For the purpose of this assignment, I opted to look at a company I use so often I almost forgot it is a company versus some extension of my life: DoorDash. I will admit, although I try to be fairly conscious as a consumer, I have not looked into DoorDash’s ESG efforts previously. I found out they are more thoughtful in their approach than I expected, and as a user of their services I am very pleased to know that!

DoorDash has an entire section of their website dedicated to their ESG efforts (Impact), which they break down into four broad areas: The future of work, empowering merchants, broadening food access, and environmental sustainability (the other three links in this section cover an introduction to their ESG efforts, a page describing how they measure results, and a page with links to an advocacy network they created in support of “policies that drive economic opportunity and empower local communities” – on this page they also have a link to register to vote). Separately, under their governance documents link on their website for investors, they have links to their 2021 ESG Report and 2022 ESG Update; the 2021 Report is their first ESG report.

The Future of Work: DoorDash has a clear interest in marketing themselves as a flexible option for employment, and especially as an income stream that is additional revenue or for workers who need more flexibility in their schedules than is usually afforded in fulltime jobs (the highlighted profiles on this page include a veteran struggling with PTSD, a full-time social worker who needs the extra money due to the low pay in that field, and a retiree with some physical impairments from his previous job who needs some extra income to supplement his retirement). To further support that, they offer a number of partnership programs designed to help they workforce with financial education (in partnership with the National Urban League), UnidosUS Caminos, and two Canadian organizations, as well as the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, and they also partner with the International Rescue Committee to provide access to financial resources to immigrant and refugee communities.

Empowering Merchants: DoorDash is clearly invested in growing local economies – for them, if small businesses do well, DoorDash too will prosper – and here they really put their money into action. They have the “DoorDash Accelerator for Local Restaurants”, which provides an intensive 8-week curriculum and a grant of $10,000 to small restaurants (with three or fewer locations and 50 or fewer employees) and proudly states that the “vast majority of participants from previous cohorts were people of color, women, immigrants, and refugees”. DoorDash recently initiated a similar program for business that provide packaged goods. Additionally, they have a Disaster Relief Fund, and a Restaurant Advisory Council to have ongoing open communication with the “independent restaurant community” about their needs.

Broadening Food Access: DoorDash has partnered with local social impact organizations (food banks, etc.) through Project DASH to assist with distributing food to those in need. They have made a number of commitments related to the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, have set the DoorDash app up to accept SNAP and EBT benefits as payment, and have a program (Community Credits) that offers nonprofit organizations the opportunity to apply for DoorDash gift cards to give away to the non-profit’s program participants.

Environmental Sustainability: DoorDash has a number of programs to encourage the use of lower-emissions vehicles for deliveries (EV incentives, Bike Dasher resources and offers, subsidized EV leases in California, and discounts available for e-bikes), and partners with a number of advocacy groups to enhance road safety and infrastructure for bicycles in particular. DoorDash also has several partnerships aimed at supporting local business efforts to use recyclable or compostable packaging.

I think on the whole DoorDash has a fairly robust set of ESG practices and I look forward to seeing what 2023 brings for the company (which I now feel a little better about supporting so very frequently). I would like to see DoorDash offer additional encouragement of sustainable practices from its client restaurants (for example, offering a badge in the app so I can see that a restaurant I am ordering from aims to use mostly local food, or is employee-owned). I would also like more transparency about the fair wages (or not) of Dashers (i.e. the delivery staff specifically and not just the office staff); while there was a great deal about flexibility and financial education on the Future of Work page, there was not much prominently about the wages paid to Dashers and the impact of tipping (which can be so variable) on that.