Update:
Although we've fixed the previous PayPal issue, and some people are able to contribute, we're still receiving messages that people cannot get their contributions through. Honestly, we have no idea what's happening. Indiegogo has told us that the only way they can solve the issue is if you contact them individually: support@indiegogo.com
Alternatively you can email 'rob [at] refuture.co' and we can help by organising contributions on your behalf. Sorry for the inconvenience!
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"The environment". Let's be honest...the moment a person brings up the word, we immediately start to feel bad about ourselves. "I'm not doing enough" and "I should do more" is how we feel. We start to defend our actions not because we don't want to help, but because we see the problem as too hard to fix and adding discomfort to our daily lives. In our past experiences, we've encountered too many eco-products that either don't work well, are expensive, or require too much effort with minimal results. Although that may be far from the truth now, environmentalism's reputation precedes itself and to put it bluntly...it's not seen as 'cool'.
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The Refuture app is a simple tool that transforms all of your positive daily actions into points that are ranked against our friends on a social platform. If you walk to work rather than drive your car, you gain points. If you spend less on your electricity bill, you gain points. This allows people to track their progress, motivate themselves and their friends, and most importantly see the collective impact they have on the world as a group. We've gamified the experience. Ultimately, it makes it easier for people to do good by encouraging them to do more of what they're already doing right, rather than forcing new uncomfortable behaviours. We believe that the only way to truly take sustainability to the next level is not to go against the mainstream, but to go with it.
We want you to be a part of this movement of changing the face of sustainability into something new. Into something you're likely to find on your Instagram feed, not in the trunk of your hippie uncle's car.
THE APP
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What does the Refuture App do?
- Tracks the positive actions of each user into a point system.
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Shows the collective impact the user has with friends and communities.
- Ignites social competition through ranks, goals, levels, and achievements.
PROGRESS is important because by keeping track of ourselves, it enables us to maintain motivation to build the right habits. Refuture converts all positive actions into points and displays the user's world impact in an understandable context. Walking to work, recycling waste, using less water, etc. will award the user points according to their performance against the community average.
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COMMUNITIES is how people can see the collective impact they are having on the world. Users can join multiple communities such as friends, city, country, workplace, clubs, etc. All users inside the community will have their points aggregated to a total with a collective goal target set each month. This allows for some friendly competition beyond borders:
London vs. Sydney, Harvard vs. Columbia, Nike vs. Adidas.
By showing people that they are part of a larger movement and giving community goals, people will be more motivated and will likely build habits.
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PROFILES enable users to see their progress, badges, and most importantly world impact. Know how much positive impact you've made at all times and understand it in easy terms: how many trees planted, how much water saved, etc.
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STAY ON TOP OF YOUR DATA, we all know how much we spend on bills per month, but we don't know if we're spending more or less than our past. Refuture puts all of our activities in context to our surroundings by showing our personal progress against our own past and friends/communities.
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SOCIAL COMPETITION is a large aspect of this platform; by understanding how much we're doing in comparison to our friends, we apply peer pressure to each other to do more. This motivates the user by providing worldly context of their impact.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Sustainability affects everybody no matter where you are or how much you earn - an issue beyond any borders. The problem is both large and multi-faceted, but the angle often not tackled is that of social behaviour and cultural desire. This how our founder got involved in sustainability:
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THE IMPACT
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Refuture isn't just an app, it's a vision for making sustainability approachable for all. By changing the perception of environmentalism and building the habits for positive behaviours, we're helping to alter the social landscape for adopting sustainable living. So by supporting Refuture you're not just helping one project, you're helping all sustainability initiatives as a greater movement. When consumer desires change, businesses will adapt to meet them, and we truly have a self-feeding cycle for change.
We've received the support from
OpenIDEO sponsored by
Coca-Cola Enterprises in the
recycling challenge where Refuture was selected as winner amongst 200+ ideas
; we received feedback and support from hundreds of OpenIDEO community members around the world. This project is the accumulation of a global effort and now we need your help to bring Refuture to people's lives. A special shout out to Jes Simson and Sky Gilbar for all their community feedback and support - you guys are awesome!
WHERE ARE WE NOW
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We've gone through all the branding, design and wireframes for Refuture. We've prepared our market entrance strategy and laid out the best path to market using lean start-up methodology. Our experienced app development partners have mapped the app and identified the core functions for creating the MVP (minimum viable product), so we have a clear idea of the costs involved for our development phases.
We need $15,000 to create the core functions of data tracking/input along with the algorithm to convert the data into points. The hours that go into development as well as server costs for storing all the data when the app goes live is where the money will go. Once we have this phase completed, we can begin taking Refuture to the world for real usage and testing.
Please donate and share this campaign to your friends and family. We will be very grateful for any kind of support. :)
Thank you so much!
Refuture Team
ABOUT US
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Who is the founder?
Rob Han specializes in brand management and creative direction, with a background in the luxury fashion industry. His idea has always been to take the consumer behaviour learnings from mass-market fields and apply them to his passions in sustainability, technology, and education. Born in Australia and used to great air and nature, his travels around the world and work in China has led to the realisation of the sustainability issues the world faces. This has been the driving force for him to start Refuture.
Who is the Refuture team?
We're a bunch of people working in day jobs that aren't related to sustainability per se but want to do more for the world. Refuture is that avenue for us. We're involved in driving modern culture through branding, design, communications, and digital development. Our team takes their skills from commercial fields such as fashion, consumer products and events, and applies them to areas like sustainability to attack the issue from new angles.
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PERKS
For supporting us, we've created some great perks for your generosity. Check them out below! Some images are renderings so the final product may differ from the image seen - but we promise it'll still be awesome.
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Secret Lifehacks Collection - You often wonder how everyone else seems to manage their time and keep on top of everything. The Refuture team never has enough hours in their day either and has put together a secret collection of productivity hacks we use to be stay ahead of time - 50 of you will now have the chance to get their hands on them.
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Secret Design Collection - Love our design? We are obsessed with everything design-related and have spent many years carefully collecting and curating our favourite design inspiration sources. We're now sharing them with 50 of you in the hopes to tickle your creative bones and inspire you to create great things.
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Refuture Pioneer - According to Urban Dictionary, a pioneer is "anything that is from an earlier era and looked upon with high regard or respect." They certainly got that right. This limited-edition 'Pioneer Profile' on the app will show that you are one of the first 100 movers and supporters of the Refuture vision.
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Refuture Beta Tester - The moment the Refuture App gets made into reality, you'll be the first to know. You will receive a special invitation to be one of the first private beta-testers for this app (a little like receiving the golden ticket - note Willy Wonka reference). Awesome much? You'll also get a beta-tester badge for your profile.
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Tote Bag - We can't get enough of tote bags - well designed ones, that is. This is one that you'd be able to take to the beach, grocery store, or even on a weekend roadtrip if you're looking to get adventurous. The Refuture team will even throw in a "Secret Collection" of your choosing.
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Custom Hand-drawn Name - Our illustrator from Flyghte will create a hand-drawing, commissioned especially for you. The original illustration (A5 size) will be mailed to your doorstep, and you'll be able to display it wherever you please. Comes with a digital scan too if you'd prefer.
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Mystery Box of Modern China - With the Refuture team coming from all around the world and finding themselves in Shanghai, we've come across a fair share of weird and wonderful things and would like to share them with you. You will be sent a box of strange items that can only be found in modern China. Hilarity is to be expected. This is the limited early-bird special.
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Big Mystery Box of Modern China - Same as a regular Mystery Box, but only bigger. And in this case, bigger...is better.
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IDEO Studio Tour - We're very happy to announce this amazing perk sponsored by IDEO, the first backer to this perk will receive a special tour of their San Francisco studio. Rated as one of the most innovative companies in the world, we don't need to emphasize how awesome having a chance to look at how they work is. Don't sleep on this one, you'll regret it!
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Badge of Honor - This is one you will want to have - a badge will be named after you on the Refuture App. You'll be able to sit down with us (probably virtually) and brainstorm on what users have to do to earn those badges.
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We Are Your Eyes & Ears - People hear crazy things about China all the time. Is it true? Well, most likely. If you have not yet had a chance to visit this mysterious country, do not fret. We'll take you on a special kind of tour. We'll make a list of things that you might find interesting - pick out a few and we'll be your eyes and ears, recording as we go and making comments on what we see. If you're lucky, you might even get the opportunity to pick some out for us...although I can already foresee some evil people making us eat buckets of chicken feet. And yes, they do sell them at almost every corner.
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Refuture Collaborator - You'll gain special inside access to the team's work on Refuture with the opportunity to collaborate and give direct feedback. You will also be listed as a special contributor on the Refuture App credits and website. A great one for those who want to be involved and have a hands-on experience.
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Refuture Team Meet - You'll gain special inside access to the team's work on Refuture with the opportunity to collaborate and give direct feedback. You will also be listed as a special contributor on the Refuture App credits and website. As a bonus, the Refuture team will prepare a home-cooked dinner and meet you for a meal (location to be discussed). We're great cooks. :)
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FAQ
What is the Refuture app?
The Refuture app is a simple tool that tracks all of your positive daily actions into points that are ranked against your friends on a social platform. It helps to create good habits and aims to keep people motivated by providing social competition and showing collective impact.
Why are you doing this?
Sustainability is an issue shared by all of us, but it's only being tackled by a small group of people. That's not enough. We want to make sustainability something that normal people can smoothly incorporate in their lives every day, not just the people already living green. We believe people do have the desire to help - they just find it difficult to do so. So we're planting the first seeds for a bigger movement.
How are you different?
We're not the first to gamify sustainability but we are the first to do so in a way that speaks to regular people. Our branding, design and strategy all revolves around speaking our modern society's language. We aim to provide value and utility to our user's lives first and foremost, then only after that can we consider sustainability.
What are the donations going towards?
The $15,000 will fund the mvp (minimum viable product) development for the app, which is the creation of the data tracking and input functions, as well as the algorithm to transform the data into points. To go further, we need to do real user testing. We've come to this number by analyzing the scope of work and cost of development among quality partners.
If you have any feedback or ideas on what you'd like to be included in the Refuture app, feel free to reach out to us. Or if you'd like to get involved with our team, send us a message! :)
Thank you for your time!
