A.J. Worden, Marketing, ’15, and a team of students from the Tippie College of Business recently organized a campus-wide event for Earth Day called “Take Back the Cups” to spread awareness on the environmental impacts of paper cup waste at the university. Worden and his group members partnered with Active Endeavors, University of Iowa Student Government (UISG) and UI Take Back the Taps to bring the event to fruition.
The idea was to promote sustainability through a campus wide “bring your own cup” initiative, which would save students and faculty money and save the planet in the process by decreasing individuals’ carbon footprints.
Worden said that the idea was inspired by Professor Dave Collins’ progressive business class, “Marketing and Sustainability,” and served as his final project for the class.
“We chose reducing paper cups as an environmental initiative because we wanted to start something with a smaller focus that is more commonly used by students and staff,” said Emii Le, a fellow Tippie student who worked alongside Worden to create the campaign. “The effort for someone to start using their reusable cups is also really simple and easy to do. I thought even if we could change someone’s behavior, or get their attention on something as small as not using a paper cup every time they drink coffee it would create a huge impact on campus and the environment as a whole and in the long run.”
The event took place in three different university locations: Pat’s Diner in the Pappajohn Business Building, the Main Library café and the Iowa Memorial Union café. Students and faculty were encouraged to bring reusable containers to these locations when buying coffee or drinks in order to reduce their footprint. Le said that between the three locations, there was a 25-30 percent increase in reusable cup transactions on the day of the campaign compared to a typical Wednesday.
Though the campaign was set to end after Earth Day, Worden and Le encouraged students and faculty to take the idea beyond the constraints of their one-day campaign. Why not work towards saving the planet from overconsumption and waste through small, daily acts of sustainability? The group informed students, faculty and staff that they can receive discounts at all university locations for using cups they already own, at any time! This means lower prices for consumers and lower running costs for businesses, all while being good to Mother Earth. The incentives are hard to deny.
In terms of the Earth Day incentives, University-affiliated patrons could enter into a raffle at one of the three participating locations, or post a photo of themselves refilling a reusable cup to any social media platform with the hashtag, #BYOCupUI, in order to win prizes like Kleen Canteens, funded by Active Endeavors, as well as Chipotle gift cards and energy-efficient light bulbs, funded by Take Back the Taps and UISG.
Le said the Facebook event generated 130 participants and that 15 different university-affiliated Twitter and Facebook accounts shared the event on their platforms.
“We received a lot of positive feedback from faculty and staff,” said Le. “Lots of our peers and classmates were also surprised about the facts on paper cups and their impact on the environment. The overall experience was very positive and I had a great time gaining experience with our four team members to create a campaign on campus for a class project.”
Despite the campaign’s finite nature, Le and Worden hope that the initiative will return in the future.
“I strongly think that this event could be implemented again in the future because it takes very little effort and focused on topics that would make an impact on campus,” said Le. “I’m sure that seeing our successful results, this would push other organizations or institutions on campus to take the idea further and expand it on a bigger scale. Perhaps starting the initiative in all coffee shops – not only on-campus – but off campus, as well.”