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Keep Cup

Represented by Abigail Forsyth, Co-Founder and Managing Director

Answer

How does your organisation address climate change?

Launched in 2009, Australian company KeepCup has revolutionised the way consumers drink their takeaway espresso, by introducing the world’s first barista standard reusable cup, designed for drinking pleasure. Now sold in over 75 countries, KeepCup customers divert millions of disposables cups from landfill every year.

KeepCup is in business for better — as a founding B Corporation member, KeepCup is committed to making a positive impact for all stakeholders — workers, customers, suppliers, communities and the environment. As a member of 1% for the Planet, KeepCup donate at least 1% of global revenue to environmental causes.

KeepCup manufacture locally, work closely with suppliers to increase positive impact and practise circular design, focusing on reduced consumption, reuse and repair, and campaign for a world where we neither want, need or use single-use cups.

What is your organisation doing to create a better future?

We're committed to carbon neutral by 2025, with a focus on real reductions over offsetting, and are investigating adoption of a science based target. We design and make reusable and repairable products that replace single-use plastic. When used to their intended lifespan, KeepCups have a lower carbon impact than single-use cups. Used once every weekday for a year, and based on an eight-year lifespan, a Thermal KeepCup has a 77-87% lower footprint than using single-use cups.

We use Life Cycle Analysis of our products to help guide decision-making and identify hotspots in our supply chain. Our 2018 third party, peer reviewed LCA, and the 2020 addition to it, which covers the new KeepCup Thermal, is publicly available online for transparency and to empower others with strong environmental data that can aid decision making.

As a global business, transport of our products is a key area of focus, which is why we choose local manufacture for local markets, where volumes and production capacity allow. 41.5% of our supplier spend is on suppliers within 80km of our hubs.

We preference sea shipping over air freight and work with each of our suppliers to minimise impact in all possible areas. We also encourage our team to have virtual meetings and make cycling an accessible commute option to and from work with secure bike parking and showers.

Our offices have been solar powered since 2015 in Australia, and 2018 in the UK.

In 2019 we installed 76 KW of solar power on the roof in our new Australian offices. We use eleXsys -electricity export system, Planet Ark Power technology, to export excess power back into the grid. This is cutting edge technology designed to overcome barriers to commercial adoption of rooftop solar.

When it comes to our buildings, we adopt energy-saving measures including LEDs, sensor lights and energy efficient appliances as the baseline, making the extra effort to minimise our impact.

Most importantly we use our voice, and the actions of our customers to advocate for change. We support cross sector campaigns that call on governments and businesses to adopt strong climate action to limit global heating to 1.5degrees.

We recently launched our online Impact Calculator, that enables individuals and companies to forecast and track their impact, including the energy, carbon and waste savings made by switching to reuse. If an individual drinks five takeaway coffees in their KeepCup per week, for 50 weeks in a year, they will have saved 250 single-use cups from landfill, over 9kg of carbon dioxide (CO2e), 830g of plastic and over 5kg of timber.

The efforts of everyday changemakers over the last decade has demonstrated one thing above all else – that people want to be part of the solution and drive positive change. KeepCup is driven by individual behaviour change but, as a collective, we all have the power to remove social licence for single-use products and reduce waste and impact.