By Sorcha Kavanagh, Coordinator of the Conscious Cup Campaign 

What a fantastic year for the Conscious Cup Campaign, we now have over 1,600 Cafes participating Nationwide.  At this stage all major chains are on board. 

We have seen a huge increase in requests for support from organisations to help launch a successful campaign to reduce their disposable cup usage.  Businesses, Universities and training centres are where we see the results of our work, more people are pledging to make a change and become more Conscious Consumers.  

This year we won the EWWR Award in Brussels for our Anti-Black Friday event last year, we ran a guerilla event with Dublin’s Q102 on Wolfe Tone Square in Dublin quizzing people on coffee cup waste. If they got the answers correct, we awarded them with a Conscious Cup branded KeepCup. We were also shortlisted for the Pakman Award, Green Awards and the Sustainable Ireland Awards. This support and recognition has given a great boost to the campaign’s profile on a national and international scale. 

Since the Anti-Black Friday event was such a success, we decided to replicate it with Java Republic to mark International Coffee Day, this time we awarded people with a Conscious Cup branded Stojo Cup, the collapsible reusable cup. We must say a big thank you to Dublin City Council for sponsoring the cups for both events!  

Just a few weeks ago I was invited to attend “Creative Responses to Climate Change” in Trinity College and present our work to various environmental leaders including Mary Robinson. Although I was quite nervous, it was an honour to be involved. 

The Conscious Cup was identified in the National Climate Action Plan as being a positive initiative to address climate change, and received national coverage featured on the Late Late Show and TV3’s Ireland AM.  

Our website is currently being up-graded and due to launch in early 2019, I am thrilled! The new website will feature an improved map that will be mobile friendly and searchable. We want to do better at promoting cafe’s making the effort to encourage reuse and for customers to easily find a cafe where they can avail of a discount or incentive when they bring their own cup.  

Our plans for 2019 are to focus on delivering solutions to businesses and community groups across the country to reduce waste. We will be expanding beyond the conscious cup to conscious containers, to encourage the move away from all disposable food packaging.

If you'd like to join the Conscious Cup Campaign, you can contact me at info@consciouscup.ie