Hyper-local Packaged Ice won Sustainability Product of the Year

Montreal, Canada - September 9, 2023 - The Better Ice™ has been honored with the Sustainability Product of the Year award by the Business Intelligence Group in the 2023 Sustainability Awards program. These esteemed Sustainability Awards recognize organizations that have seamlessly integrated sustainability into their business practices or overarching mission.

Transporting products primarily composed of water by truck comes at a significant economic and environmental cost. According to Nature Sustainability, 20% of the GHG footprint of food is attributed to transportation, much of which arises from middle-mile trucking. Relocalize addresses this issue by hyper-localizing the production of water-based foods, such as beverages and packaged ice.

The Better Ice™ is the first decarbonized and hyper-localized product manufactured using RELO technology. The RELO system produces packaged ice hyper-locally on-demand, effectively eliminating 100% of upstream logistics and transportation. The result is fresher, better, and more affordable ice with an impressive 90% reduction in transportation carbon emissions.

Currently, the Better Ice™ is produced in the world's first food & beverage micro-factory in collaboration with Southeastern Grocers in Florida. They are currently available at selected Winn-Dixie stores in Jacksonville.

"We feel privileged to be the sole food & beverage manufacturing company acknowledged for this achievement," stated D. Wayne McIntyre, Co-founder, and Chief Executive Officer of Relocalize. "Our food system is the #1 source of global GHG emissions, and hyper-localizing production is critical to tackling the climate crisis. We look forward to scaling our solution to help more food retailers and suppliers meet their sustainability goals."

“It is a great honor for us to stand among winners such as DHL, Honeywell, IBM, S&P Global Sustainable1, Siemens, and other forward-looking companies, united in our commitment to providing products and services that contribute to a better world,” said Graham Campbell, Co-founder, and Chief Operating Officer of Relocalize. “Recognitions like this motivate us to move forward with our mission.”

Gordon So, Sustainability & Business Development Manager of Relocalize, emphasized, "Our team helps food retailers meet escalating consumer expectations for sustainability, as well as the higher ESG standards being set by major retailers such as Amazon and Walmart."

“We are proud to reward and recognize Relocalize for their sustainability efforts,” said Maria Jimenez, Chief Nominations Officer for Business Intelligence Group. “It was clear to our judges that their vision and strategy will continue to deliver results toward a cleaner, more sustainable world. Congratulations!”

For more information about Better Ice ™, please visit Relocalize’s product page.

About Relocalize

Relocalize sells automated food production platforms as a service (PaaS) to grocery and convenience retailers. These micro-factories (RELOs) are located at retailer distribution centers and fulfillment centers, where they produce CPG products on-demand for 100–200 retail stores. Each RELO performs all of the processes of a traditional factory (e.g., production, processing, material handling, packaging, palletizing, inventory management, food safety) hyper-locally at ~1/20th scale. The goal is to disrupt the $1+ trillion ice & beverage CPG category by hyper-localizing production to eliminate 100% of transportation CO2 and waste.

About Business Intelligence Group

The Business Intelligence Group was founded with the mission of recognizing true talent and superior performance in the business world. Unlike other industry award programs, business executives—those with experience and knowledge—judge the programs. The organization’s proprietary and unique scoring system selectively measures performance across multiple business domains and then rewards those companies whose achievements stand above those of their peers.

Hyper-local Packaged Ice won Sustainability Product of the Year

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