ESG goals are easier to work with when they connect to a real decision. For a café, office, hotel, caterer or event venue, the cup used for each drink is one place to start.

Moving from single-use cups to a well-run reuse system can help reduce disposable cup waste. It can also give your team a practical change to measure. A cup alone will not deliver an organisation’s sustainability goals. The result depends on how the cups are used, washed, collected, and kept in service.

Start with something people use every day

Zerocup is UBITE’s reusable cup for professional coffee service. It is made with bio-based materials from bio-based sources. It is dishwasher safe and designed for repeated use. Its porcelain-like finish and customisation options help it fit the setting, from a staff café to a coffee shop or event.

Reuse has to work in the operation. Cups need to fit the service, washing routine, storage space, and return process. UBITE works with organisations to understand those details and shape an approach that suits the way they serve drinks.

When a reusable cup replaces a single-use cup, the benefit grows with repeated use. A collection and recycling process can also help keep material in circulation at the end of the product’s life. The number of times each cup is actually used matters.

Make your assumptions visible

UBITE’s Zerocup Impact Calculator helps organisations estimate potential carbon, waste, and cost savings for their own setup. Teams can adjust inputs such as drinks served, number of cups, expected reuse cycles, washing method, and current single-use cup costs. The calculator uses Life Cycle Assessment work carried out with New Alchemists for its CO₂ estimates.

That makes the calculator useful for exploring scenarios. What changes if cups are used more often? How does an in-house wash compare with an external service? How many disposable cups might a reuse programme replace?

The output is an estimate based on the assumptions entered. It is not a certification or a complete ESG report. For internal planning, keep a record of those assumptions and update them as you learn how the system performs.

Turn a target into an operating plan

A business could start with a simple baseline: how many single-use cups it buys or serves in a month. Then it can set a reuse target, run a pilot, and track whether the cups stay in circulation. The calculator can help compare the scenario with current purchasing and washing costs.

The cup relates most directly to environmental goals around waste, materials, and emissions. The people side is in how staff and customers use the system. Clear instructions and a simple return process make participation easier. The governance side is deciding who owns the programme and recording the assumptions behind the numbers.

UBITE works with businesses to find reusable products and systems that fit everyday service. Zerocup can be a starting point for organisations that want to reduce single-use cup waste and understand what reuse could mean for their operation.

Use the Zerocup Impact Calculator to explore a scenario, then talk to UBITE about what could work for your setting.