Living the American Green

Tomorrow, April 14, is “Big Picture” day at Starbucks.  Now, don’t get all excited- they’re not giving away free giant photographs of coffee beans and barista tools- I know, it’s very disappointing.  But, according to the coffee cult’’s website, if you bring a reusable mug into any Starbucks tomorrow, they’ll fill it with coffee for free.  Why?  They want to encourage customers to think of the big picture by considering the life span of each thing they throw away.  Starbucks’ goal? To encourage more people to begin using reusable coffee cups daily, resulting in more trees and less disposable cups in landfills.  They’ve got an online pledge you can take, and the numbers fuel the site’s calculator which shows  “how many trees” people are predicted to save by using their own cups.

Dutiful readers, well aware of my usual attacks when it comes to company “greening” efforts, may be suprised at my reaction to this campaign.   I actually like this one!   It’s rare for a company to discuss customer’s habits, and motivate for positive change.  And this free coffee bit, followed by Starbucks’ unending promise of 10 cents off any drink when using a reusable cup, are pretty convincing perks.  Bribery works, and I’m interested to see just how many people Starbucks can get to take one step forward in reducing their daily waste.

Starbucks, no doubt, benefits widely from this plan: they get a lot of positive PR, a flood of customers tomorrow,  and reduced costs from not providing cups, sleeves, and lids to a large percentage of customers.  Still, though, I think the net positive outweighs the gain by Starbucks big wigs.  So dig out that coffee mug and get to drinking the pep juice- your environment needs you!

Who wrote this one?  Dana Variano is a screenwriter, director, and new media strategist. She is the founder of Where’s My Sled? Productions, and is currently working as Web Content Manager/Producer for a housing nonprofit. Read more from this author