As you may know, we have set aggressive goals around making our cups recyclable by 2012, and getting recycling into our stores by 2015. We’ve made some good progress, with recycling now available in our stores in Toronto, San Francisco, and (soon) Seattle for our cups and other packaging. We’ve also held a Cup Summit to bring key players in the cup supply chain together to help drive this because, well, the more brains we have thinking about the problem, the better. So we’ve now found a way to get even more brains involved – the Beta Cup Challenge.
Starbucks is sponsoring this contest to develop a more recyclable coffee cup, working with Colaboratorie Mutopo, who run the Beta Cup Challenge. This online contest invites entrepreneurs, designers, everyday folks and mad scientists to submit concepts and ideas, to be reviewed collaboratively on the Beta Cup website – http://www.thebetacup.com/. Anyone can submit an idea on how to reduce paper cup consumption and promote adoption of environmentally-friendly alternatives. Ideas will be open to the public for discussion, and community members and jurors will be able to provide feedback, allowing collaborators to refine and update their submissions through June 15, when the contest comes to a close.
Starbucks has provided $20,000 in cash prizes to be awarded for the most innovative ideas. The participant who submits the best idea, determined by an expert panel, will receive a $10,000 cash prize. In addition, participants whose ideas are among the top five selected by the community of collaborators will each be awarded a $2,000 cash prize. The competition starts on April 1, 2010 and ends on June 15. "We believe in harnessing the creativity of environmentally conscious individuals to identify new alternatives," says Jim Hanna, Starbucks director of Environmental Impact. So visit www.jovoto.com, register, and be part of the solution.