By Cerise Bridges, Research & Special Projects Support

The start-up business can be a roller coaster. Starting a business in an emerging field has even more twists and loops — you often don’t know what you don’t know until you’re faced with having to make certain business decisions. 

I learned this firsthand last year when I undertook a fellowship with a reuse service provider to help them implement and grow the reuse program at a local cultural attraction. The goal was to increase checkouts of reusable foodware from the cafeteria from zero to 200+ per week, or 1000 checkouts a month. The program was already in place, but usage was very low. To try to understand why, we made weekly visits to the venue to meet with the foodservice manager, make ourselves available to answer any questions from guests, troubleshoot problems and observe the process. 

When we made recommendations about how to improve the checkout numbers, we encountered some reluctance to tried and true strategies—such as asking the customer if they want reusable or disposable at the time of ordering—because the client was apprehensive about disrupting the guest experience.  We understood that the foodservice managers and concessionnaire wanted the program, but it seemed that they wanted us to figure out how to grow it independently. For this reason, in year one, we decided to focus our efforts on educating the staff and volunteers at the venue about the program and encouraging them to adopt the reusable option themselves. While the system is available to all visitors, we hypothesized that having the staff be thoroughly educated first-adopters could help the system grow. 

Once we were introduced to additional operations staff, we started to gain momentum. They became our biggest advocates and opened the door to more “yeses.” They sat down and brainstormed ways to make the reuse program a greater success and then took action. This relationship highlighted the importance of finding an advocate or champion within the organization at the beginning of the process. As we continued to work with them and meet more strategic stakeholders, we were able to look back on some lessons learned and reflect what we wish we’d known sooner or done differently.

Here are our main takeaways and lessons learned.

One: Develop a roadmap at the beginning of the process outlining how you want the program to be implemented and who should be involved.

With this in hand, you can begin to ask the right questions and find the people who have the answers and can help implement the program. For too many months, we boomeranged around as new information and people were introduced, hoping they would be the key players in increasing usage. A roadmap would have lessened the frustration and given us an initial outline of how the program should roll out—even if we had to adapt it along the way. 

Two: Get all stakeholders involved and on the same page from the beginning.

Towards the end of the initial contract, we were introduced to the Green Team, made up of staff from different departments, who brought fresh ideas and new energy to the program. We were also introduced to the Volunteer Coordinator who invited us to attend quarterly volunteer orientations to talk about the program and include slides on the reuse program in the orientation presentation. These two crucial groups have been key in getting the word out, encouraging more staff to participate, and confirming the benefit of incentivizing check-out of reusables with small perks.  

Three: Be careful of making assumptions or diving full-in before all is set up and agreed on.

Spending the extra time up front sitting down with the client and aligning on goals and expected outcomes will save time in the end. Does the client want reuse to be the default, or is their objective to offer reusables as an option in their operation, alongside single-use packaging? Will the program be promoted and encouraged from the top down, or will the reuse provider be leading a grassroots effort to encourage end-users to request the reusable option? Understanding your clients' motivations can make for a more productive implementation and ongoing partnership between the reuse provider and client. 

Four: Consider when you want to launch the program.

This reuse program was launched during the holidays when the venue was very busy, so it was given little attention. During this time, we assumed venue employees were offering the reusable option and everything was working as it should, so we thought we’d let the program take off organically. Unfortunately, it did not grow very much. Then in the new year, there were fewer guests and employees on site to increase momentum for the program. We learned that strategically forecasting when employees have the bandwidth to engage in learning the reuse program is an optimal time to launch.

Five: Reuse program education must begin outside of the dining hall.

As mentioned, in this first year, we focused on staff and volunteer education by providing training sessions, SOPs for signing up, FAQs, table tents, and other signage. A “coffee & donuts meet n’ greet” organized through the client for employees and volunteers to stop by and learn more about the reuse program was a success in that more departments throughout the venue started to learn about it. Overall throughout these efforts, we realized that most volunteers and staff still did not know about the reuse program—or, if they did,  were hesitant to sign up for it during the busy mealtime and appreciated having hands-on time with us to sign up in advance. As a result, we focused more efforts on educating at volunteer and orientation events, and encouraging departments to help talk about the program. 

Since September, these efforts have helped increase checkouts by 19%. Now that we are included in orientations (normalizing reuse from the beginning), and with the Green Team’s continued evangelism, we are optimistic that we will see checkout numbers rise exponentially over the next year as awareness and interest increases. 

The Next Stage

We are happy to share that the client has renewed the program and is dedicated to another year of reuse. As the reuse program enters its second year, we are grateful for our first year and all the lessons and experiences that came out of it. We look forward to applying these insights in upcoming implementations and continuing to learn and grow with this client.