“We are a business built on the advocacy of individual users. We are at our best when we arrive at decisions that consider all of the perspectives and look forward with optimism and authenticity” – KeepCup
Born in Glasgow but raised in Melbourne, Abigail Forsyth graduated in Law in 1994 from Melbourne University and worked for a Melbourne firm of solicitors until 1998, when she and her brother, Jamie, joined forces and launched a café business. Their coffee was served in non-recyclable cups that were lined with polyethylene that takes some 30 years to degrade. Over the years, as the venture grew, they became increasingly concerned at the number of cups going to landfill, and not just in Melbourne. Indeed, some 600 billion coffee cups are used each year, most of which end up as litter or in landfill, together with their plastic lids and stirrers.
In 2007, having developed and trialled a reusable soup mug, they decided to design and develop their own barista-standard reusable coffee cup. So, in 2008, they established KeepCup and sold their first cups in 2009 at an independent design market. Their design and colourful appearance proved to be attractive to consumers, and in 6 hours they sold 1000 cups. By 2020, 10 million polypropylene cups had been sold in some 75 countries, preventing the use and disposal of an estimated 8 billion disposable cups. The cups are manufactured in Australia and the UK, their two main markets. and the venture, which had an Aus$8 million (£4 million) turnover in 2020, employs some 40 people.
According to Abigail, who bought out her brother in 2014, the venture really took off in 2017 following a “War on Waste” documentary produced by the Australian Broadcasting Company. This three-part series highlighted the 52 megatonnes of waste produced in Australia each year and focused on the life cycle of the 1 billion disposable coffee cups yearly sent to landfill. As a consequence, sales increased by 400 per cent. “Going from 300 online orders per week to over 1000 hasn’t been easy,” Abigail has acknowledged, and “it couldn’t have been done without the dedicated team…” she says. “It’s great to have people in the business with the capacity to take on more work in the short term, who want to help, and are really engaged in what they’re doing”.
From the outset the objective of KeepCup was to initiate a change in consumer behaviour via a global campaign that would replace “discard” with “reuse” and promote the concept of a circular economy. While they believe in the power of cultural influence and the everyday choices consumers make, they reinforce their own contribution to saving the planet by using recycled or Forest Stewardship Certified cardboard and paper for their packaging, while their London and Melbourne offices are solar powered, and they donate 1 per cent of their revenue to environmental projects via the global 1% For the Planet project. Apart from their own efforts, KeepCup have collaborated with third parties such as the Bank of England, the Australian Open tennis tournament, the Strawberry Fields Music Festival, and LinkedIn Dublin to reduce their dependency on single use cups and introduce the idea of re-use, while a partnership with the University of Leeds prevented 118,000 single use cups being sent to landfill.
All of this has been achieved despite setbacks. Initially, for example, their ideas were ridiculed by the Australian designers and manufacturers they approached. However, this only made Abigail and Jamie more determined to succeed and in January 2023, in its feature identifying the “11 best reusable coffee cups that aren’t adding to the landfill” the independent newspaper rated the KeepCup “design your own” as the best customisable cup of the eleven. Also in 2020, the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic severely affected the business as many coffee shops were required to close or refused to accept reusable cups. However, KeepCup demonstrated to their café owner customers that they were not contravening health and safety regulations and, when coupled with consumer demand, both the concept and the business have survived. As a consequence, KeepCup, which is a B-Corp (score 121.8), can be regarded as a successful harmonious enterprise in which profit, planet, and people are in harmony. It addresses SDGs 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 9 (Industry Innovation and Infrastructure), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life Below Water), 15 (Life on Land), and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).
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