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Think Beyond Plastic – Innovation Competition Brng.it is a program that uses mobile phone technology, education and outreach, and social networking to encourage the Bring Your Own Reusable ethic (#BYOR) in place of using single-use disposable items. Contact: John Rabasa Co-Founder, Managing Director [email protected] (m) 434.409.5281 @brng_it /Brng.it

Brng it _ Think Beyond Plastic Innovation Competition Application

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Brng.it is a program that uses mobile phone technology, education and outreach, and social networking to encourage the Bring Your Own Reusable ethic (#BYOR) in place of using single-use disposable items.

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Page 1: Brng it _ Think Beyond Plastic Innovation Competition Application

Think Beyond Plastic – Innovation Competition

Brng.it is a program that uses mobile phone technology, education and outreach, and social networking to encourage the Bring Your Own Reusable ethic (#BYOR) in place of using single-use disposable items.

Contact:John Rabasa

Co-Founder, Managing Director

[email protected]

(m) 434.409.5281

@brng_it /Brng.it

Page 2: Brng it _ Think Beyond Plastic Innovation Competition Application

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The ProblemEvery time a bottle bill or plastic bag ban is proposed, opponents are quick to point out that these measures are unnecessary because we can simply recycle.

What is often missed is that recycling captures only 7.1% of post-consumer plastics, 21.1% of aluminum and 23.1% of glass1. Plastic is recycled in a so-called “open loop,” downcycled into a lesser grade product that cannot be recycled again.

For most of us, recycling is the introduction to living in a more ecologically responsible way. Recycling is important, diverting valuable resources from the landfill or incinerator, but recycling has also masked the real problem: we are consuming resources and producing waste at unsustainable levels2 and harming human and environmental health in the process.

Adopting a zero waste mentality does not come naturally in our society. It requires new habits that emphasize refusing, reducing and reusing in our daily lives.

Brng.it Concept Brief Proprietary and confidential

Brng.itThink Beyond Plastic – Innovation Competition

827,000 to 1.3 million tons of plastic PET water bottles were produced in the U.S. in 2006, requiring the energy equivalent of 50 million barrels of oil. 76.5 percent of these bottles ended up in landfills.3

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Solving the Problem

Our Insight: Building sustainable habits is not unlike other goals we aim to adopt, like losing weight or getting fit. We benefit from support systems such as:

• Setting goals and having a way to measure progress

• B e l o n g i n g t o a l i k e - m i n d e d community

• Getting recognized and rewarded

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Brng.it motivates and rewards individuals for refusing single-use items by bringing and using their own reusable items.

Using our app on their smartphone, individuals “check-in” to a location—such as a store, coffee shop or their place of work—and “tag” the reusable items they brought.

Every time you BYOR, Brng.it follows your progress, recognizes your achievements, helps you “see” your impact individually and collectively, and allows you to share your action with friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare.

Brng.itThink Beyond Plastic – Innovation Competition

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Brng.it is free to consumers, but sold as a turn-key program to businesses and institutions to help them meet their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability goals on an annual subscription basis.

Benefits include:

• Reducing expenses associated with supply and disposal of single-use products.

• Measurement of progress on sustainability goals.

• Reducing environmental harm resulting from single-use disposables (toxics, emissions, litter, wildlife impacts).

• Engagement with stakeholders through supporting responsible resource use and environmental protection.

4

Our Customer: Businesses and Institutions

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How it Works

6Brng.it

Think Beyond Plastic – Innovation Competition

Our user checks in at the store, café, etc. and tags the i tems he br ings , generating points.

He also checks in at work, earning more points.

Business and Institutions that subscribe to Brng.it get a program that provides m e t r i c s , e m p l o y e e engagement, reduction of their waste and support to meet their sustainability goals.

Merchants pay for tools to verify check-ins and offer rewards to their customers.

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Sales & MarketingOur strategy is to enter businesses and institutions through a “bottom-up” and a “top-down” approach. Bottom-up is by targeting individual users, specifically sustainability minded millennials and students, to adopt and use Brng.it in their daily life, including at school and at work. Top-down will require contacting HR, Sustainability and CSR professionals at businesses and universities, focusing our sales efforts in key markets where our data shows our users are checking-in and using our product.

The three pillars to our strategy are:

Create Awareness and Adoption Activate on University Campuses Approach Corporations

Grow our audience, primarily using social media and PR

• Launch crowdfunding campaign to generate awareness and support product development.

• Partner with a cause and a donor that will match donations with items reduced, and create the One Million Disposable Items Refused campaign.

• Create content to grow and leverage our social media presence (Blog, Twitter, and Facebook).

*YEAR ONE COST: $5,000 – $10,000

Generate interest and awareness inside of campuses with key partnerships and WOM

• Hire an agency, such as KIP Digital (student run) that focuses on WOM and student engagement, starting in key universities (UVa, UC Berkeley, CU-Boulder, Tufts, etc.).

• Sponsor sustainability events at universities, and make Brng.it part of the events.

• Partner with the universities’ catering and waste management vendors, such as Aramark or WM, to introduce Brng.it as part of their offerings.

*YEAR ONE COST: $20,000 – $30,000

Mine data where our users are checking-in at work and locations nearby. Begin sales effort using those leads. Promote the service via trade publications and events.

• Pilot program at one or two corporations to work out product and program offerings, as well as create case-studies to publish.

• Attend and participate at conferences and events focused on sustainability and employee engagement, such as SxSW Eco.

• Create and place content in publications, newsletters and blogs aimed at CSR.

*YEAR ONE COST: $20,000 – $30,000*Does not include salaries

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Competitors

Competitor Description How Brng.it Differs

Causecast

Causecast combines social networking with tools to help businesses and organizations manage community volunteering, donations, matching, and cause campaigns.

Similarly, Brng.it aims to provide the organization with tools to measure the impact of the program. While the focus of Causecast is giving and volunteering for the benefit of charities and causes, Brng.it looks to improve the organization’s own sustainability practices as it moves employees toward sustainable behaviors.

Practically Green

Practically Green uses a diagnostic tool, game mechanics and social networks to help people reduce energy, save water, limit exposure to household toxins, and preserve natural resources. It is free for consumers, and they sell their content and program to corporation’s for employee engagement.

While Practically Green has a diverse set of content, the site gives credit for doing something once, mixing together mundane items (take shoes off at home) with rare ones (buying a washing machine). Brng.it focuses on building habits that can be applied regularly, and is not limited to the grocery store or the coffee shop, as the individual learns to get credit from any opportunity to reduce waste at the source.

Recylebank

At Recyclebank, you earn points for taking everyday green actions like learning how to use less water or making greener purchases. Then, you can use those points to get rewards. Rewards come from participating brands that want to market to their users. They work directly with consumers and brands, and at this point, not with businesses or organizations.

Recyclebank actions that are rewarded are often pledges, or purchases of sponsored products. Brng.it is used at the time and place that the action is taken, and is therefore more specific and measurable, especially when we are able to roll out verified check-ins.

VolunteerMatch

VolunteerMatch matches volunteers with causes. Causes, charities and non-profits list their needs. Volunteers are able to search for opportunities. They have a robust set of tools for corporations to engage employees, brands to align with causes, and universities to manage all campus wide volunteering, helping students fulfill service hours.

VolunteerMatch demonstrates the model and opportunity with a long history and a diversity of offerings. Brng.it’s focus is not on volunteerism, but on small acts of activism and ongoing waste reduction. Our approach is more along the lines of health and fitness programs that allow goals to be set, progress to be measured, and access to a community of like-minded supporters.

Brng.itThink Beyond Plastic – Innovation Competition

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People

John RabasaManaging Director

Peggy GilgesDirector of Sustainability, Editor-in-Chief

Julio Hernandez-MiyaresDirector of Technology

John is founder of User Experience and Product Strategy consultancy, UX Partners. Previously he was Head of Product and co-founder at I’mOK,.

Before that was Managing Director for SF office of Publicis Modem, in charge of the P&L, the Experience Strategy practice and oversight of key accounts.

He has held multiple roles in Product, User Experience and Technology at Aol., R/GA, and start-ups ePals and U.S. News Ventures.

Peggy completed the Sustainable Practices Program at Dominican University and the master class of the Environmental Forum of Marin in 2011. Her project on environmentally preferable food ware for Marin County was the inspiration for Brng.it.

Previously she was the senior specialist and Head of 20th Century Decorative Arts at Christie’s, New York.

Julio is VP of Architecture and Engineering at USA Today Sports Media. Prior to that he was CTO and co-founder at ImOK with John.

Before joining I’mOK, he was VP of Technology and CTO for Entertainment and Games at Aol where he headed a global development organization of software engineers, architects, project managers and QA. In his 10 year career at Aol., he has managed tech teams for various media properties in local, news, entertainment, and video having supported a wide gamut of online properties.

Jim DavidsonBoard Member

Jim Davidson is an early-stage investor and advisor with over 20-years of internet technology experience. Previously, he was a senior leader at Aol where he served as CTO of DigitalCity, the internet's first hyper-local portal, and later as VP of Web Services and Publishing. Jim has also been a leader at early-stage companies including: CTO of ShareThis.com, President of Examiner.com, and co-founder and CEO of Laborfair.com, an online marketplace for disadvantaged service providers. Jim is now focused on early-stage impact-investing, providing capital and advice for companies which leverage technology to further their social-benefit and sustainability missions. He is also a guarantor with MicroCredit Enterprises which helps fund micro-loans around the world.

Azin MernooshAdvisor

Azin is a serial social entrepeneur who founded HiDef, inc. which focuses on technology solutions for global social sector NPOs and NGOs. He is currently working on revolutionary new ways to push children's education technology into the future using mobile tools with his new venture, Bright Bot, inc. Azin refuses to take a vacation when the landscape of American business objectives is so skewed toward profit only; the environment is an afterthought. Azin believes that there is a better way to be both profitable and stewards of our environment, and is working to see that vision realized in everything he does.

Attorney: Kevin Robertson, Ober KalerCPA: Tommy Everett, Hampton&Everett

Brng.itThink Beyond Plastic – Innovation Competition

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Financials

Item 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017RevenueRevenueRevenueRevenueRevenueRevenue

Number of customers @ $10,000 / anum average subscription price $10,000 $140,000 $450,000 $1,300,000 $3,500,000

Other Income (e.g. Sponsorships) $0 $4,000 $80,000 $200,000 $500,000

ExpendituresExpendituresExpendituresExpendituresExpendituresExpendituresCost of production based on number of active users * $0.20 avg cost / user

for services (e.g. AWS, APIs)$6,000 $20,000 $80,000 $200,000 $600,000

Salaries and benefits, avg $100,000 / employee

$100,000 $400,000 $800,000 $1,000,000 $1,200,000

Marketing - high estimate, increased 1.8.x / year

$70,000 $126,000 $226,800 $408,240 $734,832

Product development (outsourced) $80,000 $80,000 $40,000 $20,000 $20,000

Rent, supplies, travel, etc. avg $5,000 / employee $5,000 $20,000 $40,000 $50,000 $60,000

TotalsTotalsTotalsTotalsTotalsTotals

($251,000) ($502,000) ($656,800) ($178,240) $1,385,168

Brng.itThink Beyond Plastic – Innovation Competition

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Sustainability efforts on our part

We are an early stage, impact start-up formed as an LLC. At the point at which Brng.it needs to be incorporated as part of our A-Series round, we intend to do so as a Benefit Corporation, which Virginia recently allowed. Our LLC has already adopted the charter requirements as part of its operating agreement.

Our footprint is small, and we favor green partners. Our hosting is provided by HostGator, which powers its data centers with 130% wind energy4. Our printing is by GreenPrinters on their 100% post consumer paper with soy inks.

VS

Americans throw away 25 billion non-recyclable  styrofoam cups each year, enough to circle the Earth 436 times. 5

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Brng.itThink Beyond Plastic – Innovation Competition

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StatusIn the Spring of 2012, we received $50,000 from our angel investor, which allowed us to develop our minimal viable product as an iOS app, and soft-launch it in the iTunes Store late Summer.

With no promotion, we have the following numbers:

• 200 Downloads

• Top countries include USA, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, The Netherlands, Austria and Yemen

• 90 active members, 423 check-ins, preventing 1088 items from being disposed.

However, we do not feel our current product is sufficient as an MVP to give us the feedback we need, especially as tested in a corporate environment.

Were we to win the $50,000 investment, we would use the funds to do some additional product development and start our marketing efforts, namely:

• Add social rewards and community (badges, etc.)

• Using EPA’s WARM, or other methods of calculation, to convert the resource savings into a measurement of carbon dioxide emissions prevented through source reduction, giving users and customers an even greater illustration of the impact of their sustainability efforts.

• Port the app to the Android platform, as well as create a web view of the data.

• Start a pilot with a university, business or organization.

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Thank you!

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AppendixSources and Additional Links

1. In 2008, only 23.1% of glass disposed of was recycled, and only 7.1% of plastics and 21.1% of aluminum. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2009, November). Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States Detailed Tables and Figures for 2008. Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. Retrieved June, 2010 from http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2008data.pdf

2. Global Footprint Network –Living Planet Report 2010http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/2010_living_planet_report/

3. 827,000 to 1.3 million tons of plastic PET water bottles were produced in the U.S. in 2006, requiring the energy equivalent of 50 million barrels of oil. 76.5 percent of these bottles ended up in landfills. – U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2009, June). Bottled Water: FDA Safety and Consumer Protections are Often Less Stringent than Comparable EPA Protections for Tap Water. Retrieved June 2010 from http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09610.pdf

4.http://www.hostgator.com/green-web-hosting.

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Sources and Links (cont.)

5. Americans throw away 25 billion non-recyclable styrofoam cups each year, enough to circle the Earth 436 times. Source: Ed Humes, Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash, (2012), pp. 95-96.

MORE:

Less than 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled each year. Recycling one ton of plastic bags costs $4,000. The recycled product can be sold for $32. – Clean Air Council. (2009, May). Why Plastic Bag Fees Work. http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html

58 billion paper cups are thrown away (not recycled) every year, 20 million trees are cut down in the process of manufacturing paper cups, and the amount of water used in the process is approximately 12 billion gallons. Betacup http://www.thebetacup.com/about/

Americans annually use 40 billion plastic knives, forks and spoons. Source: Ed Humes, Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash, (2012), p.15

The United Nations estimates that a minimum of 7 million tons of trash ends up in the ocean each year. 5.6 million tons of which (80 percent) is plastic. Source: Ed Humes, Garbology, Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash, (2012), p. 121.