Final's 2019 Impact Report | How Your Purchases Give Back

2019 was a big year here at Final. 

We celebrated our one-year anniversary, launched a new and improved FinalStraw—it’s lighter, fits in a smaller carrying case and comes with a telescoping cleaning brush! We added two new colors (Porpoise-Ful Purple and Pirate’s Booty Black) to our collection and rolled out two limited-edition holiday colors (Ice Ice Baby and Skinny Dip) to end the decade on a high note. FinalStraw became available at retailers like Bloomingdale’s, Paper Source, REI, Scheels, and Tervis. And FinalStraw was featured in hundreds of articles and appeared in publications like  the New York Times, People Magazine, Elle Magazine, Women’s Health, USA Today, NBC News, Inc., and Fast Company. Our CEO and Founder, Emma Rose, also had the opportunity to speak about Final on podcasts like How I Built That, The Startup Story, and Shopify Masters. We grew our squad to 14 members and our ambassador network to over 1000 individuals in 35 countries. Collectively, with the help of our incredible customers, we prevented more than 70 million single-use plastic straws from entering the environment!

As our company continues to grow, so does our philanthropy. Final is a proud member of 1% for the Planet, which means we donate at least one percent of our sales to environmental organizations each year. We also support select organizations outside of the 1% for the Planet network, including schools and student groups. In 2019, we supported over 100 nonprofits, schools and student groups with cash and product donations. Here are a few spotlights on the causes we were able to support this year:

We Support Future Leaders

The Ocean Heroes Bootcamp empowers youth leaders to take action against plastic pollution. This bootcamp was created by Captain Planet Foundation and Lonely Whale with support from the Point Break Foundation. The bootcamp gathered more than 250 youth (ages 11-18) from 20 countries and 24 U.S. states in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

During the three-day bootcamp, the participants learned about what they need to build successful impact campaigns to eliminate single-use plastic from their communities. Emma represented Final as a judge for the Ocean Heroes campaign pitches alongside Lonely Whale Co-Founder Adrian Grenier, Professional Surfer and Environmental Activist Rob Machado and other esteemed judges from businesses and nonprofits working to end plastic pollution.

Final donated straws to the ocean champions, squad leaders, and influencers. Check out this video from the bootcamp!

We Protect Marine Wildlife

We released a new case color, Pirate’s Booty Black, which comes with a black or gold straw, in partnership with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Ten percent of sales from this collection were donated to Sea Shepherd to support their ocean habitat conservation and marine life protection programs. Through this partnership, we helped Sea Shepherd save 250 sharks.

Sea Shepherd is a nonprofit made up of badass pirates that protect marine wildlife, like sharks, through aggressive and collaborative campaigns, providing government agencies with the vessels, crew and fuel they need to patrol their waters, enforce laws and make arrests on the spot. Shark poaching is a multi-billion dollar industry. An estimated 100 million sharks are illegally killed every year around the world—that’s more than 11,000 an hour! Sea Shepherd is the only organization patrolling, documenting, and taking legal action against shark poaching. 

We Advocate for Plastic Pollution Policy

On #GivingTuesday, we released two enamel pins and committed to donating 100% of the proceeds to the Clean Seas Lobbying Coalition, a group of organizations working together to advance plastic pollution policy in California. The coalition includes groups like The 5 Gyres Institute, Plastic Pollution Coalition, The Story of Stuff Project, Surfrider Foundation, and more.

Currently, the coalition is focusing on Senate Bill 54/Assembly Bill 1080, the California Circular Economy and Pollution Reduction Act. This monumental law would reduce waste from single-use packaging and priority single-use food serviceware—like plates, cups and utensils—in California by 75% by 2030, and ensure that the remaining items are effectively reusable, recyclable, or compostable.

If you live in California, you can contact your legislator and encourage them to phase out single-use products and packaging!

To learn more about the organizations we supported in 2019, check out our mid-year impact report.

Thank you for being a part of our community in 2019. We’re excited to see what we’re able to accomplish together in 2020!