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Starbucks expanding recycling program with coffee cups in Chicago

“Starbucks is finding new ways to use the 3 billion paper cups its customers use each year, even in cities where recycling is not popular or mandated.  This fall, it will send cups used at its Chicago stores to Green Bay, where a Georgia Pacific paper mill will turn them into Starbucks napkins.  The effort is a major push by Starbucks to create a commercial market for its used cups, which include 1 billion plastic cups for cold drinks.”

More pay-what-you-want Paneras coming

The Panera nonprofit restaurant model appears to be succeeding in its first month of operations. 

From the article: “Its cashiers tell customers their orders’ ‘suggested’ price based on the menu. About 60 to 70 percent pay in full.  About 15 percent leave a little more and another 15 percent pay less, or nothing at all.   A handful have left big donations, like $20 for a cup of coffee.”

Successful Strategies for Social Change

Very interesting examples of community building and trauma response from UNICEF and Ashoka that focus on the power of play to transform reality. 

Why Environmentalists Must Work with Big Corporations

Gwen Ruta, Vice President for Corporate Partnerships at Environmental Defense Fund discusses the risks and opportunities of working with big corporations on their environmental policies.

The opportunities outweigh the risks.  She says: “The horror of the BP oil disaster is the scope and impact that it’s having on the Gulf coast. Yet Fortune 500 companies, precisely because of their large scope and impact, can also use their leverage for good. EDF, for example, works with Walmart. The retail giant is hardly a darling among Progressives, but it provides unparalleled leverage in the consumer goods supply chain. If Walmart adopts higher environmental standards for product design and packaging, say, then those standards very quickly change operations at hundreds of thousands of factories around the world.”