Upcycling Beer Waste and Creating Sustainability with Susgrainable

Local brand Susgrainable has diverted more than 300,000 kg of beer waste by creating delicious cookies and upcycled flours. Marc Wandler, one of the founders, tells us how he built his business and his vision for a more sustainable food system

What inspired you to start Susgrainable?

Susgrainable started out as a school MBA project during my time at UBC in 2018. We had to come up with an innovative idea business for our entrepreneurship class and then quickly work on it over a 4 month period. 

A colleague came from the beer industry and mentioned that the disposal of “spent grain” was becoming a big problem for Vancouver craft brewers. We decided to see if there was a better solution than just sending it to landfills. 

Having worked as an Exercise Physiologist alongside dietitians, when I learned the composition of spent grain I knew that this needed to be re-incorporated into the North American diet. And so, after the school project I recruited some other friends and we turned it into a business.

Tell us about your products.

Our core products are our easy-to-make baking mixes made from our Signature Upcycled Barley Flour. The Upcycled Barley Flour is unique because it is made from rescued grains, but it’s also virtually sugar free while being higher in fibre and protein than other flours.

In terms of mixes, we have our most popular Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix which is in the running for BC Food & Beverage Product of the Year in 2021. We also have our Pancake & Waffle Mix, and our Banana Bread Mix that will be launching next month. We originally started out making baked goods and selling them at farmers’ markets. This allowed us to learn which mixes we should focus on. Of course, we also have our Upcycled Barley Flour for sale for those adventurous bakers. 

What advice do you have for aspiring foodpreneurs?

There is so much advice that can be given. First off, I’d say make sure there is a market for your product - i.e. customers want to buy it. 

Next step is creating a quick business plan and testing it out. Farmers’ markets are a great place to test out your products on the cheap. 

If you have something that customers want, I’d suggest then looking into joining a program like Feeding Growth to learn a little bit about what it’s going to take to scale the business. Costs can increase fast in this space. I’m also a fan of having a co-founder, since the foodpreneur journey can be a grueling one - but I guess this comes down to founder preference.

What advice do you have for SFU students who aspire to have their own business one day?

Join an accelerator/incubator (like SFU’s Radius) if you have an idea or maybe do a hackathon if you don’t but want to learn a bit more what it’s like to start something up. 

Surround yourself with other people who have this same aspiration. Through these programs, you’ll be able to network, find potential mentors and co-founders. Another important step to learn is which aspects of building a business you like. 

You’ll need help along the way, and the quicker you find out what you like and are good at, the quicker you can learn which areas of the business you need to hire out for. 

Where can people find your products?

People can find our products on our website at Susgrainable.ca or through retailers such as SPUD and its affiliates (Organic Acres & BeFresh) or Stongs. Within the next few months, you should be able to find us at other retailers.

What’s coming up next for you?

We are going to finish up our Susgrainable September Sweepstakes and continue to partner with more retailers around Vancouver and BC. Our next step will be to build out Vancouver’s First Ever Dedicated Food Upcycling Facility in 2022. This should lead to greater amounts of food waste getting diverted and some new product lines.

Where can people find you?

@susgrainable on Instagram and Facebook and at Susgrainable.ca

Thanks for answering our questions, Marc! Anything else to add? 

I’d encourage everyone to keep their eye out for more upcycled products in the future and learn more about the circular economy. Fighting the rising food waste numbers is incredibly important and can also be a nutritionally sound decision in many cases too.