INTRODUCING UNFOLD: OUR NEW STRATEGIC DIGITAL PARTNER

We’re thrilled to announce our innovative partnership with Unfold, a cutting-edge UX and technology studio specialising in custom web apps and websites. Collaborating throughout 2024, as our strategic digital partner, Unfold will assist in enhancing our digital platforms with a focus on improving the user experience of the Refill app, and developing a forward-thinking digital strategy for City to Sea, to help even more people find places to eat, drink and shop with less plastic.

Over the coming year, we’ll be sharing a series of short videos, lifting the lid on some key themes around digital platforms in the non-profit sector. Together with Unfold, we’ll be sharing our experiences and thoughts on topics such as tech and sustainability, growth and change, knowing your users and making tech more accessible. Stay tuned on LinkedIn to see our first in the series soon!

The Refill app is designed to make living with less waste easy, by connecting you to places you can eat, drink and shop without single-use packaging. From a coffee on your commute, to drinking water on-the-go, to zero waste shopping options, Refill puts the power to go packaging free at your fingertips. 

In 2015, Refill was designed to provide a simple solution to plastic water bottles which were littering our streets, polluting our rivers and washing up on our beaches in staggering numbers. Back then, plastic bottles, lids and caps were THE most polluting single-use plastic item found on beaches, rivers and in our oceans around the world. Since then, we’ve created a tipping point when it comes to drinking tap water on-the-go in the UK – the number of people who normally drink tap water on-the-go more than DOUBLED from 18% to 55% and 86% of people surveyed report that they are more likely to carry a reusable bottle and refill on-the-go as a result of knowing about the Refill campaign. 

In 2020 we expanded beyond drinking water to become the world’s first global app to find places to refill and reuse. Refill now provides a practical solution to address the mountains of waste caused by drinks bottles, caps and lids, food wrappers and containers, drinks cups and cup lids and food packaging – items which together, represent half of all marine litter found on beaches and in rivers. 

Looking at the year ahead, our plans for the Refill app are bigger and better than ever and our partnership with Unfold will enable us to make these a reality, thanks to their expert mentorship and guidance. By putting technology at the forefront and embracing change, we believe that a future where refill and reuse options are accessible to all could be just a few swipes away.

Throughout our partnership, Unfold will work with us to empower and upskill our team to drive the Refill app strategy forward with confidence, giving us the tools we need to continually improve and grow the Refill app. As of 2023, there have been over half a million downloads of the Refill App and the campaign has saved an estimated 60 million+ plastic bottles from use – that’s the equivalent of 418,181 blue whales lined up nose to tail, when the plastic bottles are lined up end to end! Improving skills across the City to Sea team, with some strategic guidance and digital expertise from Unfold, will enable us to build on the success of the Refill app to achieve even greater impact together.