Michelle Horan and Melissa Seeley
VENTURES
A Reusable Coffee Cup? There’s an App for That! Two “eco-preneurs” develop a sustainable alternative to singleuse disposables.
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THEY SAY if you want to help future generations, model good behavior. And if you have passion, put it to work. Entrepreneurs and Edina residents Michelle Horan and Melissa Seeley are doing both with their new company Good to Go Cups, a business focused on sustainability that puts their love of coffee front and center, with a focus on grinding things up in the single-use cup economy. The two began their journey together when they volunteered to help launch the organics recycling program for Edina Public Schools. Fast forward more than a decade, and Horan and Seeley are both still passionate about recycling and sustainability. In 2021, they took an online course from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. For both women, the class was a lightbulb moment. “We [had] spent all these years advocating for recycling and composting/organics. … The Ellen MacArthur Foundation advocates for the circular economy,” says Seeley, who shifted her focus to reduction and reuse rather than just end-of-life waste management. “The foundation helped us realize we can’t recycle our way out of a waste problem.” That same year, Hennepin County offered a waste reduction grant. The two women applied and received the funding. And that’s how Good to Go Cups got its start. “We focused on reuse by designing a ‘to-go’ coffee cup that can be used up to
August 2023
edinamag.com
Photos: Chris Emeott
By Kristie Smith