Supported by the WWF International through the Food Practice Innovation Fund FY20, the SoilMate project has been diverting unavoidable organic wastes from the landfills to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and building healthy soil by connecting businesses and households to a composting subscription service through a mobile application.

The SoilMate Mobile Application is an innovative platform because it offers the hospitality industry and residents a jumpstart in establishing systematic links and accessing solutions to unavoidable food waste. Additionally, SoilMate:
serves as a decision-making guide for businesses seeking evidence-based solutions on resource management and waste reduction;
uses readily available technology to promote an easy-access circular economy;
provides real-time monitoring of waste diversion; and
supports social inclusion, local livelihood, and cleaner food production.

With the growing number of people accessing the Internet via smartphones and tablets, mobile app development has the unique ability to access a large number of potential consumers. This is the main purpose, to incorporate composting unavoidable food waste as part of our everyday lifestyle. The moment you hold your phone, you will remember your food waste. 

How is it different from the work WWF-Philippines normally does?
SoilMate is different in the sense that it is the first project of WWF-Philippines that uses an IT application to advance food waste diversion. Because of its highly specialized but user-friendly features, the SoilMate Mobile App encourages participation and increases awareness without going through rigorous in-person meetings and engagements, which is the best course of action amid a pandemic. 

What has been the outcome of the project?
The main outcome of the project has been the creation of this smart management solution- SoilMate app. The mobile app allows users to greenly manage their food waste through (1) different composting subscription plans, (2) hassle free book-a-bucket exchange, (3) easy account monitoring, (4) tracking your food waste generation and GHG avoidance, and (5) earning compost credits and rewards. App users can opt to donate their earned compost and Gulay bag (vegetable bag) to the partner communities from Good Food Community and garden beneficiaries from Urban Green Communes, making food waste a valuable resource instead of trash. The mobile app is now available to download in App Store and Google Play Store only in the Philippines.

What challenges did you face over the course of building SoilMate?
The design thinking process also taught us to fail fast and fail often, then go back to the idea and make improvements and adjustments where things no longer work. 

When we started the project, it was originally offered for businesses in the hospitality industry like hotels and restaurants- where hundreds to thousands of kilograms of food waste are being generated daily. All of these end up in landfills.  But when the pandemic happened, the hospitality industry was severely affected. Hence, restaurants had to temporarily or permanently stop their operations. They are willing to subscribe to the composting service but the shift in priority  was mainly focused on the survival of their business. For the resolution, we expanded the service to all kinds of businesses who are willing to compost their food waste produced from their corporate offices. Now, we have diverse business subscribers from design and tech companies to real estate developers. 

 In addition to that, lockdowns and quarantines forced people to stay in the comforts of their homes due to the pandemic. People started studying, working and eating at home so the food wastes are now more prominent at the residential level. This is the reason why we also started offering the service to household subscribers. So from the SoilMate app you get to choose if you want to compost at home or to compost at work.

Another challenge we also encountered is the complexity of developing the SoilMate Mobile Application. Creating the very first composting mobile app in the country is way more complicated than the team initially thought due to its intricate wireframe, user interface and user experience design. We believed that it is part of the design thinking process so with continuous iteration and adjustments, we were able to successfully launch the SoilMate Mobile App last June 2021. 


What’s next for the platform?
We would like to continue encouraging more households and businesses to subscribe to the composting service through the SoilMate Mobile Application. SoilMate has become a buzzword now and we are happy for that. We will continuously work on including communication campaigns to create more awareness about the issue of our food choices and its connection to our environment. We all know that, food waste reduction at source nevertheless remains at the helm of tackling our food waste problems, but now we can close the gaps that lead unavoidable food waste to landfills by encouraging everyone to be a #SoilMate. 
We also hope that this initiative will expand its reach since this is currently being offered only in Metro Manila. We see a big opportunity in this and hopefully, there will be potential investors who may want to support the cause. This will lessen our heavy reliance on landfills, promote regenerative agriculture to produce healthy food and lessen our contribution to our emissions.
 
Based on your experience with SoilMate, how can we practice innovation in existing programmes?
The Covid-19 Pandemic has posed great challenges to the worldwide economy, to organizations,  and people’s daily lives and will have far-reaching consequences beyond the spread of the disease. Programmes successful historically may no longer be possible during or after the Pandemic. Channels may have radically shifted to accommodate new needs or work around new constraints. At the same time, the crisis is also a strong driver of creativity and innovation. Indeed, if examined closely the problems and the stakeholder needs, one can already observe abundant innovative responses from those problems.  We have to be prepared to address the changes that we see coming  by practising the design thinking approach to innovation 一whether digital, technical, scientific developments, such innovations all have one feature in common: They solve problems.