An Overview of the Carrotmob Model:
1) organizers of a campaign make an agreement with a business
2) a mob of people spend money at the business
3) the business makes a change to its practices to become more responsible (eg sustainable)
On Monday, September 10, 2012, Carrotmob launched its first ever, global campaign with Thanksgiving Coffee company, an artisan coffee roaster in Northern California. The family-run company buys from small farms and cooperatives around the world, and already embraces cutting edge sustainability practices. They are determined to make their coffee as Earth friendly as possible. These efforts includes a novel initiative to transport their coffee beans by wind-powered shipping instead of using container ships fueled by oil.
Global shipping currently accounts for more than a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Since coffee is the most widely traded agricultural commodity in the world, the potential impact of this campaign is vast. Small coffee companies have already transformed industry practices as proven by the increase in fair trade sales over the past decade. A move by small coffee companies to wind-powered shipping could be game-changing not only for the coffee industry but other industries like chocolate, sugar, tea and more.
Thanksgiving has agreed to embark on this journey if people buy $150,000 worth of coffee through the Carrotmob website. The funds will initially be spent on having Thanksgiving Coffee hire a researcher to determine exactly how they can feasibly transition to wind-powered shipping, and also develop a business plan which will be shared with the public. Any remaining funds will go towards buying a sailboat.
Since its launch in 2008, Carrotmob has become a global movement, with hundreds of campaigns at small businesses in over 20 countries around the world.
"We hope to prove the concept that this model will soon work with the largest companies in the world" says Brent Schulkin, founder of Carrotmob. "We believe that we can get millions of people to organize their purchasing behavior in order to change policies and practices at big businesses."
The Thanksgiving coffee carrotmob campaign concludes on September 30, 2012.
For more information on the campaign click here.
© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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© 2012, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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