When you see an opportunity to do something better — to benefit the planet and satisfy your entrepreneurial aspirations — you take it. That’s what Bradley Crepeau did in 2011, when he and business partner Murray Arthur started Food Cycle Science, a company that provides environmentally responsible food waste recycling solutions to municipalities and consumers.
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When you see an opportunity to do something better — to benefit the planet and satisfy your entrepreneurial aspirations — you take it.
That’s what Bradley Crepeau did in 2011, when he and business partner Murray Arthur started Food Cycle Science, a company that provides environmentally responsible food waste recycling solutions to municipalities and consumers. What’s perhaps ironic, considering the positive impact the company has already made, is Crepeau doesn’t consider himself an eco-warrior; in fact, his passion is innovation and entrepreneurship.
With Food Cycle Science, the Ottawa-based founder has hit two targets with one arrow.
“I’ve come to embrace having a capitalist mindset and driving business forward while also doing great things for the environment. It’s something I’ve come to love,” he says. “We appreciate that it is our job as product developers to ensure the product we sell to our customers is not only better for the environment, but also better for their lifestyle.”
This business-first mindset stems from an entrepreneurial spirit (his father also owned multiple businesses) and from his dedication to seeking out opportunities, taking calculated risks and setting goals. In this case, Crepeau’s mission has always been well-defined: Food Cycle Science aims to inspire folks to take ownership of their dinner scraps, the produce they forget about at the back of their refrigerators, and the half-eaten sandwiches that come home in school lunchboxes.
Crepeau, born in Cornwall, Ont., had been working in experiential marketing for Fortune 500 brands and property restoration until Arthur suggested they look at food waste in Canada and the U.S., comparing the landscape with what was happening in Asian markets.
“We started exploring technologies being used in those countries to support more efficient food waste management systems than the traditional solutions and we struck a deal with a manufacturer to be the exclusive distributor of their technology in North America. It was an innovative approach,” he says.
“The value proposition back then was the same as it is now: how can we better handle food waste at the source for average consumers and in places where there’s hundreds or thousands of pounds of food waste a week? How do we divert it from landfills and transform it into something useful? To achieve mass adoption, we knew we couldn’t come up with something that’s better for the environment but is more expensive and less convenient.”
Research led the partners to sobering statistics about participation rates in municipal green bin programs — most municipalities struggle to get half their residents to participate.
“When you peel back the onion, it’s a really inefficient system. Trucks are sent to collect waste from bins left at the curb, it’s taken to a centralized processing facility, pre-screened, treated and what’s left is often contaminated, so it ends up going to a landfill anyway.
“Why go through all those steps to divert from landfills when that’s where they end up,” says Crepeau. “This isn’t always the best solution, especially when it comes to rural and remote communities, which make up a third of Canada’s population.”
Finding a better solution was the challenge the two entrepreneurs took on, along with their product developers. Knowing people produce about 475 pounds of food waste each year, they started by designing a high-tech food-waste recycler for residential use.
Food scraps (everything except for big beef bones) can be tossed into the FoodCycler, which is about as big as a breadmaker and has a five-litre bucket capacity. Inside the appliance is a grinding system that pulverizes, say, last night’s chicken wings and potato skins, turning them into a coffee-ground-like organic soil amendment within a few hours. This dirt can be used in the garden as a nutrient-rich fertilizer or it can go in a green bin or garbage.
There are other bonuses. Unlike a green bin, the FoodCycler doesn’t generate methane gas emissions or emit odours. Its refillable carbon filter eliminates unpleasant smells. Plus, it’s quieter than an air fryer, uses the same amount of electricity as a microwave and reduces food waste volume by 90 per cent.
“Through our pilot programs, we learned residents are willing to take ownership of their waste if you’re willing to provide them with a good tool to do it. More than 90 per cent of participants use it and reported impressive reductions in waste,” says Crepeau.
Many cities and towns are investing in FoodCyclers and subsidizing the purchase price.
“Some municipalities, like Nelson, B.C., have bought one for every single household and they’ve provided them free of charge because they’ve done the math, looked at the impact and found it’s a cheaper and better alternative to curbside collection programs,” he says. “It wasn’t an easy sell to city councils and it took us 18 months to get the first one to buy into this concept. Now neighbouring municipalities to areas using the FoodCycler are asking their councils why they’re spending more on a curbside program that’s not as good for the environment. The data speaks for itself, the proof is in the pudding.”
Ontario angel investors got on board early on when Crepeau and Arthur were ready to make significant investments in the research and development of their own tools and manufacturing processes.
“We started as distributors of products that already existed, but we knew if we could invest in further innovation, it would allow us to scale,” he says.
In 2018, they did their first raise and were efficient with capital, quickly generating profits to reinvest into the business.
“There was one subsequent raise with the existing group of angels, which included investors from our local angel group, Capital Angel Network, and last year we bought out the angels who originally invested. We were able to make an offer and delivered returns to early angels.”
Crepeau and his team (there are now 50 employees with plans to hire 10 more this year) have their sights set on finding the best recycling solutions, not just for homeowners, but for industries that see the most waste.
“We’re exploring how to take our portfolio of technology and apply it to these end users. What’s on the market now is too expensive and it’s hard for restaurants that don’t have serious environmental initiatives to justify the investment. We can do something that doesn’t involve having a truck coming on a regular basis,” he says.
While it is continuing to build out the business with municipalities across Canada, Food Cycle Science is also making a mark overseas. It has seen success in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, to name a few, and recently entered the market in South Korea. And with a new product on the way — the FoodCycler Eco 3, which leaves a smaller footprint on countertops but processes more than the FoodCycler FC-50 — innovation continues to grow.
“Innovation drives me. We have to continue developing this category from a user-experience perspective,” he says. “That and the innovations we develop is what will ultimately give us staying power and allow us to maintain our leadership in the category.”
Suzanne Grant is an entrepreneur who has built bootstrapped and equity-financed businesses in Canada, Australia and Qatar. Today, she supports business growth and positioning while sharing insights to demystify early-stage fundraising. Grant leads the Capital Angel Network as part-time executive director.
