KeepCup

30 May 2013 in News / 1 Comment

At the WBC last week over four days we washed over 6000 reusable cups.  It was a pretty good effort but short of our expectations, and certainly a tiny number compared to the disposable cups binned over the course of the event.

We raised $600 for Coffee Kids and Five Senses generously matched our donation with the reusables we washed from their stand, raising $250.  That's about the cost to a cafe of those 6000 dispoable cups, but its also enough money to give six children a secondary school education in Central America - a pretty compelling trade.

The Five Senses stand represented over a third of the reusables they washed.  They will tell you it was because their stand and their coffee is so awesome.  We will tell you that our wash stations helped because drinking from a reusable cup, forces people to congregate around your stand creating atmosphere and drawing a crowd.

However the point we want to make is that Five Senses was one of at least 37 exhibitors sampling coffee and beverages at the event.  If we use them as a best case scenario and say the average stand sampled 1500 beverages in disposable cups - that's over 55,000 disposable cups that were discarded to landfill in just four days.

We are hoping to implement the wash stations at specialty coffee events all over the world.  We would love your support to do so, so let us know what we can do to Salute the Reuser.

16 May 2013 in News / 0 Comments

We hope you enjoy the video that launches the Salute the Reuser campaign.

A very big thanks for the footage and images that have been supplied by our distribution partners from around the world - Ruth Borgobello and her team in Italy, Juraj and Lukas in Slovakia and Jay in Korea and of course the team here in Australia.

We are delighted with the result.  We hope it puts a spring in your step, a sparkle in your eye and inspiration in your heart - not too much to ask from 47 seconds of light and sound.

Thanks for watching. 

Believe in better.  Salute the Reuser.

16 May 2013 in News / 0 Comments

Believe in better.  Salute the Reuser.

Salute the Reuser is a combination of efforts to connect our product, the KeepCup, with its purpose; reducing reliance on disposable cups.  We are coming of age here at KeepCup, transforming our business from a product based solution to a movement, based on positive change.

There are lots of exciting developments; new products, new colours, a global campaign and an informed sense of progress. Salute the Reuser acknowledges, celebrates and encourages those who have made the switch from discard to reuse.  

At KeepCup we believe in product design, making things sustainably that are fit for purpose. We also believe in the power of language and image to tell a story, to take us to a new place.

Our creative partners South Southwest encouraged us to invite some talented illustrators and typographers from around the world to interpret our call to action. We give you the talented Timba Smits from Shoreditch London:

The awesome Jessica Hische from San Francisco:

13 May 2013 in News / 0 Comments

Our philosophy here at KeepCup has always been to keep things positive.  There is nothing more disengaging than an insurmountable problem.

Earlier this year our friends at Thick Digital conducted some focus groups on our behalf.  They spoke to KeepCup fans and the results were surprising.  Whilst our customers thought KeepCup was sustainable and better for the environment, they could not say why - and these were our biggest fans!

It made us realise we needed to do more work around raising issue awareness and telling stories that are as repeatable as they are true.

Here is the first of a number of communication pieces that compares the environmental effects of disposable cups with the KeepCup - putting them head to head.  Check it out and tell people what you discover:

                                        vs.keepcup.com

30 Apr 2013 in News / 0 Comments

At KeepCup we think of ourselves as a movement supported by a product, where the best reusable is the one you use. Ours just happens to be pretty awesome.  We are proud of having created an appealing product that is fit for purpose, but beyond the feel good, do good, purchase, we aren’t solving any problems if the KeepCups are not being used.

How do we help KeepCup users commit to reuse and sustain the habit? How do we build a sense of progress and momentum and measure progress? 
Recently we got some focus groups together, we talked to some of our café customers and tossed around lots of ideas.  Some were great, some were ridiculous, some...let’s wait and see...

Initially we had the crazy idea that we would put reuse buttons "green eco counters" in all cafés and count every reuse.  The cost and administrative burden were deal breakers, until we realised that many cafés are already capturing this data through reuse discounts.

We know that the cafés give permission for reuse, and that their support of the reuse movement is critical to its success.  We also know from our own café experience that speed and efficiency are critical to a thriving café business, so we need to work with café owners to minimize impact on reuse.

So we have devised the KeepCup Biannual Reuse Survey.

If successful, this will help us build a global picture of the impact of reuse and improve those statistics over time – to salute, inspire and celebrate the efforts of people using reusable cups.

If we are part of a café business anywhere in the world, we would love your help:

With style and vigour we will publish the results at the conclusion of the World Barista Championships at the end of May.