Introducing LifeCycle Hospitality
Over three and a half years ago, I sat in the McDonald's on Union Square in NYC after a long night of basketball at NYU's Palladium gym. I ordered my favorite midnight treat: the 99 cent mango-pineapple smoothie. Little did I know that this purchase would change the course of my life forever.
When the smoothie was ready, I received a paper bag. This bag included the smoothie itself within a plastic cup, and it was accompanied by a plastic straw and napkins. When I took account of this egregious amount of packaging, I immediately began to wonder why such a small purchase would generate so much waste. It was at this exact moment that SeaStrawsCo was born.
From day one, this company has been about more than replacing single-use plastic straws. In fact, within our first year of business, we decided our mission statement to be "empowering hospitality through sustainable alternatives." This mission was purposefully broad, but our initial priority was to create the strongest and most sustainable made in the USA paper straw on the market. We believe we have achieved that with SeaStraws, and now after three and a half years in the market, the time has come to turn our broader vision into a reality.
Today, I would like to introduce you all to LifeCycle Hospitality. LifeCycleHospitality.com is effectively a re-branding of the SeaProducts.co site that has been active for over a year now, but it symbolizes much more than this.
First, all LifeCycle Hospitality shipments are automatically offset to be carbon neutral via Shopify's Offset Program. Currently, our site's contributions are funding the Jarí Para Forest Conservation Project in the Amazon Rainforest. We recognize that carbon offset programs are not perfect, but we trust that Shopify is doing the best they can to verify that this initiative is having a true impact. We are the only nationwide or regional hospitality products company to have an offset program like this.
Second, to increase the affordability of our products, as of today we have activated Shop Pay's pay via installment feature. If approved by Shopify's partnership with Affirm, customers will be able to pay for their products in four interest free payments over two week intervals. We are also the only nationwide or regional hospitality products company to implement a payment program like this.
With this change, our @SeaStrawsCo social media pages will now all be updated to be @LifeCycleHospitality. We are focusing our business on building this marketplace of sustainable products for the hospitality industry, and we encourage you to stay in touch with us online to learn more about our social impact, customer base, and team. As always, our storytelling will be about the people that work with us to implement social change and benefit our planet and our people rather than straightforward messages about our products.