Hello, I'm a Digital Receipt...

Group 1 (aka the best group ever) has been hard at work brainstorming brilliant ideas for the presentation, handout, website and everything else having to do with Rethink Receipts.

• The PowerPoint group is working on a template that incorporates our recently designed logo.
  
• Cory and Aaron have been coming up with unique ideas to distribute the required handout. There has been talk about protesting the 300 count handout and claiming it against what we stand for (eliminating paper waste), and doing an electronic handout instead. Cory suggested utilizing our old receipts as the handouts, like writing our info on the back. Lizzie offered straightforward who, what, where, when, why, how content for the handout. Logisitics are still in the works.
• Suggestions were also made to interview managers, workers and customers at places we would target our initial campaign, and put their quotes about paper waste/eliminating receipts on the backs of receipts and include it with the handouts. Lizzie expanded on this idea with suggestions to include videos of the answers in the presentation or powerpoint. Maybe they will even get up on our website, or link to YouTube.
• Amy and Lizzie have been researching possible costs and personal needs for Rethink Receipts, which is what we are going to cover in our next meeting. Also, they have been looking into companies similar to what we are trying to accomplish.
• Drew cam up with a funny spoof of Apple's ad campaign "I'm a PC and I'm a loser, I'm an Mac and I'm cool" for our presentation. Substitute paper receipts for PCs and electronic receipts (Rethink Receipts) for Macs.

Dr. Shamp is On Board!

Considering that the idea behind our project is to help the environment one receipt at a time, we were thrilled to discover that Dr. Shamp wanted to help the environment one test at a time.

In his blog, Dr. Shamp reported that he killed a 60 ft. tall tree every semester just with producing enough tests for all of his students. In order to avoid using so much paper, our class took our tests via WebCT last Friday in what seemed to be an extremely successful trial.

Taking a test on our laptops felt a little odd at first, but knowing that we were all helping to save trees and perhaps contributing to a potential campus-wide movement to take tests on-line, we all worked through it.

"I have sap on my hands," Dr. Shamp said, "and it feels wrong."

It feels wrong to us too, Dr. Shamp! That is why all of our committee groups are working so hard to find creative and smart ways to make our MMV, RethinkRecipts, a success.

A consumer's gratitude

When checking out at Earth Fare, a local grocery store in town, I did not receive the traditional paper receipt. Instead, the cashier told me to input my phone number and/or e-mail address. Confused, I asked why. She told me that I would get my receipt electronically in an effort to help save paper. Hmm... this was new to me, but I liked it! Who was I to try fight against a grassroots effort to help save the planet The truth is that I didn't need my paper receipt right then and there-- I could wait until it came to me later via e-mail or text. 

It's a good thing--this "trying to save paper" movement. We waste A LOT, myself included, and I don't know about you but I throw countless of them away. All I bought that day was a muffin, one muffin! Did I need to waste paper on that? No. Consumers by just a couple of items at the grocery store all the time and a receipt for these purchases aren't necessary. That is why this rethink receipts campaign is such a genius idea-- we as a world need to cut the corners when we can to save as much as we can.

By the way, I got my receipt shortly after I left the parking lot :)

And The Winner Is...

The votes are in and this is the official logo of Rethink Receipts. Thanks to everyone who submitted designs and congrats to Nicole Matias for her awesome design.

Rethink Receipts Logo

Having a recognizable logo increases brand awareness of your product, and can support your campaign. It is important for the message to be consistent, so we decided a logo would be a great way to tie in different parts of our campaign and raise public recognition. These are possible logo ideas submitted by our group members.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H (one color, not all three)

Group members please VOTE on which logo you like the most. Vote by this Friday, October 3 before 3:30 pm and the winning logo will be announced on the blog over the weekend.

Research That Makes Us Rethink Receipts

“I bought a donut, and they gave me a receipt for the donut. I don’t need a receipt for the donut. I give you the money, and you give me the donut, end of transaction. We don’t need to bring ink and paper into this. I can’t imagine a scenario that I would have to prove that I bought a donut.” – Mitch Hedberg

Our research team has done a wonderful job with providing our group with interesting facts and figures relating to the use of receipts. The following facts have helped our group begin to understand the great effects that the discontinuation of receipts could potentially have on our environment:

• 1 Ton of Paper = 17 trees

• 220,000 tons of receipt paper are produced each year in the U.S. alone. That’s 3,740,000 trees cut down only for RECIEPTS!

• According to AllEtronic, “600,000 tons of thermal receipt paper are used by stores each year. It takes 15 trees, 19,000 gallons of water and 390 gallons of oil to make 1 ton of paper.” So, it’s not just trees that are being used.

• If we pressed “no” when the ATM asked us if we want a receipt, we’d save enough paper to circle the equator 15 times. – Thomas Kostigen, co-author of The Green Book.

This Changes Everything...

The purpose of the MMV project is to creatively use mobile technology to change the world a better place. A similar project in Atlanta this past spring spread the HIV awareness message through videos created with cell phones. Those with Verizon could download the videos to their cell phone for their own personal PSA.

To come up with our MMV we shared our individual ideas with the goup and agreed on the top 3. Then we voted to determine which idea to run with.

We decided to go green. To make the world a better place, one tree at a time. We decided to Rethink Receipts.

Substituting electronic receipts for paper ones will cut down on paper waste and increase convenience. Our MMV involves creating a cell phone application that will collect reciepts emailed to you in one folder on your phone so they are easily retreivable for returns or tax purposes. It seems iphone applications are all the rage these days, so there is a great window of opportunity here.