Sustainability in Delivery: How We’re Reducing Our Carbon Footprint
Food delivery is built for convenience—but the way it’s done matters. Every extra kilometer, every “couldn’t find you” redelivery, and every unnecessary plastic item adds up. Sosika is still an early, growing startup, which is exactly why we’re taking sustainability seriously now: the systems we design today will shape our impact as we scale.
We’re not going to pretend we can eliminate emissions overnight. What we can do is make practical choices that steadily reduce waste—wasted fuel, wasted packaging, and wasted food—and report honestly on what works and what doesn’t.
Why delivery emissions matter
Transport is one of the world’s major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and most of those emissions come from vehicles on the road. That doesn’t mean delivery is “bad”—it means the details of delivery (distance, vehicle type, routing, and how many trips we create) directly affect emissions. Climate assessments estimate transport at roughly 15% of total global GHG emissions in 2019, with road transport making up the largest share within transport.
Food delivery adds a specific challenge: many short trips, often at peak times. Research on motorcycle-based delivery in a large city found that frequent short journeys can significantly contribute to congestion and CO2 emissions—especially when delivery demand creates additional trips that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
Where the footprint comes from
When we talk about a delivery order’s footprint, the rider is only one piece. Meals have upstream emissions (how ingredients are produced and transported), plus packaging and waste, plus the final trip. A life‑cycle study of online food delivery found that food production can account for more than 70% of total order emissions in its scenarios—so portioning, avoiding food waste, and supporting efficient restaurant operations matter alongside delivery itself.
Packaging is the other big, visible piece. A detailed life‑cycle assessment of online food‑delivery packaging estimated packaging-related emissions of roughly 0.15–0.29 kg CO2e per order (depending on packaging type), with raw material production contributing at least half. And globally, plastic waste leakage into aquatic ecosystems is still measured in the tens of millions of tonnes per year—one reason reducing single-use items is more than a “nice to have.”
What we can do now
Before we invest in new vehicles or infrastructure, the fastest reductions usually come from doing fewer unnecessary kilometers. Our near-term focus is simple: combine trips when possible, reduce detours, and prevent failed drop-offs. That starts with product design—clear pickup and drop‑off instructions, accurate locations, and smart grouping of orders during peak campus hours.
Routing also matters. Better route planning can reduce distance and idle time, and rider habits matter too. Peer‑reviewed studies of eco‑driving training show average fuel‑consumption reductions on the order of a few percent (for example, about 4.6% in city driving in one real-world evaluation, and up to about 6.3% on average in another). Those gains compound across many deliveries.
Because we’re early, measurement is part of the plan—not an afterthought. We’re building toward tracking basics like average delivery distance per order, batching rate, and re-delivery rate, so we can focus on actions that actually reduce trips rather than just shifting them around.
"Sustainability isn’t a badge—it’s a sequence of trade-offs, measurement, and continuous iteration.
Our medium-term route
Looking a bit further ahead, cleaner delivery modes matter. Two‑wheel electrification is growing in our region, and electric motorcycles and e-bikes are increasingly practical for dense areas and short routes. The climate benefit of electrification depends on the electricity mix, and recent national reporting shows Tanzania’s main-grid generation has been dominated by natural gas and hydropower, with hydropower’s share increasing in the latest reporting period.
We’re also exploring delivery models that keep the “long” trip short. One established approach is using local hubs and completing final drop-offs with lighter vehicles. In an urban case study, a micro-hub plus cargo-bike model reduced CO2 emissions by around 40% compared with a conventional van-only approach. Broader research on urban freight also finds that higher load factors and smaller (often electric) vehicles can cut well-to-wheel CO2 emissions substantially while easing local pollution.
Packaging with less waste
Packaging is complicated because it touches food safety and restaurant realities. Our approach is to start with “less and better”: right-sized containers, fewer unnecessary layers, and an easy opt-out for extras (like cutlery) when you don’t need them. Packaging research points to raw-material production as a major driver of packaging emissions, which is why reducing unnecessary items matters.
In the medium term, we want to test reuse where it truly fits—like durable rider bags and, in controlled settings, returnable containers. Life‑cycle guidance from environmental assessments suggests reusable or returnable options can be better when they’re reused many times and reverse logistics (returns and washing) are efficient; context matters, so we’d pilot carefully before scaling.
How we’ll track progress
Finally, we think trust requires transparency. As Sosika grows, our goal is to publish simple, understandable updates on what we’re improving (and what’s still hard). Evidence from freight decarbonisation work consistently points to better data collection as a foundation for smart policy and operational decisions—and the same logic applies to responsible delivery platforms.
