The 50 for 5000 campaign began in 2011 when EMU Food Services was looking for a way to reduce waste, or more specifically, a way to decrease the use of 5,000 paper coffee cups in an academic year. We partnered with Food Services and developed a contest in which the University of Oregon community was asked to submit ideas to a website to prevent the use of 5,000 cups. Our designer Nik Wise created a print and web design campaign emphasizing what 5,000 cups actually looks like, Elijah Hamovitz developed 50for5000.uoregon.edu, and Alexandra Notman provided copy. The campaign was a success and currently has prevented the use of more than 15,000 paper coffee cups and counting.
