Bepakt: Zero-Waste Supermarket Knowledge Base

Zero-Waste Supermarkets?! — Between 2009 and 2019, 500+ zero-waste shops (packaging-free grocery stores) opened across the globe. They are the pioneers of a world without plastic packaging. In 2014, we started Bepakt to help grow this niche — and to question: what innovations  could make zero-waste mainstream? Our approach: designing an open knowledge base to build bridges between zero-waste shops, researchers, educators, designers, politicians and media. With your help we can transform our current prototype website — www.bepakt.com — into a fully-fledged open knowledge platform, so we can (all together) start designing a zero-waste planet. Please read further ↓


CAMPAIGN ENDED
The campaign has run between early February and early April.  Unfortunately, not enough funds were raised. 


The Bepakt Team
Bepakt consists of Italian sustainability professional Giulia Saladino and Dutch designers Rutger Muller, Guus Rietbergen and Remko Dijksma.



Our Philosophy And Impact Thus Far
Bepakt tells the story of the 'glocal' grassroots movement of zero-waste shops, through facts and open data. So far, our prototype knowledge base has empowered...

·  10+ researchers
·  Greenpeace
·  CNN

·  Metabolic
·  Rethink Plastic
·  Circle Economy

·  Zero-Waste Europe
·  Circular Rotterdam
·  Friends of the Earth

·  Alimentarium (Nestlé)
·  The Dutch Government
·  Zero-Waste Entrepreneurs
 
...and numerous others. We want to keep this up, because we believe that the right balance between interdisciplinary collaboration and grassroots empowerment is essential for innovation.

Bepakt founder Rutger was chosen as one of the 'Sustainable Superheroes' of the Limburg area, read it here (in Dutch, by sustainable communication agency ViaStory ).






Why Are We Crowdfunding?
The past 4 years we developed www.bepakt.com on a voluntary basis. We learned a lot, we gathered a lot of user feedback, and we got to know the limitations of our current web design. With your support, we will be able to upgrade our  prototype website to professional platform for everybody interested in the zero-waste supermarket evolution.

One of the core problems of our current prototype website: it's very time consuming to add a new shop to our database (fiddling with code, editing logos in a photo editor, uploading files, and so forth). We're going to develop a submission form that will streamline this process dramatically, for us and for you — the form will be open for anyone — so we can keep the knowledge base as up-to-date as possible! 

New Webdesign Sketch - showing filtering + sorting:


 

What data will we provide?
·  An exhaustive index of the world's zero-waste grocery stores / supermarkets. This list can be sorted chronologically and/or geographically.
·  A comparative overview of all crowdfunding campaigns that zero-waste shops executed to start their businesses.
·  Various other data collections, such as research papers and websites.
·  Articles and infographics, to for example demystify all categories of (compostable, bio-based) packaging materials, and to tell the history of the supermarket.

 What features will we implement?
·  Improved input methods, including crowdsourcing functions, so anybody can easily add new shops and other data to our website, under our moderation.
·  Improved sorting and filtering functions, and real-time currency conversion for our zero-waste shop crowdfunding directory.
·  New methods of exporting, embedding and connecting our data to your spreadsheets, blogs, researches, apps, maps, and so forth.
·  A beautiful, accessible, minimalist web design.




(Image: Bepakt visiting De Nieuwe Graanschuur, Amersfoort, Netherlands)



(MSc Thesis by Giulia Saladino, then an intern at Bepakt)


(Image: Bepakt surveying at Robuust, Antwerp, Belgium)




Planning and — 4-person team

· · ·  March 2019: Research & Design Phase

· · ·  April 2020: Design Phase

· · ·  May 2020: Development Phase

· · ·  2020 - 2023: Content Creation & Maintenance

· · ·  2020-2025: Webhosting via Greenhost

· · ·  2020-2030: Trademark Registration via BOIP



(Image: Illustration we made in December 2015. Not up-to-date-anymore because zero-waste keeps growing!)




Perks
Dear supporters / donators / sponsors. Thank you so much for helping us on our way to the new www.bepakt.com! As our gesture of gratitude, our new website will feature a section that puts a spotlight on our biggest supporters and collaborators. 

Bepakt will remain an initiative that aims to bring all of us closer together:
- zero-waste enthusiasts, educators, bloggers- companies who want to start/accelerate R&D on zero-waste innovations
- independent zero-waste researchers, designers and innovators
- media who want to express accurate information about all zero-waste developments
- regular consumers who want to see zero-waste become more accessible

Just get in touch, let's design a zero-waste planet, together.