The year is off to a strong start here at Shelf Engine. In January and February, we had a cart full of news coverage: we’ve been recognized as a great place to work, and our CEO Stefan Kalb’s take on food waste was covered in American Recycler. 

Shelf Engine was honored as a Great Place to Work® for 2021, and in Shelby Publishing’s inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion awards.

The employees have spoken! A survey of every Shelf Engine employee measured our company culture, employee demographics and how the company performs on benefits, perks and as an overall rewarding work environment. Our team has grown rapidly over the last year, and we’re proud of the culture we’ve maintained even while we’ve been working remotely. A huge thank you to our employees for recognizing Shelf Engine as a great place to work.

Shelby Publishing’s award program recognized companies making strides toward better diversity, equity and inclusion in the U.S. grocery industry. At Shelf Engine, we’ve made it an intentional priority to build a team of diverse perspectives. Our commitment is especially evident in our gender diversity. Women make up roughly half of the company at all levels, including the leadership team. 

In January, our CEO Stefan Kalb (@stefankalb) spoke with American Recycler to discuss the widespread issue of food waste across the United States.

The story covered emerging technologies impacting how we engage with and tackle food waste and featured Shelf Engine’s AI-driven predictive technology. 

“We know firsthand just how underrepresented the true volume of food waste is in the grocery industry, so our number one priority is helping retailers better assess and track their food waste and spoilage rates,” Stefan said.

Stefan discussed how Shelf works with organizations like Feeding America and Divert to minimize downstream impact and ensure food gets to those who need it most in the event that food is lost and goes unsold. 

We love to call Seattle home, but talent can be found anywhere. In February, Inc. highlighted Shelf Engine in a feature about the Pacific Northwest’s booming start-up scene.

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shelf Engine has worked tirelessly to find and recruit top tech talent in Seattle and beyond. Like many companies, remote work has empowered us to break out of geographic constraints. As a result, we’ve been able to staff our rapid growth and increase headcount sevenfold in the past 12 months.   

In the February edition of Today’s Grocer, Stefan wrote about big climate initiatives at leading grocery chains.

His article featured initiatives at Kroger, Coop DK, Target, and Whole Foods that are setting an example for how the rest of the industry can begin to address climate change. As Stefan points out, “consumers are now shifting from simply caring about sustainability to actually demanding it.” 

Grocers can learn valuable lessons from these examples by understanding the value of sustainability and the strategies and technologies that can align “green” programs with profitability, in order to be better positioned to stay relevant and competitive moving forward. 

We’re looking forward to moving our mission forward in 2021 and helping the grocery industry continue to evolve in the face of massive disruption. 

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