Speaker

Tessa Clarke

Co Founder | Do Radio Guest, It’s Not About Trees with John Lunn

Catch Tessa Clarke on Do Radio: It’s Not About Trees with John Lunn 20th - 26th April 2026.

Tessa Clarke is the co-founder and CEO of OLIO, a global platform that enables neighbours and businesses to share surplus food and household items with people nearby, rather than throwing them away.

Inspired by the scale of food waste she observed while relocating internationally, Tessa co-founded OLIO in 2015 with the aim of addressing one of the world’s most solvable environmental problems. Since launching, OLIO has grown into one of the world’s leading food-sharing communities, connecting millions of users across dozens of countries.

A key part of the platform is its volunteer network — known as Food Waste Heroes — who collect unsold food from supermarkets, bakeries and other businesses and redistribute it within their communities.

Through OLIO, Tessa is working to reshape how society thinks about waste, demonstrating that technology, combined with community action, can unlock significant environmental and social value.

Before founding OLIO, Tessa spent over a decade in corporate strategy and management consulting, including roles with major multinational organisations.

Her work sits at the intersection of climate action, circular economy thinking and community empowerment.

DO Radio Show Notes

It’s Not About Trees with John Lunn, 20 to 26 April

Food waste is one of the most visible contradictions in the modern food system: vast amounts of edible food are discarded while many people struggle to access enough to eat.

In this episode, John Lunn speaks with Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO of OLIO, the neighbour-to-neighbour app that enables people and businesses to share surplus food locally rather than throw it away.

Tessa explains how OLIO grew from a simple idea into a global community, powered by volunteers known as Food Waste Heroes who collect and redistribute unsold food from local businesses.

The conversation explores the deeper systems behind food waste, the role communities can play in solving it, and what it takes to turn environmental awareness into everyday action.

Talks

19:57

Food Waste Is Nothing Short Of An Environmental Travesty

Tessa Clarke•Food

In the UK we have 8.4 million people living in food poverty, which for reference, is equivalent to the size of the population of London. 1 in 2 of those people are living in severe food poverty - which means they do not know where their next meal is...