Although I was initially going to write about a different article I found online, the labeling of the Starbucks "Cup Summit" as a means for social innovation struck me as very interesting. The idea behind the Cup Summit is to bring together various food and drink chains, as well as paper suppliers, in order to find a way to limit the environmental impact created from the billions of cups and boxes used everyday by food companies. My first reaction was that, like most companies that are "going green," Starbucks was organizing the whole thing as a marketing stunt and any company that doesn't join in could be at the mercy of bad publicity for not caring about the environment. This still might be the case (cost cutting could also be the motivation behind the move) but the process that Starbucks is going about to bring the change is an interesting approach. By bringing together the suppliers of the paper products, the restaurant users of the products, and the consumers of the products together despite competition in order to find a viable solution to the immense amount of waste, Starbucks could be on to something. While they may find a possible solution to help the environment , the collaboration used to find the solution could be applicable in many other situations. There is the strong possibility that this kind of thing has been done before, but I don't know of it occurring with three levels of the industry and with so many competitors. Bringing together all of the power possible and inviting others to contribute their creative input can't hurt in solving some of the world's issues.
Would I call the goal of Starbucks a social innovation? If it can radically reduce waste produced at certain restaurants and is able to be implemented and lasting (as the creators of the Cup Summit are aiming for), then it probably could be considered an innovation. But is it a social innovation? I think that time will tell. Creating less cup waste doesn't provide food, medicine or a livelihood, but as resources become scarcer and landfills fill up, this innovation could have many social consequences.
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good to know
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