Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Seeley. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Hi Melissa, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Good To Go Cups began in 2021 with a partnership between Melissa Seeley and Michelle Horan. We are two women with a passion for environmental sustainability. We have 17 years of experience working in many facets of sustainability, from starting an organics program in the Edina public schools to working with local government on various environmental initiatives. We also have years of experience in sales, marketing, and finance from our former careers.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Translating passion into a viable business is challenging, but our mission to reduce waste and normalize reuse keeps us moving forward despite any obstacles. We have worked hard to communicate the Good To Go Cups story to coffee shops and potential customers. Finding the proper decision-makers in the coffee shop can be difficult, but once we explain the win-win of cost savings from purchasing fewer single-use cups and the positive environmental impact they are usually on board. We have tried many avenues to interface with potential customers, from tabling at the State Fair to chatting with people at our partner shops. It is an uphill battle against the convenience of disposables. However, once customers try our cup exchange program, they realize how easy it is to embrace reuse versus single-use.
We’ve been impressed with Good To Go Cups, but for folks who might need to be more familiar, what can you share about what you do and what sets you apart?
We both love coffee and hate the number of single-use coffee cups that seem present wherever we look, that fill up the trash cans, and that cannot be recycled or composted. We talked many times about tackling the problem in which we participated. We immersed ourselves in circular economy research and realized that the next movement in sustainability is reuse. All data suggests we cannot recycle our way out of our current waste problem. We are at the forefront of a paradigm shift into the circular economy where reuse is key. Recognizing that reuse is fundamental to our future sustainability, we chose one small area to address that will have a big impact. We designed and manufacture a unique reusable cup which will never become waste. Our fully closed-loop model is unlike any other and sets us apart from the competition. We have partnered with 10 Minnesota coffee shops, one in Wisconsin, one in Texas and two in Sedona, Arizona. Our value proposition to coffee shops is savings on single-use cups purchases and waste hauling fees. Customers download our app to purchase a membership in our cup exchange program which makes reuse easy and convenient. We are working hard to ensure a greater embrace of reuse and the subsequent reduction in the ubiquitous waste of single-use coffee cups.
What are your plans for the future?
We plan to expand to many more shops in Minnesota and beyond. We believe establishing reuse communities will accelerate adoption and behavior change more broadly. The amount of waste we all produce needs to be reduced, and reuse systems are the way to have the most significant impact on that waste.
Contact Info:
- Website: goodtogocups.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodtogocups/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085211307024&mibextid=PtKPJ9
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/89950524
Image Credits
Michelle Horan
