DoorDash on Creating Win-Win Sustainability Solutions | ESG Decoded Podcast #195

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Speaker B: welcome to ESG Decoded, the podcast where we unpack how business, innovation and impact intersect to shape a sustainable future. I'm Erica Schiller, one of the ESG Decoded hosts and Senior Vice President of Project Development at climco. This special video series was filmed live at San Francisco Climate Week 2026, capturing conversations with forward thinking and influential voices in sustainability.

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Speaker A: hello and welcome to ESG Decoded. I'm your host Erica Schiller and today we're doing a special series. Uh, during San Francisco Climate Week I'm joined by Suli Shah. Suli, thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker C: Thank you for having me.

Speaker A: Yeah, uh, so Suli is uh, at Doordash and she leads global sustainability and community impact. Um, and you've been at DoorDash for eight years and your roles have evolved. I'd love to hear if you could share, um, how did you get to this role and what are your, what, what do you do in this global sustainability and community impact position?

Speaker C: Yeah, so my role, uh, like you said, oversees um, sustainability and community impact. So environmental as well as um, social programs across dashers, merchants and customers and communities. And we look for ways that we can use our product and our expertise to um, help merchants, dashers and customers be more successful. Um, and we oper kind of as an incubator, testing new solutions that can solve problems and um, kind of advance sustainability and outcomes for those stakeholders. Um, but my role when it was first created was quite different than it is today. Um, my role was originally focus on a particular social impact program that was just a pilot at the time. This was eight years ago. Um, and that program was about using DoorDash's logistics infrastructure to power deliveries of surplus food waste to nonprofits. Who would um, support people who are experiencing food insecurity. Um, the program has evolved a lot, um, taken different forms but the spirit of it is still the same today. And it's uh, evolved into a program called Project Dash which now powers um, deliveries on behalf of hundreds of food banks and food pantries and um, uh, healthcare organizations, social enterprises, food recovery organizations, um, powering millions of deliveries now um, for that sector by using what DoorDash does best, which is um, that logistics layer.

Speaker A: So you came in for that impact focus and you've been able to expand your role to test more, more new uh approaches to drive sustainability.

Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. Um, and I think of that program as so powerful because it's an example of where we tested um, many different approaches and found um, uh product market fit for a particular um audience. In this case food banks especially are a major area of investment through Project Dash. Um and we really are helping them reach more people more efficiently, um, in a way that uh, increases dignity and convenience for um, people experiencing food insecurity. Um and I think we really touched on a way that um, our solution can elevate the way that help is provided to communities. So it's that level of kind of like an unlock that we seek to uncover through our other programs as well.

Speaker A: I was going to ask what keeps you engaged but how could you not be engaged with all the impact that you're making?

Speaker C: Yeah, well that's very nice. Um, in addition to that I would add that I um, think of myself as very interdisciplinary. I've never been somebody with um, even a dream job or a particular area that I wanted to um, go deep on or get a PhD in. I think of myself as somebody who loves learning about new areas and solving new problems. And my role at DoorDash has continued to afford me that like year after year and I still see so much opportunity ahead. I think a lot of it, I mean some of it is just kind of culture, um, doordash culture, um, champions that um, and I feel very lucky for that. I think Another aspect of DoorDash that has created a great environment for that type of um, I guess like orientation is just the complexity of our ecosystem. We're serving so many different stakeholders and our business has so many impacts in the real world that there's just so many opportunities to make an impact. Mhm.

Speaker A: How do you prioritize when you have um, the dashers, the merchants, the customers and you're thinking about um, how to connect them and then also drive sustainability?

Speaker C: Yeah, um, one is I'm Pretty good at saying no.

Speaker A: An important skill.

Speaker C: I agree, I agree. And it's like I feel like sometimes these roles um, in sustainability and impact generally is like you know, contrary to the like uh, the kind of brand, uh, of what it must be like to work in sustainability. I have to say no to a lot of really great ideas all the time because there's so many different ways that a company can do good. And I think it's important for every company to think about um, uh, where you can make an outsized impact and in doing so really deprioritize the things that don't really reach that bar. Um, uh, and that's how we've approached it. We've looked for areas where we can really make a difference.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. Um, when we think about customer expectations, when you're shopping on doordash you expect speed and convenience. Does that compete with sustainability? Is there a trade off there?

Speaker C: I think that that is a uh, maybe an assumption or misconception. Um, I think it doesn't have to. And it's that belief that powers our approach. We um, look for ways that uh, we look for win wins. So we look for ways that you um, don't have to make those types of trade offs. Um, an example, um, so if you think about uh, certain usually more dense urban environments, making a delivery on a bike or an E bike is in many cases gonna be faster.

Speaker A: Cause you're not stuck in traffic.

Speaker C: Exactly. Um, you're not looking for parking. Picking up the order is faster and more efficient and so dashers are able to complete more deliveries and as a result make more money. Of course customers are getting their order more quickly. M and so there's just the. I think that's a great example of how uh, more efficient operations uh, doesn't have to be at odds with sustainability because also of course if you're doing more deliveries on a bike or an E bike there's a sustainability benefit as well.

Speaker A: Mhm. That's a great example that works in the busy cities, maybe less in the suburbs or rural areas. Spots. But um. So what do you think are some of the most promising sustainability levers uh, at doordash and how does your team identify them?

Speaker C: Um, well like I was saying, we look for areas where we can make an outsized impact. Um and for doordash there's of course how deliveries are completed. So it's like often the vehicle, the transport. Exactly, exactly. So we talked about the opportunity with um, what we call two wheels. So bikes and E bikes and Then um, to your point about more suburban areas, there's also an opportunity with electric cars.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: Um, and then so that's kind of like ah, how deliveries are completed. Right. And then there's the, what's being delivered. Um, that is an area where we can certainly um, play a role in helping restaurants think about their packaging, for example. Um, and so those kind of make up our focus areas right now. Um, from a sustainability perspective, vehicles and packaging. Mhm.

Speaker A: Can you share some examples? I mean I heard the bicycle piece of how that's worked and the piece, uh, around how you're connecting food waste to other channels. But can you share some challenges or some experiments? You guys tried that that didn't quite work out the way you expected.

Speaker C: Yeah. So, um, on the packaging front, um, we've been chipping away at the reusable packaging opportunities. Um, kind of a crazy idea. Right. If you think about like how taking a packaging back. Yeah. And it's just not how we, we operate in our day to day. So it's, it's ah, a little out there, but I think it's very cool. And I, I um, feel like if, if not us, then who can figure out reusable packaging at scale?

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: So we've explored it in various ways over the years and we're actually currently running a pilot, which I would love to tell you about. Um, but um, maybe in response to your question about what hasn't worked. We have tested reusable packaging models, um, and run pilots that didn't really yield um, results. But even more importantly we weren't really able to learn what works or what doesn't. That's often like how I think about um, success. It's not just like did this thing take off, but it's also did we learn something interesting that will inform our, our future approach, like what we do next.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: And so uh, with reusables, we've run pilots in the past where frankly customers just didn't really participate. Um, we have uh, made our customers

Speaker A: in this sense the buyers or the restaurants or both.

Speaker C: Um, it's, I meant customers, uh, as in buyers of people using the DoorDash app to order, you know, their, but

Speaker A: you need the rest or whatnot participate too.

Speaker C: Definitely, definitely. Um, and that's true of like so many of our pilots are thinking about different stakeholders and their participation. Right. Um, in this case we did onboard a handful of restaurants.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: Um, in a few cities. One of those cities was New York. Um, we had a handful of restaurants participating in a reusable packaging Model MHM in New York. And um, customers could add the option of getting their order packaged in a reusable container, um, when they placed an order. And um, like I said, we just didn't really get many customers opting in. But I think you really had to be in the know as a customer to even know, to look for it and then to know what it was and then know it enough and be interested enough to then opt in.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: So it was hard for us to, I don't think it was successful as a, as a demand test. Like we weren't really able to um, know for sure whether a customer was not opting in because they saw it and didn't like it or because they just um, never even saw it at all. Right. So we didn't get the read on whether customers were actually engaged. And then we also, because of the low engagement, weren't able to get a read on the viability of the model that we MHM created. So ultimately, um, not as useful, uh, as a kind of test and learn pilot. We did see some positive, um, signals, like directionally positive signals. Like customers who did participate were generally excited about it. And we saw some directionally positive signal on customers placing more orders or larger orders, uh, as a, as a response to having the option of their order being delivered in a more sustainable way.

Speaker A: That's interesting. Okay.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, definitely interesting.

Speaker A: Who made the investment? Because you have this reusable packaging that all these restaurants are using. How did you manage that piece?

Speaker C: It was Doordash's investment. And like in any pilot, I think of our role as like investing in uh, the pilot as kind of a catalytic opportunity to test something new. So in this case it was Doordash. Um, yeah.

Speaker B: Great.

Speaker A: And so you said you're doing some new pilots now in reusable packaging.

Speaker C: Yeah. So to address some of the concerns that we just talked through, um, we started thinking through a totally ah, different approach to how we might test reusables and get a real read on what would be possible if we could implement a true reuse system. And we use an approach that I call a golden market approach. A golden market is like where you identify a, uh, it could be a geography or some kind of like limited scope where you create the perfect conditions for an intervention and then you see what happens as a result. Um, and for this pilot we identified a small community. It's the city of Half Moon Bay, which is. Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: Just south of here.

Speaker C: Just south of here, Yep. Um, and uh, we onboarded a uh, handful of Local restaurants. So it's kind of an ideal testing condition because it's close to the city but it's, it's actually quite geographically isolated. M from a, I guess from a doordash perspective. Right. Because if you're placing a doordash order in Half Moon Bay, it's going to come from a Half Moon Bay restaurant. Can't order from all the great restaurants here in San Francisco.

Speaker A: Of course, it's a long drive for our listeners who don't know Half Moon Bay.

Speaker C: Thank you. Um, and um, so kind of a way for us to almost have like a little petri dish. Yeah. But also a really lovely petri dish. Half Moon Bay is um, it's gorgeous. It's right on the coast. Very sustainably minded community. We partnered with the city of Half Moon Bay and the county of San Mateo and we brought in a packaging partner, um, who does ah, like washing and sanitizing of reusable containers. So um, to go back to the restaurant piece, we onboarded a number of local uh, restaurants into the pilot and together they comprise a solid chunk of um, deliveries that happen in Half Moon Bay. So we're kind of able to achieve that critical mass and we are testing out a default model. So by default, I mean your orders come in reusables by default.

Speaker A: Um, so customers have to opt out if they don't want it.

Speaker C: They actually automatically get their order delivered in reusables. And rather than looked at customer behavior up front, we look at whether customers are returning packaging because returns are hugely important. Part of what makes a reusable packaging model work as well. Um, and with this model we have, we're just a couple months into the pilot so far. Um, we've put thousands of reusable containers into circulation so far. Which means thousands of single use.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: And the containers not drying up in the landfill. Yep, exactly. Importantly, from my perspective, as I think about the team's um, focus and strategy, we're able to get much more usable insights about um, merchant experience with the packaging and how it affects their in store operations as well as the customer experience and feedback, um, with regards to how they enjoy the um, reuse system that we're testing out. So um, hopefully I have even more to share with you uh, in a few weeks once the pilot wraps. But it's been a really great.

Speaker A: And how long is the pilot duration?

Speaker C: Ah, a few months.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And you mentioned golden market. You decided Half Moon Bay was a golden market. Is that, can you share more? So it sounded like it's a contained Region where people are interested in this option. Right. Interested in sustainability. Um, and there were enough doordash orders and you're not too far from, I guess have you gone out there and visited the site? Do you have doordash corporate uh, members supporting this in some way?

Speaker C: Yeah. Um, so I should clarify. The golden market is something that we create. So the golden market refers to the fact that we are creating uh, the perfect conditions.

Speaker A: Okay. But it didn't exist on their own.

Speaker C: It didn't exist on their own. But we knew that a certain context would be most conducive to creating a golden market. If, if we go back to my New York City example of the reusable packaging program, we had, you know, dozens of, of restaurants participating. But in New York City that's a drop in the bucket. So we weren't able to reach that critical mass of coverage where there we could implement like a true kind of community driven system. Whereas a customer ordering in Half Moon Bay today, they've got locations all over the town.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker C: Cause there's locations all over the town to return the packaging in is what I wanted to, what I wanted to say. And um, as well as in like the post office for example. And so you're, because of the size and kind of the nature of that particular community, we are able to create like that golden or perfect condition. Oops, perfect conditions. Kind um, of approach. Um, and then you asked about whether we've gone down and visited and yes, I was just there last week. It was really long. Lovely. Um, particularly as a way to just hear directly from restaurants, um, who are already asking like is this going to continue beyond the pilot?

Speaker A: Because they like it.

Speaker C: They like it, yeah, they like it uh, for the packaging, the packages themselves, like in terms of food quality. They like seeing the um, the love from customers. So they, they, many of them have the return bins around their front door and they'll say customers drop by and ask about it or return their, their package, their packaging in those containers. And it's just been a way to kind of like a brand opportunity for them as well. So there's a lot of I think enthusiasm for what um, what it represents.

Speaker A: And since they have this reusable packaging, is it only for doordash orders or is it also if someone walks up and says I want to order something to go, is it also for that?

Speaker C: I love that idea. The pilot is just for doordash orders. Okay. Um, but I agree that in this wonderful future that we are iterating towards, um, it would be More ubiquitous.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Because then they wouldn't have to have two different sets of containers and manage that inventory.

Speaker C: Right, exactly, exactly. Um, and part of the beauty of this particular pilot and the golden market approach is you've got a contingent of restaurants all participating in the same model at the same time. It's a very hard system to stand up in general, but definitely alone.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: Like it practically wouldn't make sense for one restaurant to use one reusable packaging system and then for another restaurant to be working on a separate one. Right. Because then you lose that convenience factor.

Speaker A: Hm.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker B: That's great.

Speaker A: I love hearing about that. And I'd love to hear in a few months what you thought about it and what you learned from it and what, you know, identifying the next golden market. Um, you know, we, we did talk about pilots and, and tests for, for this. But is behavior change also an element of driving more sustainability in, in doordash's business? Are you trying to tackle that with customers or is that, you know, a frontier idea?

Speaker C: I think behavior change is a part of everything, at least everything that we've talked about. Right. With regards to vehicle, um, choice and packaging choice for both customers and merchants. Um, you know, there's areas where we could um, potentially uh, you know, have more control. But I think that I should say like there's areas where we may have more direct control, but I think the areas in which we have kind of indirect influence are actually the areas where we have a bigger opportunity to.

Speaker A: Because it's a bigger part of your footprint.

Speaker C: It's a bigger part of our footprint. It's also, um, in other cases, like a bigger, just a bigger opportunity to drive a shift in an industry or a habit with packaging as an example, kind um, of like what did I say? If not us, then who. We are in such a privileged position to be able to, um, for now test those types of future, um, models. Mhm. Um, that ultimately really are about behavior change. But uh, it's ah, yeah, it's just such a, such a big opportunity.

Speaker A: And do your customers and um, you know, doordashers, do they expect more sustain. Do they expect you to talk about sustainability, to think about it? Is that um, a requirement, a kind of license to operate? Or is it um, something that you think it's not driving behavior in terms of choosing DoorDash versus others?

Speaker C: I think everybody's different. I mean you probably make your um, purchasing decisions based on a certain set of values and mine might have some overlap with yours, but then I might have some other perspectives And I think that merchants and dashers are no different. Um, on the community impact side, we run uh, programs that uh, have some intersection with sustainability but that are also more squarely about like helping small businesses, um, be uh, successful through education and local resources and uh, even networking with one another. Um, and on the dasher side we have programs that promote financial literacy and financial well being. Uh, and so you know, each of these stakeholder groups has, has different pressures and needs and values. Um, I guess I say that all to make the point that I think it's so important to when uh, driving behavior change or just when communicating with any of these audiences to think about it in the terms that's relevant for them. Um, with restaurants, I think this is maybe an easy example. With packaging restaurants, I think some are interested in the sustainability angle, but that's likely not going to be the selling point to try a new model. The selling point will probably come down to cost. Like is it cost kind uh, of on par cost wise with their other existing packaging. Um, and also food quality is just as important because that's like their, that's their product. So does it preserve the food in transit? Um, luckily reusable packaging is actually really great experience to eat out of because it's so stable. Um, but uh, sometimes sustainability is just going to be like the last talking point, um, with an audience like that. Mhm.

Speaker A: So you focus on the drivers that are important to them and maybe you can say oh, at the end. Oh, it's also more sustainable. But hey, look at all these benefits that help you make that business case.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A: Um, that's super interesting. Thank you so much. Uh, I think let's switch gears a little bit and um, talk more about you and personal reflection. So um, can you share with us a female mentor or leader or someone that you have admired or that inspires you?

Speaker C: I um, think I'm gonna say moms, especially new moms. Um, I have a one year old and it's like the best thing in the world. Um, but it's a lot to fit into one day or like one brain.

Speaker A: Um,

Speaker C: and I don't know, it's not really like a specific insight. I think I just, I think it's that I have this new awareness of and appreciation for the, the like, the capability and experience that so many women, mhm. Um, at work and outside of work are like going through every day. It's just, I find it very inspiring and inspiring to be a part of that too.

Speaker A: Yeah, it is a lot of work, but a Lot of responsibility and also a lot of joy. Yeah, I have two as well. Um, so, um, if there was one environmental challenge that you could solve overnight, what would it be?

Speaker C: Um, it would be very cool if sustainability wasn't politicized. M. Like, if we could all just, you know, look at the problem pragmatically.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Look at the facts.

Speaker A: We're all impacted.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Make some trade offs. Mhm. You know, it would be nice if like, uh, if balanced perspectives were championed.

Speaker A: Yeah, that would be very nice. I would like that too.

Speaker C: Great.

Speaker A: Let me know when you work on that.

Speaker C: I'll let you know.

Speaker A: Um, and then when we think about emerging, um, sustainability leaders, these could be people who want to shift their career into sustainability or perhaps they, um, are entering corporate roles today that include sustainability. Do you have any advice that you would share, um, to help them be successful in their careers as they're starting out?

Speaker C: Sure, there are a few things that I, um, that I always come back to for this when I get requests for advice. Um, one is that you don't have to have a job with the word sustainability in the title to have an impact.

Speaker A: Yeah. Great. Agreed.

Speaker C: Yeah. Um, and so, yeah, I guess, like, expand your perspective on, um, what making an impact could be and what types of roles m to look for and the ways that you could work in maybe other functions and uh, infuse sustainability into your work. Um, and then even for the roles that do have sustainability or impact or whatever the word is in the titles, keep um, in mind that those words are very broad. They're used very, uh, often to refer to a collection of different things. And so I think it is important to look at the next level of detail at the role or if you're already in a role, to really think about the value that you are there to deliver to the company and tailor your approach as a result. So if you're interviewing for a role, like tailor your approach or if you're in a role, tailor your strategy to um, what uh, the role actually is about. And I think, you know, in my role, um, and my, my team, um, we're a very operational team. So we really value a strategy and operations mindset where there might be other functions at other companies that are focused more on partnerships or, uh, you know, you could be an engineer and work in social impact and so social impact and sustainability and you know, all of these, these areas. Um, um, yeah, so I think it's, it's, it's uh, like recognizing that, um, there are lots of ways to have an Impact and that um, there are lots of skill sets that the space needs and kind of like tailoring um, your approach to those and also realizing that you might have the skills for a given role, um, or you might have the skills to work in sustainability, um, even if, uh, you don't have sustainability experience per se. Mhm.

Speaker A: You could bring your business experience to make that business case for sustainability. Or you could, yeah, you could use your existing skills and apply it to drive sustainability. Um, I love that. So, um, you know, I, I also appreciated when you were talking about even if sustainability isn't the key driver for a decision, that it can still be an important part of it.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: And you can still get the benefits. Like when you were talking about reusable packaging and why a restaurant might choo it or why a dasher might choose a uh, two wheeled vehicle versus four.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I think that can apply internally as well. Like making the business case. Mhm. Like you said. Mhm. Mhm.

Speaker A: Well that's great. Um, well if there's any more information that if our listeners want to learn more about DoorDash or your sustainability drivers, is there somewhere they can look to find more information?

Speaker C: Um, we have a website and some social media under the name DoorDash Impact, so you can check that out.

Speaker A: Great, great. And I'm sure we'll link that in the show notes. Thank you so much for joining us today, Suli.

Speaker C: Thank you for having me.

Speaker B: All right.

Speaker A: And you can, um, listen to and subscribe to ESG decoded from our website or wherever you get your podcast. Thank you so much.

Speaker B: Amazon's operations include data and fulfillment centers, corporate buildings and the global transportation network. Uh, a footprint that comes with responsibility. That's why Amazon is working toward a carbon free energy future by optimizing efficiency, investing where it matters and supporting communities where we operate. From more efficient data centers to an increasingly electrified delivery network, we're rethinking how energy is used from m the server to the doorstep. Learn more@Amazon.com sustainability. Thanks for tuning in to our special San Francisco Climate Week video series. We hope this episode sparked new ideas and inspired you to take meaningful action on your ESG journey, whether through collaboration, innovation or bold leadership. Stay tuned for more conversations with the change makers shaping a more sustainable future. Subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, follow sgdecoded um on social media and visit climbco.com for more insights and resources. Until next time, keep driving positive impact.

Speaker C: Sam.