Bring in the CarrotMob

New initiative brings mass patronage to ‘deserving’ businessesA convenience store in London’s Covent Garden has just been the site of a particularly benign type of environmental action – as the UK’s second ever CarrotMob event descended on Miranas Food & Wine for some environmentally-minded shopping.

CarrotMob, which originated in San Francisco, uses punter power to encourage businesses to make environmental improvements. The ‘carrot’ is the mob of extra customers it can mobilise for a particular day or evening at a chosen venue. In return for this massive boost to sales, the selected business agrees to spend a percentage of the takings on steps to cut its energy use and decrease its carbon footprint. CarrotMob canvasses likely businesses for about a month before each event and provides the successful “target” with an environmental audit so that it can see where the money can best be spent. Then it uses email lists, social networking sites and “plain old word of mouth” to spread the word.  

The first UK event saw more than 100 extra punters crowd into a bar in east London in October for an evening’s drinking, with the management committing to spending 20% of the night’s takings on improvements to the bar’s lighting and refrigeration systems. For the event at Miranas, the store’s owners pledged to spend 35% of the takings. “They plan to use it to improve old fridge units, shop lighting and the over-the-door heater,” says Jonathan Melhuish, one of the CarrotMob organisers.

“The idea for a UK CarrotMob came from a bunch of us who met at the Kingsnorth power station protest earlier this year,” says Melhuish. “That was fun but we wanted to do something a bit more positive and everyday and something people could relate to.”

As it grows, CarrotMob UK aims to forge more ongoing relationships with businesses. The only trouble, says Melhuish, is that it is currently run by just two volunteers so one of its first steps will be to recruit more people to help organise future events. – David Baker

11 November 2008

David Baker

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