Drew Langenberg
FOCUS Marketing and Communications Director
I am the last person to promote big corporations who, in my mind, don’t stand on the ethical high ground I would like them to, but sometimes, one of them does something that’s worth a mention.
Tech blog
Mashable.com and the
New York Times Blog are reporting on the end result of a design competition, called
betacup, Starbucks held to reduce the number of paper cups used (and thrown away) through unique designs. When I read the headline, I was excited that a multi-billion dollar, worldwide corporation was looking for new designs to reduce waste and go green. What came out of the contest was a bit of a letdown.
The winner is…. A chalkboard called Karma Cup. A jury of engineers, designers and corporate officials decided the best way to reduce the number of paper cups is with a chalkboard. Every customer who comes in with a reusable cup or mug gets to put a mark on the chalkboard. Every tenth customer with a reusable mug gets a free cup of coffee or other menu item.
It sounds like a great program. It’s simple, relatively inexpensive to implement and easy to participate in. However, I didn’t see any mention of a commitment from Starbucks to use the designs submitted (including the winner) or a timeline for rollout to retail stores. I hope they do roll it out. I would take a reusable mug to any coffee shop if I knew I had a one in ten chance of getting a freebie. We can still hope that it will happen.
In the meantime, Starbucks gets some free R&D and some good publicity, not just for the stores, but for the sustainability movement as a whole. It may so far be somewhat of a non-step (as there is no commitment to action), but it is a non-step that is pointed in the right direction.
Of course, I have to mention our report:
FOCUS St. Louis
® believes in sustainability and supports it at the local level. We don't have to wait for the world's giants like Starbucks to act, we can make a different right now in our hometowns. Please take a moment to review our
Environmental Sustainability Roadmap. It can help you understand the simple steps our local governments can do right now to help St. Louis become a cleaner, greener place to live.