Saving Money, Saving Food, Saving the Planet: Ben Liegey on BetterTable
Here's something that'll bother you once you know it.
Hotels and restaurants throw away an almost obscene amount of food. Every day. Everywhere you travel.
And you're paying full price for the stuff that doesn't get thrown away.
Ben Liegey looked at that equation and built BetterTable — a platform that connects travelers with surplus food from restaurants and hotels at a fraction of the retail price.
Which means you eat well. Spend less. And stop contributing to one of the most under-discussed environmental problems in the travel industry.
In this episode, Ben walks through how BetterTable actually works…
Why food waste in travel is a bigger deal than almost anyone is willing to talk about…
What it looks like to eat your way through a city while doing less damage and keeping more money in your pocket…
And what it takes to build a sustainable business in an industry that's historically allergic to sustainability.
We also get into what travelers can do beyond downloading an app — the choices that actually move the needle — and why the intersection of food, travel, and environmental responsibility is one of the most interesting spaces in the industry right now.
This isn't a guilt trip. It's a better trip. Literally.
Watch the Episode here
Listen to the Podcast here
Saving Money, Saving Food, Saving the Planet: Ben Liegey on BetterTable
Launching a Sustainability Mission During Crisis
Meet Ben Liegey, the French food foodie, who says that three times fast, who turned restaurant food waste into a million-dollar mission. Somehow managed to launch during a pandemic, because, well, why make life easy? This guy went from being a Rocky Mountain, your host to building Better Table, a company that's helping restaurants save money and save the planet by literally cutting their food waste in half. Here is where it gets wild. He took a $60,000 loan at 10% interest. Started a business targeting restaurants right when restaurants were shutting down everywhere.
Talk about having faith in your vision. Now he has Marriott, Google, and Compass Group knocking at his door. He's about to drop an app that will change how kitchens run forever. When he's not revolutionizing the restaurant industry, you'll find him catching sunsets at Sunset Beach or skiing down with a social effect on, except during Gay Ski Week this year, because apparently 5:00 AM workouts were not extreme enough. This is probably no matter if it is unleashed. Sustainable innovation meets unstoppable ambition. There you go. How was that?
Fantastic.
If I could even pronounce it right without eating my tongue along the way, it probably would have been better.
No, that is great. Maybe just like one thing. I was maybe not with Google and Compass. We've been in discussion, but we have not done business with them yet. I do not know if that's right.
It's time that they did. I pulled that data from an interview that you did elsewhere. I found it online. It's public. I made it up, but we're just anticipating the future. Everyone's able to make money that way. Tell me, you started this thing when the pandemic hit. Are you crazy? Did you see something that no one else saw?
I started this actually just before the pandemic. I actually had a lot of experience working on that back in Europe, where I was born. I was born in France, actually. I came to Canada in 2018 and saw an opportunity in terms of the amount of food waste being generated in Canada and in North America, which is huge, and I have been doing a lot more research and realized that there are not many solutions helping the industry. I really want to make a difference there.
Tell me, I mean, this is not just a Canadian issue, although you're a Canadian company. This is a global issue, the way I see it. Being back in America for a bit right now, I think they're an incredibly wasteful country in so many ways. Not to indict the Americans, really, but how is it profitable for you?
The way we are existing as a business, we have different solutions. We provide an outside food audit, which is the equivalent of an energy efficiency assessment, but for food efficiency and food sustainability. We also provide online training, which is the equivalent of food safety certificates, but for food efficiency. Right now working on a mobile app to automate our food audit process.
How does that create an ongoing revenue stream for you? Is there money in reclamation of food that's gone to waste? It seems to me that unless you have some means that's ongoing, you do not have a sustainable business. I'm trying to understand this.
Yes, exactly. That's why we're working on this new mobile app to automate our food audit process to make it one, much more affordable than having someone coming on site, two, make it much more scalable so we can scale across North America and beyond. Three, having a way to provide value on a continuous basis and generate a monthly recurring revenue.
You have traveled through seventeen countries looking around at how businesses are processing food waste. What are the weirdest, most brilliant, unique solutions that you've seen?
I have seen so many different solutions across the world, and I find a lot of inspiration, especially from the Netherlands, whether it's in Europe or in Asia. Some countries like Singapore are really advancing in those issues. Just to give you an example, in the Netherlands, I used to work for international food retailers back in Europe. They have a large presence in the US and in Indonesia too. They were really putting food waste high on the agenda of the sustainability of the company.
Upcycling Surplus Ingredients into New Revenue
One of the really cool things that they were doing was drinking beer. Basically, the surplus food from the bread from the supermarkets was actually like they were being collected and then crushed, upcycled into a powder, then used as an ingredient in the beer production of an upcycled beer that was eventually sold in the store where the beer is coming from. That's a really cool example I've seen firsthand.
I have heard of recycled water for drinking water, which sounds disgusting, but the idea of recycling food into beer. That's fascinating. What percentage of that food is reclaimed?
What do you mean?
I do not want to know if I could even count percentages, but let's say you have a hundred pounds of food waste. What percentage of that hundred pounds would have been recycled or put into that beer? Were they able to use all of it?
For bread, for this example, they were targeting bread waste. They were using all of it. Of course, bread waste for a supermarket usually comes to 20% to 30% of total food waste in the supermarket. Here we are talking in a grocery store environment, which is still different from a hotel or a restaurant, which is where I am focusing my efforts right now.
Launching a business during a crisis takes massive conviction. Here's how one founder turned restaurant waste into opportunity.
That's what I was thinking. I did not think about grocery stores, but of course, they have all this perishable food, and if they cannot get rid of it, what do they do?
In a hotel setting, there have been so many really inspiring chefs with whom we've been working who have been really creative in the ways they are using the ingredients, creating amazing dishes with part of the ingredients that not many people throw away. That's really inspiring to see, and thinking of how one of the chefs we've been working with had this amazing recipe where he actually made an amazing cookie with coffee grounds. It was with coffee grounds.
One more time, I have to understand. I am pretty good with French, but I am having a problem with that.
Turning Kitchen Waste into Premium Menu Items
A chef we've been working with has been doing an amazing cookie with coffee grounds.
Coffee grounds? Really?
Yes. Amazing.
Is it like a coffee cookie, or are they able to take the coffee taste out of it? I know some of you put coffee into chocolate to give it a bit of an extra. It's a coffee cookie.
It's a part of the ingredients. Not everything, of course, but it's still a cool, unique way I've seen firsthand as well.
That's very cool. What does that translate to in terms of more business or cost savings for a restaurant? What does it do for them?
Cutting Unwanted Expenses Right at the Source
For a restaurant, it can be huge because, on average, seven percent of food revenues is never even eaten. That's seven percent of your food revenue that is directly impacted, and more than half of that is avoidable.
That's pretty significant.
Whatever the size of your operation, if you have a big operation or even a small operation, you can still have a huge impact on your bottom line without mentioning the additional benefits in terms of ESG criteria.
That's really very cool. Question. You began this business as an LGBTQ, I want to say, queer entrepreneur. How has that affected the way you run the business? Has it made any difference in either advantages, disadvantages, or challenges? What has made that or shaped that journey for you?
We are an openly queer business, and we've been certified with the CGLCC. As a minority business. That's been really helpful to be able to leverage connections and meet you in Palm Springs, but also having facilitated access to two different leaders, which was really helpful, even if, of course, being a queer entrepreneur comes with some challenges. It's really inspiring to see a huge community helping queer businesses to thrive and providing mentorship.
Spent coffee grounds don't belong in the trash. Smart chefs turn them into delicious cookies and lower food costs.
I'm still benefiting right now from mentorship through that group. That's included in the fee of the membership with the CGLCC, which is the equivalent of the NGLCC in Canada. Just joined, actually, a few weeks ago, QueerTech, which is an organization helping queer businesses in the tech sector to thrive, and just being selected as one of the companies in the new accelerator program.
That's awesome. For someone who is just getting started. When I first began three weeks ago, decades ago, I have to say, being gay, being queer, whatever the definition is, queer back in the day was not a word that was acceptable. My mother and I still have difficulty challenging that word. Being out was definitely not really an advantage to a business. Being closeted at that time. Now we're talking about 40-plus years ago.
The complexion has certainly changed. How do you feel that being queer has either helped you or hurt you? I'll leave it that way. How has it either helped you or hurt you? What have the challenges been, perhaps? You're out. Have you lost business? Are you getting more business because people are more aligned to you? What's the effect been?
I feel it's a selection into the opportunities that lie in front of you. I'm sure it has hurt some businesses for people who are maybe not very open, but maybe that way it's a good thing that I did not do business with narrow-minded people. On the other hand, it's helped me connect and build my network. Even in the hospitality industry, there are a lot of queer people as well. Sometimes it can be an advantage.
That's true. You have the inner wink-wink. We're members of the same club. That does go a long way. I was at a tech support call, and when he's like, "Pride Nomad, what's that?" I was like, "Uh-huh." He was very professional. He did not jump in, but I'm like, "Here's how you subscribe for free at PrideNomad.com." That worked out pretty well. Are you doing business just in Canada right now, or are you expanding that outside the country?
We do most of our business right now in Canada. We have worked in other countries outside of Canada as well. Thanks to the app that we will be launching, there will be huge opportunities to really accelerate this transition through to other countries and other markets. As you mentioned, food waste and food sustainability, it's not only a Canadian problem. We really focus not only on the food waste issue, but also on the climate issue because food waste is also huge. It's like food, which accounts for 8% to 10% of global CO2 emissions, and food itself is like one-third of global CO2 emissions.
When you think about the impact of that and how you can have an impact in terms of buying more local products or buying more like reducing food waste or ensuring you buy sustainable ingredients. All of this has an impact on the current footprint and the impact you're generating as a business. We are really here to help make this evaluation and assessment easy to align with the seventeen sustainable development goals, to be able to also have an easier way to be certified and a way to share the positive story that you are doing by being more sustainable with food.
I get that there's a big press side of things. I run a number of nonprofits, and when you lead with your nonprofit, you already take away some of the friction that gets in the way of what your ulterior motive is, right? I'm wondering, that aside, which is still a big deal, where's the additional profit for a company? Let me backtrack to what I'm thinking here. Back in the day, when hotels had green rooms that were all recycled stuff and so on. I remember I got in trouble on stage once because I was being a bit obnoxious that these hotel rooms cost more to stay in.
I was like, "Wait a minute, why should it be costing more to be environmentally sustainable and responsible? Why shouldn't it cost the same or less?" To me, it was almost, it was troublesome. This is also a lot younger and a bit more obnoxious than I am now. My question becomes, if I'm a restaurant owner. Let's say I'm even an older restaurant owner with not a lot of generations ahead, and maybe it's more than just a restaurant owner, but where is the profitability for me to take on some of these additional protocols so that it's a profitable thing more than just a PR stunt?
I'm thinking all of a sudden about airlines, for example, with all the food that comes off aircraft that is unused as well. There's a lot of that, no doubt, although airlines are not feeding you very much anymore. I'm just like, where does it make sense for these facilities where it's not costing them money, but it's either making them money or an even path? If you're making coffee cookies type of thing, certainly there is an additional expense to process that food to be able to make it edible and so on and so forth. I'm giving you all sorts of time to think about the answer to this.
That's a great question. As you mentioned, when you go to a hotel or a restaurant, and you want to have a certification to be seen as sustainable, there are many things you can do. You can work on energy efficiency. That's a great thing to do, but it's going to require a lot of money and capital upfront to buy a heat pump and to do energy efficiency measures in your hotel. You can buy eco-friendly soap. It's a great thing, but it's going to cost you more money. It's just a thing. That's where I also see food waste as one of the big opportunities, because it's a way to directly reduce your food costs.
Of course, there is always this, "We've been doing this for twenty years. We know we do not want to change." Yes, there is a little bit of training and education to be made to make it really impactful. Eventually, how much time do you spend as a restaurant or hotel in preparing food that is never used and never enjoyed by your guests? You not only pay for the food, so you have the food cost elements, but you also pay for the labor, for everything that is over-prepared, like everything that the guests are leaving behind and not enjoying. All of this is food and labor that you pay directly for no value.
It is a cost reduction element. The other aspect is an increased revenue element because you attract guests, and there are more and more guests who are eco-conscious. Being able to market that as an element that will drive more business and increase loyalty to your brand is something that is key. There are also some aspects of minimizing upcoming regulations. It is not a question of if there will be regulations. I know in North America, it is less on the regulation side of things compared to what I have seen in France, where food waste was made illegal in 2016.
Wait, food waste was made illegal?
Preparing Commercial Kitchens for Upcoming Regulations
Yes. France at the time was the first country in the world to have an anti-food-waste law and make it basically illegal to throw away food if you are a certain size of supermarket.
Is that what inspired you to create this as a business?
When this passed, I was already working in that field. I started my career as an entrepreneur when I was a small kid selling surplus food from my parents' garden. You can say food waste is the reason why I started my career as an entrepreneur.
I was wondering how this whole thing began. That is fascinating. That is very cool. How did it come from Paris to Canada?
From Paris, I did study in Paris. Even though I was born in, as I was working close to Germany, then moved to Belgium actually for six years, where I started my career in sustainability consulting and moved to travel between Belgium and Canada for eighteen months to look at different initiatives around the world around sustainable food and zero food waste. That was really inspiring to just meet people from different backgrounds with amazing business ideas to make a difference. I came to Canada in 2018 and fell in love with it, with the mountains and the ocean and also the fact that you can dine out in a nice restaurant after having done all of that.
That is also a benefit. I love Canada. I love Canadians. I love everything about the country. I spent a lot of time there in places that most people have not heard of. I cannot pronounce Regina. I get that I am just thinking, what do you think has made Canada a better place for business for you than perhaps other choices aside from just the lifestyle?
Canada is first very open and diverse compared to other places I have lived in the past. Especially in terms of gay rights, I think they have always been very progressive. They had adoption even like twenty years before like same-sex marriage was a thing. That is great. The diversity environment is very nice. There are different aspects of diversity, like being queer is one, but there are also being a woman or being a BIPOC person. There are so many ways that you can look at diversity. This is really something that is valued here, which is aligned with what I believe in.
When you were asking me before about how being queer also affects the way I do business, for us, diversity is really ingrained even in our articles of incorporation. We are a benefit company, meaning that on top of being just a regular incorporation, we have some specific public benefits where we have some added value for society. Some of them are related to having sustainable practices in our operations. Some of them are related to making sure that we rely on and value diversity in everything that we are doing, both internally with our clients and with our suppliers.
Let me ask you a question. They have a B Corp status in the States, which I think is really great. My problem with it is not with the status. It is that you get no tax benefit for doing good, which I think is colossally stupid. I mean, horrifying. Does Canada give you something as an advantage?
No, not at this point. It will come at some point, but at this moment, there is no additional benefit for doing it.
Ben, that is just stupid. To be really subtle about it, it is the dumbest thing ever. I am just going to get on the soapbox for a second about this because I am so glad. Is it the same B Corp type of association?
It is similar. B Corp. There is a certification. You also have a B Corp status, which is different from the certification.
Not in the US is not a government certification per se, that I am aware of anyway. The B Corp certifiers, if you will, because they make money.
Diverse business certifications open doors to corporate leaders and high-impact mentorship networks.
You have a B Corp certification. That is great. I have also heard mixed feedback around this. Unlike the B Corp, which is a certification program, the benefit company, which is a legal status, is actually a legal status that directly, from the start, makes sure that you have public benefits in your articles in corporations and align with the public goods. It is not something that you have to add after to be able to comply with the B Corp certification
I am going to get on the soapbox for a second for all of our audiences here because I want to mount another mission here because I think it is really important. Back in the day when I was teaching people about real estate investing, we talked about taxes and the benefits of how you do tax avoidance, not tax evasion. Tax avoidance is the difference. That is ten years. The government creates tax benefits as incentives for us to do the things that the government cannot do on its own.
If we want business to be more ethical, honorable, sustainable, and all the other good things along with it, should we not give businesses that pledge to fulfill that type of operational directive, should we not give them a benefit, an incentive for being a good servant of the public? Clearly, the government is missing all that. We need to be out there. Let us get militant right now and have our governments recognize that and reward us for doing the right thing. To me, when you get the certification, you're putting yourself on the line. Maybe it costs more money to do it. The certification, you have to jump through tons of hoops to do as well.
For what? It is like I am going to jump even further into the hole. It is like getting married. Why do I want to go through all the bullshit of getting married when I can say I love you and the fact that I love you is enough? Why do I need someone to tell me that I am now legal? I just have a problem with that, and I want our listeners to get as frustrated as me because that is how things change. God knows in the United States at the very least, if not the world, a lot of people are very angry right now. Anyway, it is not just about this. I am going to date this for a second. Australia just had an election.
It was a surprising, shocking landslide for Anthony Albanese because of what is going on in the United States. All that, I mean, I think we have to have fairness and equity in how we're represented. What you're doing, I think, is really important. What we're doing, what you're doing, and what I am doing as gay business, as queer business, as LGBTQ business is critically important because I think those of us that are blazing the trail for younger people, it is really important. What advice would you give someone if you were to go back to a new twelve-year-old that is thinking, "I would like to go into business sometime," what would you tell them now?
I would tell them to keep experimenting, to never give up, and to be meeting as many people as you can because it is really when you network and meet people from different backgrounds that you have some creative ideas that can really make a huge impact, not only on your life, but also on your clients.
That is true. I have got a question I wrote down. I want to make sure I get it right for you. Your leadership style. I read about this. You're coaching, democratic, and innovative. When the shit hits the fan, what is your go-to management style?
Building High-Impact Ventures Through Open Collaboration
I like to match with open communication, and my mantra is always, "If you oppose, propose." You can tell me, "This is not aligned with what I like" or "I do not like this." If you say that, you always have to make a suggestion and a constructive suggestion.
I love that. It is important. Stop bitching and give me your suggestions. Whiners have no place, right? Where do they provide fuel for change?
Exactly. That is exactly what we are doing when we do audits as well, because we have been working with operations and restaurants who are really good and really advanced on the food waste reduction journey and some that are just starting out. Whatever you are doing, wherever you are in your journey in terms of food sustainability or food waste reduction, there are always great things you do, your strengths, and then suggestions to improve and how you can elevate your business to the next level.
Is there any food waste association?
There are different organizations. In Canada, at the national level, there is the National Zero Waste Council, which I am a part of. In the US, there is ReFED, which is a great organization that gathers different food waste solutions across the food supply chain. More at the international level, there are also different groups. Depending on where you are in the supply chains, where you are in the world, there are different ways to find people that can help you.
The groups and the associations, I think, are super important. I was not sure what was available in that. If you did not have one, I was going to say start one. You position yourself in your position as the guy. Which leads me to one other question. You became a certified diverse supplier. What is one underrated benefit that more LGBTQ plus founders should know about?
Leveraging Queer Entrepreneurship for Strategic Growth
About being certified as a minority-owned supplier, I think it is great for different reasons. First, it is a great way to get to talk to companies that you would probably never be able to talk to, like big corporations that are willing to be more diverse in their supply chains and really want to make a difference. That is definitely one. Two, it is just to have access to a network of like-minded people. When you have a business and are queer, sometimes it can feel challenging when you have to go through the ups and downs that every business owner is dealing with.
If you oppose, propose. Turn complaints into constructive solutions to drive real innovation.
It is really helpful to have like-minded people who can support each other and have a way as well to market that. On our website, we mentioned that we are a minority-owned business. For me, that is something that is important. If it is a problem for some companies, that is okay. It is also a great thing that we're not doing business together. If the other one is really finding this is something that is important, then this is the type of client we want to collaborate with and to help.
I find Canada to be one of the most fair, uplifting, inclusionary, respectful countries on the planet. By the way, while we were chatting earlier, I took a look at the Pride Nomad Index. I knew Canada was up there, but I did not remember that Canada ranks number three in the Pride Nomad Index, which manages or ranks countries based upon their infrastructure for digital nomads, as well as for how they respect us as part of the LGBTQ community.
Number three out of 65 is pretty damn good. It's number one in North America, with the United States dropping from number seven, where they are now, probably going to go blast past the top ten. We're talking about diversity, and that's a big risk for the Americans right now. Are you seeing any fallout from that right now in Canada?
I definitely see Canada as a leader in that space. That is great. Can you tell me more about the way you want to have that conversation?
The good news is you're not in the States, because a lot of companies right now are really scared about what the federal government is doing with respect to DEI. By the way, I do not know what the LDEI even was. I left the US in 2009. I always thought that people should just do business fairly. I didn't think you necessarily needed to have diversity, inclusion, and whatever the other thing is. People are really so stupid that they do not know how to be nice to other people. Inherently, if we just had that level of respect, we shouldn't have to do those things, but clearly, we do. That needs to be removed. You're not seeing that in Canada, right?
Not to the same extent as we are seeing in other places, for sure.
To say you cannot teach people to do business the right way is the dumbest I've ever heard. You mess up innovation. It's just beyond my comprehension, but that's a whole other conversation. I want to ask you, as we start to wind down, what has been the biggest challenge for you? I agree, we do not want to do business with people who do not celebrate who we are, do not respect who we are. Unless we can do business where we're having fun, why are we playing to begin with?
Are there any horror stories you want to share where it maybe broke your heart, where you weren't treated as you should? Any new entrepreneur we talk to is going to hit a wall at some point. They need to know that when it looks like the doors are closing on you, there are others that are opening. Give me the horror story and then how you pivoted from that.
I wouldn't say I've never really been treated badly because of me being queer in Canada. What I would say is that in terms of challenges in my industry, there is definitely a lack of awareness of the opportunity. What I'm helping with definitely has been a challenge, especially starting the business during the pandemic. I do believe in the power of storytelling. That's really the reason why I've been working on a documentary. It's actually the world's documentary about food waste solutions from farm to table.
To share that, wherever you are in the food supply chain. At the farm level, the manufacturing level, the hotel, the restaurant, retail store, every part of the food supply chain is different and has its own set of challenges and opportunities. Being able to feature amazing companies who are doing the right thing, I think, has always been something that is very inspiring. That's really what made me co-produce the Food Synergy movie, which I believe will really help amplify our message.
When's that going to come out?
We did a premiere in October last year, and right now it's available on FootSynergyMovie.ca. Not yet directly watchable, but if someone wants to make a screening, they can just go on the website and contact us, and we can find a way to give you a link.
I would love to put that on the show notes for people who can see it. I want to see it. It'd be great. My sentence is that Netflix should have that. Ben, this would make a very interesting reality show in terms of, no, seriously, I'm thinking about this. You have all these makeover people going out. What if you were the food recycler? We've got to gussy it up a little bit. This is the beginning of an idea. By the way, if this happens, I want a piece of it. Just saying. No, seriously, if you went out into a variety of different situations. Let's have a restaurant, grocery store, airport. All these are the locations, and you did a makeover. Wouldn't that be cool?
Yes, definitely. I'm all about this inspiring. I know that Netflix also has a show with different chefs competing, and they have to make the best leftovers ever. There's a lot of opportunity to inspire people to save money by saving the planet.
I'm absolutely serious, by the way. This would be a kick-ass thing to do. Get my juices flowing here. Have awards, have contests, and have it be sponsored so it can make revenue for you. Let it be sponsored by who are the best players that stand to benefit from food recycling, so that plays. It's almost like we have what is it that America's got talent, Canada's got talent, Britain's got talent.
How about Canada's got food recycling talent thing? It's something that you could play and do really well with it. In doing so, even if it's not something that Netflix picks up, maybe Amazon Prime would pick it up, but there's someone that would sponsor that because they want to be positioned as a leader in that situation, and moreover, it would elevate you into you're the guy. That would be freaking brilliant. I'm pumped about this. This would be a great thing. Just super excited. I'm serious.
I know I've been thinking about this, but here is my list of new ideas for new coming solutions.
I have the same thing. I now have a new project in ChatGPT that says great idea, but later. It's highly leverageable. Keep it on the thing. I've got this recorded now. Let's see where we are in six months to a year. If anybody's watching this that wants to play, let's talk because obviously Ben's got bandwidth issues, as we all do, but it would be a cool thing to champion. No one does this without coming through Ben or me so that we can make sure this is a protected idea. That would be really cool. I look at just how we can make this bigger and better and make more shifts and more of a change?
It's fascinating because I think having come back to the States from living overseas for so long, portions, for example, in Thailand are much smaller, also much less expensive. You come back to the United States, and it's three portions of Thai food on your plate. That's why America's got such an obesity problem. You eat all this s***, but now there's more food waste as well. It's one of the big diet things to go to the restaurant, cut your food in half, put half in the to-go package, and eat what's in front of you. You're good. It's crazy. What we see, when you go to the hotel buffets or the buffets in Vegas or whatever, is just waste that comes. It's just staggering.
For buffets, people have some tendency to overestimate the impact you can have. I've seen buffets that are really well managed, actually much better managed than all the types of operations. It's not necessarily about the service. Sometimes it's really about the people who are there. Do they have the right training? Do we have the right tracking system? Do we implement all best practices in the industry? That can really help to make a difference.
Ben, you're doing great things. I've got to ask you. Any final thoughts you want to share with our viewers?
I would say that if you are interested in exploring and learning more, explore our Beta Table Academy. We are also launching this new app so that you can do the audits from your restaurant yourself and have a way to be also listed on the map of eco-friendly restaurants. If that's something you would find interesting, just check out BetterTable.com/App, and you can sign up for the waitlist.
We'll make sure that we have all those links so that you do not have to worry about whether you're jogging or in your car or whatever. We've got you covered. Go to the show site, and you'll have all that there. Ben, I am so glad we got to get this done. It's been a pleasure. Now I'm hungry. It has been a joy. Look forward to hearing more about your success and the new Netflix series that we're going to do together.
Fantastic. Ken, thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
Bye, guys. We'll talk soon.
Talk to you soon. Bye.
Important Links
About Ben Liegey
Ben Liegey is the Founder & CEO of BetterTable™, a Vancouver based benefit company helping hotels and restaurants boost profits while cutting food waste in half. Originally from France, Ben holds an Executive MBA and brings over a decade of experience consulting on food sustainability across the food supply chain. His portfolio includes Marriott hotels, universities and tourism organizations. Ben is also the producer of the world’s first documentary about food waste solutions from farm to table. He has been recognized as one of Business in Vancouver’s Forty Under 40.
