Ernielly Leo, a third-year international relations and geography student as well as promotions and outreach coordinator at Sprouts, is especially enthusiastic that the Mugshare program promotes Sprouts’ values of convenient and accessible options for acting and consuming sustainably. She also notes that starting the program with Seedlings, Sprouts and Agora could encourage participants to go to these sustainability-focused cafes.Ĭoffee and tea at Seedlings/Sprouts is also only 75 cents and at Agora only $1.25, cheaper alternatives to many other coffee and tea sources on campus.

The student can take the mug to go and within three days, return the mug to any of the cafes where they will wash it for you.Īccording to George Radner, campaign team director, signing up for this Mugshare pilot program provides a “convenient, money saving, environmentally friendly alternative to buying so many disposable coffee cups.”Īlison Fung, fourth-year environment and sustainability program student and another team director, also believes that the Mugshare program will help target behavioural changes towards only using reusable mugs. Student can take the card to the participating cafes and receive a hot beverage in a reusable travel mug. An interested student can sign up and pay a five dollar deposit fee at one of Seedlings, Sprouts or Agora Café, the three participating cafes, and receive a Mugshare card. The program has a simple and effective set up. After a year of brainstorming, Common Energy recently launched a Mugshare pilot project, funded by the AMS Sustainability Project Fund. This sustainability concern led Common Energy’s campaign team to come up with the idea of a Mugshare program. Although UBC coffee cups are recyclable, the quantity of cups consumed and the level of incorrect sorting is highly unsustainable.

In the one day of data collection, 490 coffee cups were found with only 17 per cent correctly sorted into the proper waste bins. They found similarly discouraging results. In 2015, UBC’s largest and most active student sustainability organization, Common Energy, conducted a waste audit on the old SUB. According to the UBC SEEDS Sustainability Program, at least 1.5 million disposable coffee cups are generated on campus each year.

Travel mug life cycle analysis