Vessel’s closed-loop product service system provides reusable alternatives to activate the circular economy and disrupt throwaway culture. Their tech-enabled stainless-steel reusable cup service can be tailored to meet corporate goals and operational needs.
Vessel works closely with facilities management, food services and other stakeholders to develop a reusables ecosystem that can meet specific corporate goals and operational needs. Vessel provides initial assessments, installation, start-up, and on-going support to ensure seamless integration of their reusables systems.
Vessel clients are charged a fee that is comparable to their current disposable cup costs, and provided with insulated, stainless-steel cups. Client employees or customers can check out these cups for free using Vessel’s web-based app, and have five days to return their cup to a participating company or return kiosk.
Vessel cups are tech-enabled for real-time inventory management, ensuring that on-site vendors have the inventory they need, and that collection and distribution are handled efficiently. Vessel provides marketing and outreach materials with co-branding options and offers delivery, collection, washing, and restocking of reusable cups.
The Vessel cup is 100% stainless steel and comes in 12oz and 16oz sizes. The cup is stackable, good for both hot and cold drinks, and meets FDA GRAS standards and Prop 65. The cup can remain in circulation for more than 400 uses, and becomes more sustainable than a paper cup after just 24 uses. The Vessel cup lid is made out of silicone. It is non-toxic, antimicrobial, can withstand extreme temperature variation, and has a sip hole that can accommodate a straw. Vessel cups are 100% infinitely recyclable, and their silicone lid is recycled by a North American recycler.
Vessel return kiosks are very durable and can withstand extreme temperature variations. They are designed for positive user experience. Business friendly receptacles are provided for in-store returns.
Secondary branding opportunities for co-branding on Vessel collateral and Kiosks is offered by Vessel..
Vessel is currently prototyping and testing a reusable food container service.
Vessel supplies and distributes stainless steel cups to participating businesses as needed based on their live inventory management tool. Users check-out these cups by scanning cup QR codes through Vessel’s web-based or native app. They then have five days after check out to return their vessel to a streetside return kiosk or an in-business receptacle located at participating vendors (food service, malls, museums, corporate campuses). Vessel uses proprietary software to track cup inventory and to manage collection and redistribution.
Vessel offers delivery, collection, washing, and restocking of reusable cups. If dishwashing is needed, Vessel will work with each community or vendor to identify the best dishwashing option and, if desired, manage this system. Pick up and drop off is typically done with a pedicab. As of April 2020, Vessel is only available for staffed environments, but automated machines are being developed with hope for deployment in July 2020.
Vessel provides support in training staff and team members.
Vessel’s platform has front and back-end tracking and data collection, real-time inventory management, quantified use metrics and automated invoicing and billing. Their app is easy to use and has an education platform to provide users with feedback on their environmental and social impacts.
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Vessel’s non-plastic, tech-enabled reusable cup system started in 2015 and launched in 2016. They have done successful pilots and city launches with numerous clients in diverse ecosystems including cities, QSR’s, universities and corporate campuses.
NYC Pilot, 2016: Vessel successfully piloted its service in New York City in 2016. The pilot ran for six months in locations spanning the East and West Villages, Brooklyn, Midtown and the Lower East Side.
Boulder – Ongoing operations since 2018: Vessel lives in Boulder, Colorado. They provide their service to eight food vendors and on the CU campus, as well as at local events. In six months of operations, 4500+ Vessels where checked out, and 1260 users had signed up with 85% repeat rate.
Berkeley – Ongoing operations since 2019: Vessel won Berkeley’s municipal RFP. They will launch their service in 11 food and beverage vendors in Berkeley in September of 2019.
Licensing: Vessel currently works on private label and licensing of hardware and software with QSR’s, event venues, corporate campuses, communities and vendors globally.
Using systems thinking, strategic innovation & design Dagny’s work pushes the boundaries of how we think about everyday decisions and builds the capacity in others to have real impact on today’s pressing issues. She is the founder of Vessel, a library style system of reusables designed to disrupt the status quo of disposability with elegant and convenient closed-loop alternatives. Vessel is Tucker’s targeted effort to close the persistent gap between actions and rhetoric pertaining to sustainability practises from an individual level up to the city official level.
She has held executive level business and not-for-profit appointments that have traversed five continents and represent two decades of experience in strategy, service design, project implementation, management,
and government and community engagement. After decades of sustainability meetings and conferences where it was normal to show up with your coffee in a paper cup, Dagny Tucker, felt it was time to address the little things.
Often “sustainability” conversations in board rooms, at conference podiums and in classrooms addressed large scale, monolithic actions- leaving out entirely the impact of those little everyday choices. Making meaningful change within an often opaque and on-the-go culture was no easy task. Dagny saw Vessel as one way to bring to light our potential to have a positive impact through our everyday choices.
Dagny Tucker is the founder of Vessel, taught at Parsons The New School for Design, was formerly the Managing Director of Strategic Global Affairs for New Hope Natural Media and Executive Director of the Peace Initiatives Institute. A Tishman Scholarship recipient for “outstanding achievement in sustainability,” she holds a Ph.D. in International Peace, Conflict and Development from Universitat Jaume I in Spain and a M.S. in Design in Urban Ecologies from Parsons the New School for Design.
Dagny has spoken at major conferences globally including United Nations Habitat II, Shared Value Leadership Summit, Structures for Inclusion, Green Festivals and Natural Products Expo West.
Rob is a dynamic leader who melds technical, sales and operational expertise with business savvy to fund, create, develop and grow organizations into profitable, rapidly growing enterprises. His focus has been on technology businesses with both hardware and software solutions. Early in his career he spent years learning product/market fit in the hyper-competitive world of consumer products.
Rob has started companies, led others as a hired CEO, and grown divisions of multi-billion dollar corporations. His breadth of experience gives him a unique perspective and ability to build strong relationships and teams across industries and product segments.
Trinity has made a career of leveraging financial analysis to facilitate strategic discussions for clients in the private and nonprofit sectors. She began her career in investment banking (George K. Baum & Company, 2006 – 2013), structuring over $1 billion in capital project financings for education and nonprofit institutions. Since then, she has worked as an independent financial consultant (Firn Line Consulting, 2013 – present) providing CFO services to help small and medium-sized clients strategically navigate and manage growth, acquisition or change. She works across industries with a special passion for environmentally focused clients.
An avid outdoorswoman, she can be found setting first skin tracks, backpacking with her baby daughter on her chest, or climbing with friends. In 2011, Trinity took a year-long sabbatical in the form of a (virtually unprecedented) adventure where she and two friends thru-hiked up the spine of South America. Paying her passion for the outdoors forward, Trinity currently serves as board chair for Paradox Sports (Boulder, CO), a nonprofit that revolutionizes lives through adaptive climbing opportunities.
She graduated in 2006 from Colorado College with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Anthropology. In 2016, in recognition of her Andean endeavor and contribution of scientific data collected along the way, Colorado College awarded her the Spirit of Adventure Award.
Trey Ryan is an entrepreneur and founder of several technology companies providing Internet of Things (IoT) and asset tracking products. His company’s clients include some of the largest retailers, consumer products manufacturers, technology companies, and government organizations. Trey began designing software and hardware at a young age. He excels at helping startups develop products that require hardware and web/mobile software. When he’s not working, Trey is likely spending time with his wife and two kids in the mountains of Colorado or on the water of The Bahamas.
Quin Raderstorf possesses a unique combination of experiences blending the discipline of sustainability, the acumen of food service and the agility of entrepreneurial start-ups. His background includes extensive entrepreneurial experience leading small teams, building operations from the ground up and spearheading sales activities in multiple entrepreneurial settings.
Quin’s passion is creating convenient sustainable services that not only gives people the resources to lighten their footprint but also supply them with a bigger understanding of the effect of their actions and influence a behavior change within society. He does so with a collaborative leadership style that supports the emergence of high performance teams and awakens a shared purpose that activates collective intelligence to produce a path to a better new normal.
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