When we spoke with Driptech founder Peter Frykman, he called in from the Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he is currently mentoring local entrepreneurs. Having originally conducted there the research that inspired Driptech, Frykman has returned in search of new impactful ventures. Here’s what he shared with us.
Growing up, I was very blessed with opportunities to travel. It was foundational to my learning, as I saw what opportunities there were to have an impact — areas in which I could bring my experience, culture, and in many cases privilege in terms of education, background, and resources.
I didn’t understand how I might best attempt to make an impact until I got into college and started studying Mechanical Engineering.
Once I got into the more senior level design courses, I realized that you could basically use product design skills to have a social impact. My first experience in that area was designing for accessibility. In one of my mechanical engineering courses, we designed a glove that would help a partially quadriplegic athlete hold onto a kayak paddle.
It was really a transformative project for me, and it also opened up opportunities elsewhere. I got to spend a summer learning about and working on disability design at a top university in India. It was the first time I got to do something that combined all of my interests — travel, mechanical engineering, design, good — all at once.
That’s how it all started.
After my experience in India, I continued pursuing medical design and thought I was headed down that path, until I ended up at a graduate course at Stanford on Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability.
It was an interesting course that brought engineers and business people together to solve problems for the world’s poorest customers. In that class, I realized that the majority of impoverished persons in the world were farmers. If I could somehow make an impact on a farmers’ income, it would help to eliminate poverty.
It was then when I got my first chance to go to Ethiopia. I arrived in the middle of the worst drought in years. Farmers had very limited water and needed to be resourceful with what they had. We began looking into which irrigation systems were available, and found that most small-plot farmers were using flood irrigation, an ineffective system that wastes a lot of water.
However, we realized that if we could make irrigation tubes with small emitters affordable and practical, these farmers could use drip irrigation to potentially double their income. That was really compelling for me.
Driptech was the idea, yes. We came back to Stanford and set out to make a design that was both more efficient as well as more affordable. It soon became pretty clear that this could positively impact farmers not just in Ethiopia, but around the world. That’s when I quit my PhD and started Driptech.
Through all the ups and downs, I was Driptech’s CEO for 6 years, and I ended up living in India for 4 of those years. Frank (Co-Founder of Bevi) was a Fellow for us in China for about a year. We were in both India and China for a bit, but ultimately decided to focus on India as it was demanding most of our attention.
We had a lot of great people work with us over the years. Over time, we fully developed the technology, set up a factory in India, and created a team to tackle global sales and distribution.
Eventually, we were acquired by the largest drip irrigation company in India, which is the second largest irrigation company in the world.
We had proven that the market was there and really benefited from this large partnership as it helped, and will continue to help, spread our technology and impact around the world. By ourselves, we had gotten our product to about 20,000 farmers, yet this company reaches around 100,000 new customers every year.
It was the right time to sort of step back and let others scale the business.
I think that both the best and worst decisions I made as a first time CEO had to do with building my team.
It was very challenging to get the right people on the team at the right time, as well as make sure each individual role could evolve alongside the company.
After Driptech, I spent a lot of time thinking about team dynamics, understanding the different approaches to being a CEO, and trying to find out which type of team would suit my approach.
That’s what lead me to where I am now: I’ve spent the last two years mentoring other individual entrepreneurs or ones that are apart of incubator programs. Most of my time with them is spent discussing their teams, how to make them better, what or who is missing. It’s an area in which I feel like I can have a magnified impact; I can help others avoid the mistakes that I made while growing Driptech.
Our farmers would get a 3 to 5x return on their investments in the first year. It was unbelievable.
A farmer growing vegetables in the state of Maharashtra would spend $200 on one acre of Driptech drip irrigation and would then make $500-$1000 more dollars in additional top line revenue within a year. The economics were undeniable. Almost too good to be true.
In fact, they wouldn’t believe us. Our biggest issue was often marketing. If someone came up to your right now and said “I’ll double your income,” you wouldn’t believe them either. Ultimately, we focused a lot on convincing farmers. Especially in India, we worked hard to help the farmers overcome the negative connotation of drip irrigation as an expensive and complex solution.
It was very rewarding when we got to meet farmers after they had used the system for one full-cycle. Driptech had doubled their take-home income and therefore had a huge impact on their quality of life. Less water, higher yields, and less labor: it was too good to be true.
It’s important to have mentors.
The best mentors are not necessarily the most high profile, superstar kind of people. Those people can be good mentors, but the most important thing is to find a mentor who cares about you and your success as an entrepreneur.
And this person can be just one or two years ahead of you on your journey as well.
One of my long term mentors started a similar company just two years ahead of me. The company had dealt with all of the same issues I was dealing with. When people found out that he was my mentor, they couldn’t believe it as they saw him as someone who was “still figuring things out.” It didn’t really matter though: he was always a couple steps in front of me so he had already figured it out the things I was trying to do.
After Driptech was acquired, this first thing I did was travel around Africa, Asia, and the US. It was time to recharge and reflect on my own learnings; part of that meant working with other entrepreneurs through incubators and accelerators like I am still doing now.
I also put a lot of thought into how I personally define impact, and what types of social enterprises I am willing to pursue for years. I’ve come to realize that my motivating factor boils down to poverty alleviation through sustainable business models. And it just so happens that most of the impoverished in this world live in rural areas. All said, two billion people rely on small scale agriculture to make a living, so anything you can do to increase their income — whether through new technology, improving education, or helping them with supply chain linkages — is going to make a huge impact for a lot of people.
As for what he’s doing next, Frykman is keeping an open mind. Ethiopia has about a 100 million people and about 80 million are rural farmers, so it’s a good place for him to start thinking about where to go next.
He hasn’t got a return ticket, so for now you can find him in the capital city of Addis Ababa.
Looking for ways to make a positive impact on the world? Meet Bevi, the smart water cooler. In 2017, Bevi help to eliminate the waste generated by 15,000,000 plastic bottles.
Help do your part to #ReducetheUse today.
Each year, Americans toss out more than 4 million tons of wrapping paper. Bring tidings and good cheer to the Earth this holiday season with these 8 eco-friendly alternatives to gift wrap.
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: ‘How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags!
— How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
In a world in which $2.6 billion dollars is spent annually on one-time use wrapping paper, the Grinch’s famous cry of disbelief reads like an eco-advocate’s exclamation of joy.
It’s no surprise that Americans produce 25% more waste in the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years than in any other period of the year. Every holiday season, Americans throw out over 38,000 miles of ribbon, not to mention the 15 million Christmas trees that get tossed in the trash.
It’s the most wonderful — and wasteful — time of the year.
Although these stats may make you want to say “bah humbug,” using alternatives to wrapping paper is an easy way to reduce waste this holiday season. Check out these 8 eco-friendly ideas.
Good things come without a package. There are all sorts of ways to use a gift as its own packaging; some ideas include: wrapping mittens and socks in a matching sweater, filling a pot or pan with kitchen supplies for someone who just got a new apartment, adding gardening supplies to a bucket or plant pot, stuffing a new purse with gift-cards, wrapping a gift box in a scarf or cozy blanket, making a mini care-package for a college student in a Tupperware container, etc. Let’s face it, you’re a gift giving pro, and don’t need any help from paper packaging to prove it!
Sources: DarlingDoodlesDesign, A Part of Life Blog, and Garden Therapy.
Good for gifts of any size, and perfect for those who actually enjoy perfectly folding and taping each individual gift. While the newspaper will end up in the recycling bin along with the regular wrapping paper, at least it was repurposed. If you like the look of paper gift wrap, but would like to cut back on your tape usage, try doing some wrapping paper origami or using ribbon instead of tape (see #6 for an upcycled ribbon idea).
You’ve been pregraming for Great Aunt Susie’s annual holiday party all day when you realize you forgot to wrap your Secret Santa gift. Have no fear: the 6-pack box you were about to throw out will do the trick! 6-pack boxes are perfect for multi-component (or multi-person gifts). Similar to good old-fashion stocking-stuffing, you can stuff each of the six compartments with gift items. Things like socks, rolled-up t-shirts, hair care or skin products, chocolate bars, candles, and of course, beer, fit perfectly in each slot. (Not a beer drinker? Check out these 6-pack boxes with built-in holiday cards made by Beer Greetings.)
Source: Beer Greetings
Chances are you have about 3 cereal or snack boxes sitting in your recycling bin right now. There’s nothing better than adding multiple layers of surprise: using cereal and snack boxes of different sizes, try packaging up a small gift in a series of boxes — sort of a Russian nesting doll approach. This is a particularly good way to make opening gift cards a little more fun for kids.
In the golden age of smart devices, printed maps are nothing but dust collectors. Rather than keeping that map of Virginia in your glove compartment as an artifact of decades past, consider upcycling it and using it as a substitute for traditional paper gift wrap.
Put those old little league t-shirts to good use by transforming them into ribbon. While this upcycled gift wrap idea may require a little more work and planning on your end, the process is very simple. All you need is an old, colorful t-shirt and a pair of scissors. Check out this quick how-to video for instructions, and say goodbye to twirling ribbon.
Source: Instructables
I’m sure everyone has seen mason jars with cookie and cake mix in in local specialty shops. Mason jars are very versatile, and are the perfect vessel for any type of recipe, from a cocktail starter kit to a ‘spa-in-a-jar,’ to sewing kits and ‘go fishing’ jars. If you’re at a loss for gift grab ideas, thinking about what would fit into an empty mason jar is an easy way to jump start your brainstorming process.
Source: The Gunny Sack
So you have a box, but you don’t have any maps, newspapers, tape, old t-shirts…or any time. You’re not as short handed as you think! Instead of writing a card, use the box as your canvas. Write funny quotes or memories about the gift recipient; jot down a riddle; say something witty about why gift wrap is a thing of the past. When I was a kid, my mom let us decorate the outsides of the boxes we were shipping to family members out of state. Using stamps and paint, the once dreary brown color became a sea of colorful patterns and shapes.
We added a Bevi sticker to ours
In addition to these alternatives, there are also several reusable fabric gift wraps out there for purchase (check out LilyWrap or the variety of options available on Etsy).
Regardless of the approach you take, there’s no better way to show someone you care this holiday season than using sustainable gift wrap.
When we’re not promoting eco-friendly gift wrap, Bevi is on a mission to reduce plastic bottle waste, one pour of sparkling grapefruit water at a time.
Learn how you can reduce your plastic bottle waste here.
Boston, MA – Bevi, a Boston technology company that inspires behavioral change through design and technology, announces a milestone of 7 million bottles saved from the landfill. Bevi’s smart office water cooler customizes still and sparkling water with healthy flavors, without the need for single-use disposable bottles or cans. The Bevi machines are powered by filtered tap water, and can be found in offices across the US, including Netflix, Lyft, GE, Intel, and MIT.
Earlier this year, Bevi conducted a research survey with YouGov PLC, where 25% of millennial employees reported that having a sustainability initiative at their workplace is important. Furthermore, one in four would even work longer hours at a company with sustainability initiatives than for a non-sustainable company.
Sean Grundy, Bevi CEO says of the survey and milestone: “We started this company to make it easy to get through the day without drinking from a disposable plastic bottle. It’s been amazing to see that dream become a reality, and to witness the environmental impact everyday. Some of our customers used to burn through thousands of plastic water bottles (and budget) per week. Instead, they have replaced refrigerators stocked full of bottles or cans with Bevi units. We provide an easy solution for employers to implement a sustainability program, while winning the war for talent.”
Contact:
Frank Lee
Co-Founder and Head of Marketing
frank@www.bevi.co
Throughout the year, our team comes up with “holiday” themes to keep things fun at your workplace. Last month, we brought you the National Employee Appreciation Day.
Earth Day is this Saturday, so for a whole week, we will be celebrating Earth Day! Check out your Bevi machine for details and participate in our #EarthDayEveryday Upcycling Competition.
Whether you’re assembling a dozen people in an office conference room or convening a few hundred at a convention center, your meetings make an impact beyond your company’s bottom line. How can you reduce the impact of meetings on the Earth while still collaborating for your organization’s success?
We’ve got tips to meet green whether you’re going big or talking small.
It starts with ten printed copies of an agenda (7 of which will be barely glanced at and left behind). It ends when the last person leaves the room but leaves the lights on. During the 30 – 60 minutes in between, a team might discuss some important topics, make some key decisions, and identify some necessary next steps. But they’ll also make an impact on the environment unless they take a few steps to green that meeting.
Business still runs on paper and there’s no getting around that. But before each meeting, ask yourself: “Do we really need this?” Use a white board to share your meeting agenda and save dozens of pages per meeting. Share presentations via projection or screen sharing to cut down on the stacks of copies you bring into the room. (If you need a print-out of your presentation to share, bring just one or two to pass around the room or leave with key decision makers). Going paperless at every meeting may seem like an unachievable goal but a little bit of reduction is always possible and makes an impact.
Once you reduce the amount of paper you bring into the room, you may notice the number of electronics increases. Without printed agendas on which to take notes, attendees may feel compelled to tote laptops and tablets along with them. But, as with all things, there is a balance to sustainability. If ‘less paper’ equals ‘more electricity’ then we really haven’t made the difference we sought to make. See if assigning note-taking to one member of the group might help. In addition to reducing the environmental impact of that half hour, you may notice each meeting attendee is more engaged!
Relive your school days when the best thing that could happen on a nice spring day was your teacher saying, “Let’s have class outside!” Find a nice spot to sit in the office courtyard or at a nearby park. Having a meeting that doesn’t require materials? Meet while walking. This strategy serves the double goal of reducing the electricity required to power your chat and improving the health of everyone you meet with. And, of course, if you can’t help but meet inside, be sure to turn the conference room lights off when you leave.
Small changes in your small meetings can make a big difference. But what about larger meetings and conventions that requires large amounts of paper, travel, and supplies? It’s no surprise that the EPA once deemed the meetings and events industry the 2nd most wasteful in the U.S. Fortunately, every stop along the industry’s supply chain has trended towards sustainability over the past decade, turning even the largest of meetings green.
Need to discuss something and email won’t do? Pick up the phone.
Need to discuss or interact with visuals? With Skype, Google Hangouts, and others, the sky is the limit.
Will you still have to travel, sometimes, across the miles to meet in person? Of course. Even with all of the technology at our fingertips, we still haven’t completely replaced the experience of meeting face-to-face. But thanks to the plethora of virtual meeting options, we can now make smarter decisions and travel only when necessary.
Food adds an important element to even the smallest of events and keeps large meetings energized. But the miles that food has to travel, not to mention the waste created by leftovers, serving materials, and other accessories like linens and flatware, makes a huge impact. Go green by seeking sustainable and local suppliers that serve organic food with locally sourced ingredients on reusable or eco-friendly plates, napkins, etc.
Whether planning a large convention or a smaller conference, finding the perfect location for everyone, that also takes the environment into consideration, can be a daunting task. If this is your daunting task, check out the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Green Meetings Calculator. You input your attendees’ cities of origin and it gives you a list of location options that take into account the aggregate CO2 emissions generated by flights.
What strategies do you use to ensure your meetings make an impact on your work but not on the environment?
The health of our planet makes headlines every day in ways that, individually, we have little control over. The good news is that, policy changes aside, greening your little corner of the world can have a tremendous effect on the overall planet.
Haven’t thought about reducing your personal waste before? We’ve broken down a few ways to get started and a few more ways to really take things to the next level.
If you’re not already doing these things, don’t fret but start now! Most of these can be incorporated into your life today.
Identify recyclables – Find out what your country recycles and then start doing it!
Switch to paperless billing – Most credit card, utility, and other bills you receive can be electronically delivered and paid. Login to each individual account and set your account to paperless billing to cut down on all of the envelopes, sheets of paper, paper checks and even stamps that cycle through your home. And, while you’re at it, unsubscribe from unwanted catalogs to cut down on your junk mail.
Keep an eye out for excessive packaging and avoid:
Individually wrapped items. Buy the large cereal box instead of the smaller individual boxes and, when possible, buy in bulk. Need smaller portions? Repackage into reusable containers once you get home.
Products wrapped up more than they need to be. That notebook doesn’t need all that shrink wrapping, does it?
Packaged items that don’t need packaging. Does a hammer really need to be wrapped up in plastic when you buy it?
Drink tap or Bevi water – You know how we feel about bottled water!
Got the basics down? Up your waste-reduction game.
Think before you print, buy, write, and then, reuse – Write grocery lists on the pack of used paper (or go electronic!). Visit your local library or invest in an e-reader to keep up with your reading habit.
Invest in reusable – Just about everything you use regularly can be reused. Start by getting yourself a reusable water bottle and set of canvas shopping bags. Move onto silicone muffin tins for your baking and reusable mesh coffee filters for your morning caffeine. Replace paper towels with cloths and buy refillable pens and mechanical pencils for your office.
Green your kitchen – Be on the lookout for new ways to use the food and water flowing through your kitchen. Convert your leftovers into new meals before they go bad. Think of alternate uses for the water you use to boil pasta or wash vegetables, such as watering plants, before you pour it down the drain.
Ready for even bigger waste reduction? Here we go.
Start a compost heap – Enjoy the double benefit of keeping food waste out of the system and providing extra rich food for the plants around your home which, in turn, will create a healthier environment for you and your family.
Switch to reusable containers – Beyond reusable water bottles and lunch packaging, research options in your community for getting normal groceries, like milk, in containers that you can return for reuse.
Let this new perspective into every aspect of your life – Once you get going, you’ll likely realize that there are ways to green every area of your life, even spaces you never thought of. You could invest in a pressure cooker for shorter cooking times and less energy use. Switch to cloth gift bags for holidays and birthdays to reduce paper. Find place to recycle or donate unwanted clothes, toys, books, and even cell phones and gadgets so that those items don’t end up in landfills. The possibilities for reducing personal waste are truly endless.
By Tricia Mirchandani
Ready to turn your office green but don’t know where to start? While some workplace sustainability changes do require planning, consensus, and some significant process change, others can be done before you clock out today. We’ve broken it down for you to keep you going green today and beyond.
Change your printing ways. Consider the impact before you click the printer icon. Do you truly need to print that page? If the answer is ‘Yes!’ (and, sometimes, it is), print double sided. Post signs by each printer and throughout the office to encourage everyone to do the same. (And hold brown bag training sessions to make sure everyone knows how to print double sided. It’s not always as easy as you think!)
Get the lights. And the printer. The computers. Shut down anything that uses electricity when you leave for the day. Create an end-of-day checklist for the last person out and encourage everyone to check power hungry machines before leaving for the day.
Save the screens. Ditch the screen savers. Though fun to look at, allowing monitors to dim instead consumes far less power.
Go green, literally. Add houseplants to your office décor. In addition to creating a more natural ambiance proven to increase well-being and productivity, houseplants enhance air quality and absorb odors naturally (bye-bye air fresheners and air purifiers).
No binders left behind. Keep binders, folders, half used notepads, and even paperclips out of landfills with a stationery reuse system. Talk about what items your office most often disposes of, where a good collection point would be for reusable items, and how to manage the process before introducing the concept office-wide.
Shut it down. Not just at the end of the day but before closing down for holidays. Talk about what should be powered down overnight vs. what needs attention before a two or three-day break from the office to balance office productivity and conservation.
Fresh, local, healthy. Good for the environment and for the people you work with. Fresh, local food doesn’t need to travel as far and costs less to produce, which means radically reduced energy costs and better nourishment for everyone. Talk about joining a CSA, finding local suppliers of traditional office staples like coffee and tea, and even removing vending machines.
Image: Boston Organics
BYO Cups and Office Canvas bags. Eliminate plastic water bottles as an office policy and provide glasses and mugs (and, might we suggest, a Bevi?). Keep a community stash of canvas bags for anyone to borrow on lunch-time trips to the grocery store.
Plan these changes out for future green ways
Evaluate your impact. Identify, as a group, three to five negative impacts your office makes on the environment. This may take some time and research but the resulting list will create a guide for future workplace sustainability efforts.
Automate it. Because humans might forget but machines don’t. Install energy management controls to automatically switch off high energy consumers on long weekends or holidays. Implement a print-follow system that queues print jobs and requires a log-in at the printer to cut down on mistaken or unnecessary printing.
Compost in the office. Plot out the location and management of the bins while educating staff on the benefits of composting. You’ll likely need to plan this one out and pursue necessary approvals while sorting out logistics. But once that’s all settled, you’ll be set to toss everything in—from coffee and tea bags to leftover lunches and paper. Donate it all to your community garden or start planting fruits and veggies right in the office.
Meet green. Use teleconferencing to cut down on business travel. Sometimes technology makes it easier to conserve.
Buy better. It’s not every day that you need a new machine, printer, computer, etc. But the next time you do, look for EPEAT registered and Energy Star rated items. Focus on things that will last (fewer landfills), that were made from recycled material (even fewer landfills) and/or machines that are energy efficient (less power). Beyond machines, think about the cleaning products you or cleaning service uses, the furnishings in your office, and even the paint on your walls. Convert them to more environmentally friendly ones with fewer chemicals for a greener environment overall.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. The three Rs roll off our tongues as a set. But do we walk the walk for all that talk?
When it comes to bottled water, recycling gets a lot of attention. And while recycling every bottle we open will reduce the amount of plastic in landfills, that’s only part of the solution. Unfortunately, we’re opening more and more bottles every year and the impact on the environment of creating, transporting, and even recycling all those bottles continues to intensify.
Image Source:
The water bottle you hold in your hands today made its mark long before crossing paths with you. Its creation alone required two precious and limited resources: water and oil.
That you need water to create bottled water is no secret. But what might surprise you is that an estimated 3 liters of water flow into the making of each 1 liter water bottle. Groundwater plays an important role in oil drilling and oil is a key component of plastic. Water also takes part in manufacturing the bottle’s paper labels. Ultimately, there’s more water in your water bottle than what passes through your lips.
And then there’s the oil. To satisfy the annual demand for bottled water, in the U.S. alone, requires 17 million barrels of oil, or enough to power a million cars for a year. Then the bottles must be transported. Often, the water bottle you grab on your travels has traveled thousands of miles to get to you, a journey that requires more oil than it takes to make the bottle in the first place.
Whether you recycle it or not, that bottle will continue to make its mark after you and it part ways.
Tossing it in the trash will send it off to a landfill, with almost 70% of all other water bottles in the U.S. The bottle will outlast all of us in that landfill, taking more than 1,000 years to biodegrade.
Tossing it in the recycle bin will give it a chance at a new life. But even that comes with a cost. A water bottle’s afterlife often takes it to China where it is transformed into clothes, toys, carpets or auto parts and then shipped back. Although new plants opening in the U.S. have reduced the cost of a recycled bottle’s round-trip journey, the impact is still devastating.
While recycling does lessen the environmental impact of the plastic water bottle, unfortunately it doesn’t go far enough. To be recycled, the bottle has to be made and then remade, wasting precious natural resources (and still releasing unnecessary chemicals into the world).
Which brings us back to the three Rs. Recycle, of course. But whenever possible, bring along your own reusable water bottle or let a plastic one hang around a bit longer so that you are reducing and reusing as well!
Learn more about the afterlife of a plastic water bottle.
Last month in early February, my Co-Founder Sean brought up the opportunity for Bevi to work with a Hawaiian post-pop visual artist. I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about art, and thus, pondered a bit about the next steps. However, as a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu enthusiast, I immediately thought of the UFC jiu jitsu fighter BJ Penn, whose birthplace was Hilo, Hawaii. After a quick Google research on the said post-pop artist, I found out that Aaron Kai was also from Hilo. As the Gods of Valhalla would have it, we were just two students from different disciplines of art, connected by the Aloha State.
Hawaii is a place of natural beauty. The warm sun and crashing waves make it a surfer’s paradise. Growing up riding the waves and following the surf culture, this was the scenery that inspired Aaron’s artistic endeavors. At the center of his creations is his iconic waves. These waves can be seen internationally with art exhibitions across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris and six countries in Asia.
Aaron first crossed paths with Bevi, during a visit to Bevi customer Omni‘s San Francisco office. After customizing and dispensing sparkling Unsweetened Cucumber into a glass, Aaron immediately understood our company’s sustainability mission.
Our friends at Omni then facilitated an introduction. After jumping on a call to meet and learn more about Aaron, I came away inspired by this serendipitous encounter. My favorite part about his background was that, having grown up surfing in Hawaii, Aaron understood the need to preserve the oceans. This reminded me of our Co-Founder Eliza’s initial inspiration for Bevi in 2013, when she learned about the plastic trash in our oceans that eventually became the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It was a no-brainer for Bevi to work together with Aaron.
We decided that the Agenda Las Vegas street wear art show would be the place to showcase our first collabo. With the event coming up in late February, we had only 2.5 weeks to pull off the entire thing. In order to maintain the minimalist look, Aaron designed a limited edition art vinyl for the Bevi machine, using his iconic waves to convey the ocean. The idea is to use the Bevi machine to illustrate our common sustainability mission. Fortunately, things came together without a hitch, as our Marketing Ops Manager Tim did big things to bring all the logistics and machine setup to life.
At the Agenda show, with Aaron’s waves as the key theme for the booth, the Aaron Kai x Bevi machine became a natural cohabitant of the space. At the booth, Tim gave away Bevi glass reusable bottles, while demonstrating the machine to visitors. There’s an easy touchscreen interface, where you can mix Bevi flavors with either still or sparkling water, along with custom adjustments to the flavor strength. With no brewing-time, the beverage dispense starts immediately into a reusable container. Visitors could enjoy unsweetened, zero-cal, or organically sweetened flavors, including Blueberry Cucumber or Unsweetened Lime Mint. Most importantly, the crowd went wild for Aaron’s super tight booth, even Marshawn “Beastmode” Lynch dropped by!
At Bevi, we are always open to collaborations around design + sustainability. We are fortunate enough to have Aaron walked into our lives and shown us how he would customize a Bevi.
Keep an eye out for more big things happening with Bevi x artist collabos to bring the sustainability message to life. Perhaps next time, we could work with not only artists that appeal to the visual senses, but also musicians. Stay tuned, beautiful Bevi friends.