Sustainability Events at Yelp

Every Friday we host events for our employees called YelpTalks. The topics for these talks range from technical subjects like coding, fun explorations of sourdough bread baking, to honest discussions with nonprofit leaders. One of our employee resource groups, EarthBurst, arranged a series of events that addressed sustainability topics. Here are some of the topics we learned about:

Dispatch Goods – Revolutionizing Restaurant Takeout: Dispatch Goods is a reusable container system that partners with restaurants, businesses, and consumers to provide reusable container options for delivery and takeout. Yelp partnered with them on a pilot last year, and we invited the founders to talk more about the next step in their business venture. 

Natural farming practices in Napa Valley: Leslie Caccamese is part of the Hill Family Estate in Napa Valley, and she’s taken the charge to incorporate natural farming practices into their operations. In this talk she shared some of her learnings with us. 

Building Your Own Sustainable Backyard Dwelling: Anna Watt is a real estate investor, financial literacy educator, and former Yelper. During this talk, Anna gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the Wattage Cottage: the first Built Green Five-Star certified backyard cottage in the Seattle area. Yelpers learned how to build their own tiny home with building science, sustainability, and energy efficiency in mind. 

Fighting Food Waste with Tech: We invited Brian Boshes to talk about the work of his company, Leanpath, where they are helping foodservice operators and restaurants cut kitchen waste in half and save money along the way.