Cup for Life

At Bimeda we have a continuous improvement mindset which means that each employee and team is empowered and encouraged to look for ways to continuously improve our ways of working.

Sometimes the simplest change can have a significant impact and this is the case for a recently introduced initiative at Bimeda in Brazil, known as the Cup For Life initiative, developed by members of the Brazil sustainability committee.

Prior to the introduction of this initiative, single-use plastic cups were used across the facility, which were dispensed at drinking water stations. The Bimeda Brazil team identified that, on average, our employees each had 6 cups of water per day. This equated to an incredible 1320 single-use cups per person, per year. With a team of over 95 employees in the manufacturing facility, this meant that over 125,000 single-use plastic cups were used on site annually.

The team realised that there was an opportunity to significantly improve our ways of working, and to reduce waste, by removing single-use plastic cups entirely from the site. To replace these, each employee was provided with their own re-usable Cup For Life. Ceramic and retractable re-usable cups were made available.

The sustainability team also conducted an information campaign, to further employees’ understanding around the importance of responsible waste management practices.

The Cup For Life initiative is an excellent example of how the simplest of changes can have a significant impact and how the adoption of a continuous improvement mindset can help us to continuously identify and implement more sustainable practices.