Why the biggest grands do not care?
Starbucks GO GREEN!
Not just your green logo.
But the lids and cups too!
Where is your PURPOSE?
Where is your MISSION?
Where are your VALUES?
Was it all dump together with the moment of billion dollars wealth?
4 important questions pop to my designer and consumer mind while I grab today a coffee and sparkling water in Starbucks.
I felt as awakening from a long dream in which I was blind for a long time where something was so obvious to notice. Is this a bit of brainwash, why I never asked myself or my friends (designers especially) following questions?
But before you start to read rest, while I write in real time now, make sure you enjoy a sparkling or still water with an ice in non-plastic cup, just simple glass. Ok? Deal?
Btw Carmel Latte - medium in case you want to invite me for one. 😏😋
1. Have you ever asked yourself why the biggest brands do not really care about Earth?
2. How about a smart designing for an environmental cause?
3. Starbucks' Logo Involved over the years...but how about reducing plastic, involving to what really matters especially when we reach the maximum button line of rubbish on our only one glob? Until Elon Musk gets us somewhere else, we have just one planet!
4. Why small businesses and everyday person, like you and me, care more about environment than the big shark, the global brands?
I notice today a shocking amount of plastic in Starbucks. Do my consumer's eyes were widely open today as I was the Red Riding Hood in the mouth of the Big Hungry for Money Wolf from mine and yours wallet, but not Hungry for Care of Planet Earth, were be both belong (me+you) and Starbucks Boss...Come on Starbucks You Can Do Better, I though! What is your name btw?
I should introduce myself. My name is Katarzyna and I am tiny compare to you. But I care I guess more than you...so I write to you out there Kevin Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks Coffee Company who has this important role from April, 2017 according wikipedia.
Or maybe I just a get a hint for something important to write...🤨today and tomorrow I forget and move on without even thinking ever again about PLASTIC. My gosh, we talk about it and do we actually do something about it?
Or maybe I never actually got a sparkling water ever before and was offer for the first time
non-recycled unpleasant in touch a plastic cup, which I politely refused to use it today and stick to drinking water from already plastic bottle without the refreshing, cooling ice.
P.S.: No, I did, now I got an instant flashback from last summer time, a road trip to UK and few other Starbucks' time out with an ice and water or juice over here in Ireland. 🙄
Oops, I did it again. Now, it feels odd, but I will continue. Because today even without this refreshing ice, I was refresh with my thinking. More present, I assume, due to practicing mindfulness and meditating almost every day, twice a day, plus being aware of my thoughts more than ever before. So I continue and you read and make sure, please at least now, you drink from GLASS not PLASTIC. Just to respect not me, but our Green Earth, which soon shall we all call Plastic Earth. That's how we should introduce our planet one day to Aliens, if they ever gonna come and rescue us from our human stupidity.
Funny thing but I though Starbucks Logo is in shape of a circle, plus it is green and Mermaid is like a link between Humans and Ocean, female mythological creature is going to wash out the plastic from the ocean...Does she? or It is just another Disney Fairy Tale...
How to rescue Earth from Plastic? or How to rescue Earth from Humans? or maybe better
How to rescue Earth from Global Brands who do not care...and we, little ordinary people are feeling more and more guilty about our daily grocery shopping...
Plastic. Plastic. Plastic. Everywhere PLASTIC. How about WE ALL COME BACK TO GLASS?
Especially you Big Fish out there. Kevin what do you think about it?
The small Restaurant in Dublin, Clontarf, called Bay, https://www.bay.ie/ (btw they have a great coffee and selection of food, which I enjoyed after 5 k Coast Run on last Saturday, 18th of January, 2020) offered me last time a sparkling water refilled and served in a super cool, eco-friendly glass bottle. Came with a normal glass made from glass, full of ice.
Sounds tasty. Sounds they care. Sounds they are smart. Isn't it?
Thank You! That's what I like it! GLASS with Logo. Not Plastic with Logo, which cannot be recycled it and maybe even swim somewhere there in Atlantic Plastic Ocean. Who knows?
Starbucks mythological creature help us and swim there with your double fishy tail and do something about it! Please mermaid. Please. Asked Gaya. Not me. I am too small to ask.
Why Starbucks as global brand cannot do it? Just simply care and replace plastic with glass made from glass.
The Big Fish needs to learn from Small Fish. Indeed.
Maybe I think now more about it and Just Today I Was More Aware Than Ever Before. But why?
Maybe because very soon I will design stuff more than ever.
Not only Mobile Apps and Responsive Design but also whole branding, which will be print in any shape and form. Scary. I will be responsible of rubbish. I pray to work for the ethical company, which at least care as much as the last one. I was lucky so I will be lucky again. 😊
Maybe I will have again a voice out there to introduce green subject, bring awareness and talk openly to replace the plastic coffee cups with glass mugs or at least recycled plastic mugs instead of non recycled plastic ones. My tongue twists. Too much mugs/cups & too much plastic.
Yes, I am not gonna hide this and I can say here honestly and as much as now I am still humble, that I have a tiny credit for that already in my last design art studio. My tiny, little impact in my last company, Perigord. Thank you to my CEO, Alan Leamy. I do appreciate that you were on the same page as me and others. I am still grateful for your impact to change for better.
To read more about Perigord please visit their website.
Thank you to every workmates who were involved even more than me for taking this green step into account and introducing recycled coffee mugs and get rid of the plastic cups.
FOREVER EVER. Great job guys! Although I must mentioned that some people were so stuck in the old way of doing coffee that were so childishly stubborn and not into a good change at all.
They say something, like I have a bigger problems than plastic cups and Earth. When I asked what is your problem, some of them stayed silent and some listed not health relative problems or even finance, but like what to dress or buy for Christmas or cook for dinner...I felt...PEOPLE WAKE UP. This lunch break, I will memorised as the most ridicule one I ever had. Sorry guys but I must say here, that I felt there is no grey matter out there, so I left the chit-chat and did my projects. That's at least mean something!
IS STARBUCKS AND OTHER CHAIN RESTAURANTS, CAFES, TAKE AWAYS AS SLOW IN THE PROCESS OF THINKING AND MAKING CHANGES AS TURTLES?
Do they have any mission, purpose, meaning or they are just big money machines...?
Making richer bank accounts and poorer planet...and us. Do they actually think at all?
Maybe those big fish are just like fish, big but with little brains...
Does Mr Kevin not see this? That Eco-Friendly, suitable to Earth reused products matters.
Is the big boss of Starbucks the same as some of my ex workmates?
Maybe? Quite possible, indeed.
Time came that a small-medium size companies and brands care more than the large and global ones. Big Fish needs to get a lesson from Small Fish. Crazy world, isn't it?
To make it clear, I rarely visit Starbucks and apart from shaming a bit Starbucks, I am not super eco green person myself. I do not put myself and fight for GreenPeace. Shame on me. Can I even talk about recycling or should I first write PhD? What matters no matter if you green peace fighter or average human, that you see what is going on, do you?
I know. I do my best with this what matters, tiny steps because it should matter but I must admit, it is bloody hard to avoid 100% plastic from your life. I try my best as tiny, little human, even I like so much the convenient life style. I admire take away food, which I can just grab and go. I like packaging, advertising design too, that's what I was doing for living since graduation.
Designing branding makes the similar or even same products feels different.
At least now, after transition from typical graphic design to UI/UX, I will do more digital branding than printing. Maybe even create RECYCLE MATTER APP TO INCREASE AWARENESS.🤓
P.S.: THANK YOU for this transition. Thank you Life, to myself and to everyone who were on my path to become UI/UX Designer. Career Foundry, Tutors, Mentors, Career and Student Advisors and Bea Mendyk, my dearest friend, 1st Wizard, also new in the field, but so Creative UI/UX Designer. Love you guys, Your 7th Wizard.
Fresh UI/UX Designer, feels like fresh as new born fish in the ocean free from packaging, quite often plastic design. No more ethical responsibility of tones of rubbish.
Together with ColourDublin and many other volunteer self-mated groups, I cleaned lots of canals, beaches, forest, fields, off roads,
neighbourhoods, playgrounds, lakes, oceans, seas...
I must admit, I swam in the Royal Dublin Canal to clean it...I didn't get any CORONA...But I got a treasure. Big time!
There is never-ending of dummies people who throw rubbish everywhere, dummies companies which creates those rubbish, dummies governments which do not put any restrictions on packagings.
One simple thing will change the whole idea of rubbish. Do not create non-recycled plastic. Start with basics. SIMPLE THINKING. 🤔
IS THAT HARD FOR EU TO PUT RESTRICTIONS ON BIG BRANDS FIRST?
DUMP THE LOGIC AND SPEND YEARS, GENERATIONS
TO RECOVER!
Does digital design impact Earth as much as printing design? Wouldn't be great to make printing just for art not packaging at all. As it used to be in time of my early days of life and the life of my parents and grandparents for sure. Packaging appeared with capitalism. Post Communistic Country were everything was equal, didn't have branding as much.
Packaging design in day to day life as food, cosmetics, household items should be decrease to minimum. I was shocked one I started long ago. Hours of work of many people, throw to bin in split secs. Plus tones of trees too.
That's why now, I go digital as UI/UX Designer. That's my now life designer mission.
Plus personally, I must say, I use as much as possible eco-friendly, recycled, very simple design products whenever I have a choice to choose from. Thank you those brands, which give consumer A CHOICE.
But that's for another topic. let's here come back to Starbucks Story Telling.
But come on, why Starbucks and any other big brands out there cannot do it, I wonder.🤔
That's why I would not like to go there more often. I will try to skip, but I know sometimes I will still go there, I know that already while writing now, which sounds mad. I know.
You know why it will be hard to skip, because as Plastic, Starbucks is EVERYWHERE, especially on the national roads/motorways from Wales to Cornwall in UK.
In Dublin is easy to go somewhere else but on the highway not really while you drive non stop 600 km in one day to rich the ferry and back to Dublin. No different choice than Starbucks. Yep. I like it, it is convenient but from now let's try just a ceramic mug and BIG NO to what is not recycled. Coffee taste better in a ceramic mug. That's already proved by science too.
ECO RENEWABLE RESOURCES?
How about simple glass and no food plastic packaging at all?
Maybe I will write again and again until I will say STOP to myself and prepare food, coffee as my parents used to do when we travelled those days where there was no take aways in Poland. Happy Times!
Maybe I'll really start to pack food to a bag and pour homemade coffee to thermos as the same as we all do when we hike or go picking. Maybe Starbucks and any other Big Brands will start to actually care and they will make a change and that time, I will have my sparkling water from glass refilled bottle in a glass made from glass with a refreshing, cool ice. Maybe?
So this is a small voice of consumer and designer, coffee lover.
Let's call myself a fish size of sprat or even smaller and Starbucks is the biggest whale, the blue whale but this blue whale doesn't really care and instead of cleaning ocean from plankton, he leaves tone of plastic out there. SAD. 😞 😢 VERY SAD.
As Designer who is quite addicted to stare at logos, appreciate various design ideas and admire those who creates them, measure those famous global icons with with my detailed oriented eye everywhere where I go for the last 10+ years, I like Starbucks brand. I do.
To make it even clearer: I do admire the global growth of the brand. This was once just a dream and expanded globally. That's I must say, it is amazing to be able to create something like that on the same scale as much older brands. Yes true, big brands co-operations help each others. But originally it was just a dream of coffee shop. It was a just a dream. Is this now a NIGHTMARE to Earth, to us?
I must say also, that actually I like, really like the mermaid logo from all various reasons, how it involved over century, the mythology behind it plus on the top of that tangible aspects as friendly staff, good deals, super fast wi-fi, comfy couch, but today Starbucks made me feeling upset.
I felt frustrate and a bit angry indeed, because it is XXI century and we are AWARE.
We should be aware globally, not only individually.
For sure: I do not like the non recycled strategy of the company I must admit. This has to change.
Pretending is just making me even more frustrate and simply angry.
I am consumer, and I demand a change. I still wanna have a convenient food and coffee as you go mugs but they can with nowadays technology be recycled. All kind of products can be recycled. Plus if I stay in, eat and drink in and order water, I demand to get water in a glass bottle, refilled as in the small restaurant mentioned before with a glass made from glass. Please.
I feel there should be a massive TAX paid by those companies and even better the Government restrictions of NO to NON RECYCLE PLASTIC IN ANY SHAPE AND FORM.
Would this solve the global issue in which we live day by day adding more and more of this...?(add "s" word of your choice)
IS THIS FAIR STARBUCKS TO DO NOT GIVE A **** ABOUT PLANET AND HUMANS? ABOUT CONSUMERS? ABOUT US?
Fancy cups are swimming now in ocean, no matter if they are non recycled or recycled. SERVE COFFEE IN MUGS FROM CERAMICS, WATER AND SMOOTHIES IN GLASS AND FOR TAKE AWAYS OFFER ONLY REUSABLE MUGS. SIMPLE.
S.I.M.P.L.E
As the biggest Coffee Brand, if you do it every other cafe will do it! Let them follow you as "Leader" in the good cause. Start to be smarter not only in making money and branding but in PLASTIC too.
Plus for Starbucks: At least they offer coffee/tea in ceramic mugs I need to say it up front (here in the end of the post). So at least they give choice with tea and coffee. Consumer Choice. That's what I am asking. But How About Juice, Smoothies and Simple Water with Ice?
DO NOT BE A CLEVER RAT MAKING MONEY WHILE AT THE SAME TIME BEING A POISON TO THE PLANET, TO US...SOON NONE WILL LIKE TO PLAY WITH A RAT...AS RAT...GENERALLY S.CKS...
Please Starbucks make this change for Good and for Good of All, for your own grandchildren if you have them. Mr Kevin, The Big Fish of The Biggest Coffee Shop on Planet Earth, The Chef of Starbucks.
Maybe, the logo itself, the famous mermaid in the green circle made me think about Earth today more than ever.
Maybe it is time to connect the dots. Branding with Awareness.
The well recognised global mark involved over the years with famous logo but how about recycling cause and a simple glass for water made from glass instead of plastic cup? Starbucks make this change.
Please.🙂 P.L.E.A.S.E
Behind this straight forward text is:
Humble UI/UX Designer, although bold and witty as can be read. 👩🏻💻
Coffee Lover. Decafé Lover too. All kinds of Teas are my 2nd Love. ☕️
Aware but not perfect Consumer. Nature & City Patron. 🌏🌍🌎
Who has S.I.M.P.L.E enough IGNORANCE OF BIG FISH BIG BRANDS BIG GOVERNMENTS
Collecting Rubbish as I had been doing that for years is kind of victim circle.
They PRODUCE. some throw it out wherever. Others collect and again.
START AGAIN THE DUMMIES CIRCLE. They produce, some folks dump them as they do not care as thee big brands also do not care and others collect as they care but they also buy those plastic cups most of the time.
STARBUCKS: DO NOT EXPECT FROM PLAIN JEANE AND SIMPLE JOE TO KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH PLASTIC.
IF YOU KNOW HOW TO RUN THE BUSINESS OF BILLIONS DOLLARS...
NOW IT IS TIME TO USE THE OTHER HALF OF THE BRAIN TO START TO USE REUSABLE MATERIALS AND AVOID ANY RUBBISH AT ALL.
THE CHAIN OF RUBBISH HAS TO BE CUT IN FOUNDATION IN PRODUCERS.
MEANING YOU.
Btw if you wanna know more about how 'Cool' is Starbucks, because you do not really care about plastic and you care about branding, please go to: https://www.starbucks.ie/
With My Green Love Heart to Our Only One Planet - Earth!
💚I will try my best. Cannot promise. But I will try my best.
No more take away coffee in plastic mugs.
Coffee Lover. Branding Lover. Planet Lover.
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