Hey, nice idea and presentation. could work great with many of the "hardware" concepts around betacup.

Great clean concept and I love the count down to saving a tree! So concrete and the hell if it doesn't make me want to try and help save a mini forest every morning.

While impressed with the simplicity by which the concept was presented. There is nothing new (under the Sun) here - a number of ideas already have touched on this. I my opinion this flies in the face of plagiarization

Great idea and beautifully expressed!

With a reusable mug, we KNOW we're making a difference! Good job!

there has already been a bunch of stuff like this....they just didn't have a sweet video.

I think this is very similar to our idea "The Starmug". It is the Same Basic idea but our is Fully integrated in the Starbuck's World (starcard) and offers much more!

Squalidsketch (Jan) is in the hospital at the moment, just has his iphoe there, and asked me to put the link to his idea he made with his team from karlsruhe: http://www.jovoto.com/contests/drink-sustainably/ideas/4826

This seems like a marketing campaign rather than a product. It's an interesting idea but presents some questions. First, I'm not sure I necessarily want any service knowing what beverages I buy and where and when. Second, it works if I have my cup with me - what if I don't? A solution can and should help change consumer behavior, but this idea depends on the consumer carrying the cup with him or her from home to car/transport to office to lunch back to office back home, etc. etc. I share the idea of educating consumers about the cumulative effect of small changes in behavior, but this seems to have some serious practical issues.

Thanks for the comments!

@msaundrs @qvistar @squalidsketch It's wonderful to see the momentum build around this approach (although the devil is in the details). Hopefully the differentiator is the focus on setting up a totally open platform, unlike many suggestions which are structured more like reward cards (which is tempting, but not as powerful).

If Starbucks were to use its clout to set up the infrastructure as an independent partnership with other major retailers (McDonalds, 7-Eleven, Dunkin, etc...) it would create a low cost platform for everyone. Even independent coffee shops could ultimately end up saving money on credit card processing and disposable cups. It could also lead to applications outside of coffee (e.g. smart drinks dispensers rather than packaged water/sodas).

Reward schemes could still be built on top of this, but the customer would see his contributions to solving the paper cup problem grow independently of where he chose to get his drink.

The other difference is opening the data and allowing others to build on it. The Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook examples would be mashups from this API, and there's no telling how much further it could go. You would get a virtuous loop where the data spreads outwards and leads to more and more useful applications (and not just high tech ones for social media veterans), and isn't limited to what the sponsoring coffee chain decides to do with it!

Let's hope the best parts of all our ideas make it to market!

What's with the over the top dramatic music? This is not such a revolutionary idea.

You need to observe people when they dispose of food waste. The vast majority just don't care when they think nobody is looking. Your idea goes out on a limb and assumes that people will even bother to pro-actively show off how green they are to others. Unfortunately that's a stretch.

This idea has one even more critical flaw. It complicates the simple act of enjoying coffee. Why does my future travel mug have to be a touch screen device? Even today, as much as I love my iPod Touch, I still forget it often enough. I don't think travel mugs, regardless of how fancy they get, are the answer.

Agree with many other comments above.

But the video is an excellent presentation. Kudos for the multimedia skills.

@bjerknes You're right, this solution doesn't work if you leave your cup at home, and that's how it affects consumer behaviour. Seeing the impact of your efforts would be a strong nudge towards bringing your own mug with you.

@Yayu You're right that people currently don't pay much attention to how they dispose of waste, but that's what we need to change!

That's the reason for the concept with an e-ink skin. When the technology becomes trivially inexpensive in 4-5 years it will be a great way to celebrate the impact of using your own mug. (see current prototypes here http://www.touchuserinterface.com/2009/12/e-skin-inspired-by-chameleon.html)

While disposable cups will always be around to some extent, we need to change our mentality about the way we consume. Even the greenest cup still needs to be manufactured, transported, and recycled/composted (and the bottoms of landfills are often too oxygen free to support biodegradation).

Solutions like yours may actually incentivise people to use disposable cups rather than their own cups, which takes us back to square one.

I hope that by making a drinks container compelling again, a significant proportion of us may be tempted to carry one with us throughout the day.

Oh, I like the dramatic music!

This is not an entirely new approach, there have been variations of the RFID mug (for example the Starmug jesko mentioned above) and also variations of the social mug which connects to the web and can be traced etc.

And let's not forget it was bradhankins who first brought the idea of the RFID-tagged mug to this contest in first place, as one of the very first submissions! http://www.jovoto.com/contests/drink-sustainably/ideas/4557

Still, I love the clip and your presentation goes into a lot of unique detail. I want thefuture mug, now! ;)

wow such a brilliant idea :) i think a lot of people will be part of this campaign (it should be promoted by facebook etc.)

Nice presentation! Your video is wonderful.... Your idea is very similar to the one I submitted in April... check it out http://www.jovoto.com/contests/drink-sustainably/ideas/4793

nicely done raph.

i went to a renaissance fair recently and noticed that all the people in period costumes had these pewter or wooden mugs attached to their belts by a leather loop and buckle. there seems to be a historical precedent for carrying a durable and fashionable drinking container at all times.

the difficulty would be getting starbucks' pricing strategy and store operations to really support a system like this.

Excellent presentation. This is one of the better ideas for motivating the adoption of reusable travel mugs that I've seen.

I totally agree with the open platform idea; the problem of wasted cups is too large to simply limit the solution to Starbucks.

Using an open platform would justify the IT overhead of tracking all the barcodes and users. A lot of other ideas use barcodes or RFID tags to track users for incentives; any such system using monetary or coffee incentives is prone to abuse, but your system incentivizes good behavior with honor and the desire to do the right thing. I love that!

@acaspary that's the idea behind RYOC the Cup - http://www.jovoto.com/contests/drink-sustainably/ideas/4831 - I totally agree about the challenge of "getting Starbucks' pricing strategy and store operations to really support a system like this [now]."

@Berkana - Excellent observation! About limiting this to SB - SB is one of many potential players - yet someone has to get the ball rolling. On another note - I can't imagine a concept out of step with SB existing business model favored over one - in contrast that would seamlessly integrate: http://www.jovoto.com/contests/drink-sustainably/ideas/5070

Moreover not only must a concept provide compelling incentive and measurable value, again I point to idea 5070; while not infallible "rewards card" based programs are proven effective, secure and capable of relatively eliminating abuse(rs).

Finally, a high level search will reveal that SB existing rewards program operates within a network cloud, i.e. (essentially) "open platform" (www.salesforce.com): "Data emerges from the cloud -- where it may be encapsulated, translated and transported in myriad ways...." Perhaps to the likes of "McDonalds, 7-Eleven, Dunkin, etc..." Accordingly this idea brings nothing new to the table - Nice video though.

Its funny how both our videos start in a very similar way even if our ideas are so different. Cool video. I love the futuristic cup.

@qvistar SB's rewards program is indeed hosted in the cloud, but that's very different from an open platform.

Hosting the data on the cloud simply means that it's stored in a 3rd party's data centers rather than on hardware owned by Starbucks (Salesforce.com is Saas, or, Software as a Service). It's still locked away from the world. Starbucks can cut it and slice it as you will - but behind closed doors.

An example of something (somewhat) more open is Flickr, where you can use their APIs to access the data or build applications on top of it (http://www.programmableweb.com/ logs many of these).

Anyone with a Flickr account can put data (pictures) in, and anyone can pull stuff out again (taking account of personal privacy preferences). Another example is WIkipedia. Open platforms outside of technology include things like shipping containers and road networks, in that they have multiple users and stakeholders, and that anyone can use them.

Starbucks has the beginnings of this technology, but several major things are missing before we have a truly open system: 1 - Can anyone (e.g. an independent coffee shop) sign up to use this payment, rewards and tracking system? (as you would with Paypal, or Google Analytics) 2 - Can anyone (taking account of privacy restrictions) access data and statistics through an API about how many cups are being saved, by who and where? Can they easily build applications on top of it? 3 - Is the platform controlled by a balanced group of organisations working together rather than by a single firm (e.g. the ultimate open platform, the web, is administered the W3C, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb_Consortium)

Salesforce is a commercial technology platform to facilitate Starbuck's customer relationship management. Moving from that to an open platform accessible to all would in fact be a very, very significant change from their current approach.

On the surface this is harder for Starbucks to justify from a pure business perspective, but the long term impact on IT spend and more importantly customer behaviour make it compelling. Even more so from an ethical perspective.

@lolec Right on! Good to see a kindred spirit :) There's something very artistically appealing about your idea, although I'm not sure I'd want to carry a cup holder around by itself. Could be a compelling way to customise a reusable mug though!

As many have mentioned above, this idea is widespread in many entries here. But I do like your video (although it could have been a bit more streched - not being English I am not so quick at reading English texts and thus had difficulties to follow it). ;o)

@idea owner - I think many of us take for granted that SB is to Coffee what Google is the the Internet. Got strategy? Of course they do! SB has provided many clues across the Internet regarding its problem and solving it. Reuse dominates.

I saw a documentary on Coca-Cola - Coke tried to change the game in the 80's by introducing a "new" Coke formula. It was a total disaster! Coke eventually regained market share by working with what it had - I doubt SB will introduce a new fangled cup of sorts - too risky. IMHO - look for the paper cup to advance to the back-burner driven by reuse - then eventually someday "fade" away.

Did I stray off point or what? I guess I am warming up to poke holes in the cups of the front runners (pun intended). Anyway, I commend you for your passion and creativity - Reason enough to give you some "rate love" ;)

Awww Qvistar ...don't poke holes ; )

@raphdamico You have explained your idea of using software so much better than I ever could. We truly do have the same idea in mind. If you haven't done so already... Please take the time to view/rate my entry and see that we are like minded to drive this idea to success!

Now that I have kept up with your responses to comments and see that you have worked very hard on your presentation. I feel that I can give you my best rating. Good luck my friend!

Melissa http://www.jovoto.com/contests/drink-sustainably/ideas/4793

Really impresive video! The idea is great, but I think @sweetmelissa put the same idea before you and I relly love her idea. So you deserve the same vote. But consider sharing award with her if you win. - it would be fair Just my opinion. Good luck!

P.S. I would appreciate if you take a look and comment my ZocDoc ideas. Thanks!

porting game mechanics. like it. nice!

I like the concept that it's not tied to a specific cup. I wonder about transferability, however. Can the tag/barcode be moved from cup to cup? What happens if you lose the cup w/the barcode on it?

Very nice presentation!! good luck!!

Whoa...I happened back on this page to review what others are saying about our similar idea (since I'm not getting much feedback on my page)......and I see that @Balic has been very kind to support my idea. Thank you for that!

@zakiwarfel - regarding the concerns of losing the cup with the barcode or using barcode with multiple cups : I have addressed this issue in my submission , which was submitted in April. May I ask for your review of 'Code Green' http://www.jovoto.com/contests/drink-sustainably/ideas/4793

This would've been a great idea had you not stolen it off of Code Green.

Code Green submitted on April 20th Champion Cup submitted on June 1st.

http://www.jovoto.com/contests/drink-sustainably/ideas/4793

Ok... so through PM from members of this community ...I have been alerted to exactly how similar your entry is to mine..and that the only difference is that you stuck the barcode on the mug (which I consider to be a flaw in it's versatility) instead of my idea of a removable keychain tag and member card. Now a red flag is thrown up IMO! You may be able to provide a more fancy, well edited presentation than myself. But we can't deny that my submission was a month earlier than yours which gave you ample time to fancy it up.

Now don't get me wrong...I know that with over 400 submissions...that there are going to be similar entries... but you worded your Twitter update just as I did, You made a tree graphic that fits the description of my "CODE GROW" game....and well the list goes on!!

@hard2imagin... Stole is a little harsh ....but I see that you are also aware of it's numerous similarities

I think using some of the mechanics of play to encourage positive consumer behaviour is pretty engaging. If something as functionally null as Farmville can be compelling enough to gather an immense user-base over social media then some of the same appeal to peoples desire to compete and carefully preen a representation of 'fitness' can surely be harnessed for the good!

Moreover I think you have responded admirably to some pretty harsh criticism. Good luck!

@sweetmelissa (and @hrd2imagin @baltic)

I hadn't seen your post before submitting. I've got to agree with you that @hrd2imagin is being unfair by talking of theft.

The idea of exposing information to change behaviour is not new (just look at the debate on home energy meters, e.g. http://bit.ly/12HL7X). I've been exploring it for a while. My biggest inspirations lately have been talks by game designers Jesse Schell & Jane McGonigal which I posted on my blog back in March (http://bit.ly/cMWkIm). These concepts have been floating around for a long time, but it's the execution that makes the difference.

It also seems far fetched to single out that we both came up with ideas around trees, given that the contest website itself points out the 20 million trees that we are trying to save by designing BetaCup.

To address your points here are some areas where we vary:

1) PERSON VS CUP / KEYCHAIN VS STICKER Investing the cup with this history will make for an even stronger reason to take it with you. Losing your cup or forgetting it SHOULD be a downer.

It's also more elegant to not give people yet another bit of plastic to carry around. If it's about the cup, then it should be on the cup.

2) OPENNESS Perhaps you meant this by saying that someone might write a Facebook application, but I don't think you explicitly pointed out how this would be executed. Champion Cup explicitly advocates an open platform, i.e. for everyone to use for payment and tracking rewards (from Starbucks to your local indie coffee shop).

Champion Cup also focuses on open APIs. A key part of the design is that anyone can build on it, not just participating retailers building promotions.

3) BARCODE & PAYMENT You suggest scanning the barcode after taking payment, but a key part of getting people to use this system is making it convenient. A big part of using a Champion Cup is that it gets you your coffee quicker and more conveniently too (rather than adding a step).

All that said, I love that we've converged on similar ideas though (and I notice others too, just look at this: http://bit.ly/ddI1PF, http://bit.ly/9nLE76, even http://bit.ly/9nVw29). It simply confirms that we've got something good.

You've got my vote too! Good luck!

It's also more elegant to not give people yet another bit of plastic to carry around. If it's about the cup, then it should be on the cup.

Haha, I know :) I've been writing in TextEdit then copy pasting it here!