Dear CleanAppers, We wanted to share a story that shows how YOUR support for OUR petition translates directly and indirectly into on-the-ground action to CleanApp our planet. So, as you know, by day, CleanApp Foundation does its research and keeps developing our knowledge base on how to best deal with litter/hazard reporting. Right now, we're spending a lot of time researching blockchain technology for different types of CleanApp applications. By night, we plug back in to our various social media outlets and we do hard core outreach to the BigTech, environmental, crypto, Zero Waste, philanthropic, etc. etc. etc. communities, through all possible means, including Medium, Reddit, Twitter, GitHub, and so on. You ALL know this because that's what it took to reach YOU. You know we're as grassroots as it comes, and that's why we fight to reach every individual potential supporter. So, one night, deep in the deepest corners of ZeroWaste Reddit, we came across a post by a user who had a simple but brilliant idea, getting Starbucks to offer a significant discount (something like 50%) to Bring Your Own Cup (BYOC) customers during a BYOC Happy Hour of Starbucks' choosing. This way, SBX could still control its pricing consistency during its peak times, or whatever/however the green mermaid casts her pricing net. Here was the message: "Will you stand with me in encouraging @Starbucks to offer 50% off any drink served in a reusable cup (no single-use paper or plastic Starbucks cups) for the entire month of July? Think of the number of ppl we could reach... #plasticfreejuly #OneEarthManySips" We responded to user @mitbroetchen ("with a little slice of bread," in German - cool handle) with a couple of stories about other petitions, and, of course, a link to OUR petition. LittleBreadSlice quickly wrote back, asking whether petitions like these really work. Our response was simple -- Yes! We cited a CityLab story about Belinda Bradley's petition here on change.org to get Google Maps to add wheelchair routes. https://www.change.org/p/google-maps-create-wheelchair-friendly-routes -- We explained how 300K signatures later, Google realized there was a ton of utility from that map layer, and they started adding this functionality. A little later we shared some more CleanApp wisdom with our new pal @mitbroetchen: "There's a really great tech story that drives this point home like few other things we've read. It says, assume the core premise that 'No One's Coming...' then it becomes clear that, 'It's Up To Us.'" (*). We went back to research, back to explaining to cryptonaires why litter reporting is the elusive "killer app," the El Dorado that everyone in the community is searching for, but hasn't quite found. And then ... earlier today, we got a most humbling surprise. We opened our Reddit to see a message from @mitbroetchen with a link to a change.org petition that she (it turns out) created, and that she said was inspired by OURS! * * * That feeling YOU are feeling now is exactly the feeling WE were feeling when we saw that message. Just goosebumps, humility, mega respect, and a desire to hop on a Hyperloop to visit every one of YOU to give you all hugs and high fives (or just chin nods, whatever you're into). Little moments like this are worth savoring. Do petitions make a difference? You know the answer. Many times (like Change.org's recent petition on Net Neutrality), they're the only things that allow us to unite and defend our rights. Does OUR petition make a difference? You know the answer as well. It's coded into every change.org update and every Tweet and every Reddit post and every new Medium article that we write to share the common sense observation that the time for a universal litter/hazard reporting-response platform has arrived. Indoors/outdoors, easy-breezy, the time has come Google, Amazon, Apple, Twitter, Crypto, etc. When you reflect on this, and look back at our updates and how far we've come, you can see how your support gave us the fuel to keep reaching out to supporters in the farthest reaches of the observable Internet. YOU are the force that motivates us to keep doing one-on-one outreach because we know that YOU are by our side doing one-on-one outreach, sharing updates like these with your friends and families. WE do all of this so that we can walk down the street without having to worry about stepping on a used syringe, so that we can have our kids play at a park without having them drool and choke on cigarette butts. And, because of the work we do, WE now also get to wake up to a message from a young lady named Kamila who decided that today was going to be the day she started demanding common sense solutions to Starbucks litter from ... Starbucks. We can disagree all we want about strategy and tactics of this or that petition, whether this is "asking enough of Starbucks," or whether this is "asking way too much of Google." But that's not the point. The point is that the only way we can open up these conversations with Starbucks and with Google on something even close to equal footing is if we have the numbers backing us up. Everyone supporting OUR petition knows that's what this is all about. And so today, we'd just like to take a moment to applaud YOU for inspiring Kamila in the suburbs of Chicago to take a courageous stand that benefits all of US when, not if, but WHEN it succeeds. YOU made this happen, and we want to thank you for your support. Here is the petition so you can see for yourself (https://www.change.org/p/ask-starbucks-to-offer-50-off-drinks-served-in-a-reusable-container-for-byoc-happy-hour) In the first couple of hours, it got 9 signatures, a milestone that took CleanApp a week or so to reach. This is what every successful campaign looks like in its infancy. It's invigorating, isn't it? Some of you are seasoned social organizers, so you know just how difficult it is to get people to actually sign on to causes like these. It's really brutal out there in the Twittersphere & Redditland, where anonymity gives people license to be cruel and vicious to totally common-sensical and well-meaning petitions like the three we've been talking about. If you want to get a glimpse into that world, we'll include the link below, but a warning, it's not pretty. And when you read this, please keep in mind that this is on a ZeroWaste subreddit, so presumably everyone who is on this thread is already aware of the full cost of pollution and littering! Everyone is supposedly on the "same team." Here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroWaste/comments/8uweku/will_you_stand_with_me_in_encouraging_starbucks/ This is why CleanApp keeps emphasizing, "No One's Coming [to pick up our litter or to scan our streets & parks for hazards] ... It's Up To Us." Please share this story so we can keep building OUR movement. No One's Coming ... It's Up To Us. @CleanApp (*) "No One's Coming ... It's Up To Us" is a great article by Dan Hon that explains why tech developers need to take a more active role in developing the change they want to see in the world. (https://medium.com/@hondanhon/no-ones-coming-it-s-up-to-us-de8d9442d0d) -- it's a very good read, even if you're not in tech. Very inspiring. We strongly recommend it.