It's become a tradition to kick off the new year by looking back at the milestones reached throughout the year, and this year is no exception. So, with a heartfelt thank you to all you crowdfunders, sharefunders, and stone paper warriors out there, here we go!
We'll always look back at 2023 as a year of change. We revamped the MOYU brand, which came hand in hand with many new and exciting things: website, marketing content look & feel, in-store materials, guerilla marketing campaigns, and, of course, the move to the new office.
All this change has already started to pay off. Our MOYUcuckoos found welcoming stores across Europe, we started working with new partners in Ireland & Sweden, launched new notebook collections and products, developed a teaching kit to help teachers teach about deforestation at schools, proudly received our B Corp certification, and, last but not least, we welcomed 222 new MOYU share funders.
It was a cold Monday morning in February when, while roaming around Italy, Roel decided to leave a MOYU in a Moleskine store. The MOYU had a compelling message inside with the hope of creating awareness amongst notebook lovers about the role of the paper industry in deforestation. We got inspired and associated the action with the cuckoo birds. For those who don't know, a cuckoo is a bird that lays eggs in random nests. We decided to run a MOYUcuckoo scavenger hunt.
What started as a one-off is now going on for 10 months straight. Every Friday, we hide limited edition notebooks in bookstores across Europe for what is by now a community of 1000 scavenger hunt enthusiasts. It's safe to say that MOYUcuckoos will continue to nest in 2024!
After 3 years of selling MOYUs on the run, we were thrilled to see more and more people adopting stone paper for their everyday writing. In that time, we've evolved as a company, and it was time to take a step back and set a long-term strategy moving forward. We transitioned to a more senior team and revamped our brand to feel like the heartbeat of our business. Which naturally called for new notebook collections, email styles, and a new webshop.
Long story short, environmental issues caused by deforestation make tree-based paper hard to justify. The rising demand for single-use paper means the paper industry produces paper like there is no tomorrow. MOYU is working to pave the way towards a circular paper industry that helps reforest the planet. How? By hacking away at single-use paper through rock-solid rewritables.
For the long version, you can tune into our blog, where Roel & Paul will dive deeper into the importance of stone paper, reforestation, and a paperless office.
Our Impact department, aka Roel, is always on and searching for surprising new ways to turn stone paper into everyday products. Last year, we expanded our portfolio with divider tabs, notecards, upcycled notebook sleeves & pencil cases, reusable gift envelopes, and two new limited-edition notebooks.
This year, we were excited to welcome seven new faces to the team: Maja Grcic, Ángel Figueroa Mayordomo, Chiara Mulas, Martijn van Blitterswijk, Leonora Hein, Bruna Guimarães Pedro, and Luma Andrade. In the case of Martijn & Leonora, it's a welcome back to the team after completing their studies.
Each one brings their unique talents and perspectives to our team. From doodling & copywriting to selling & strategic thinking, their expertise and passion will undoubtedly play a crucial role in taking MOYU to new heights in 2024.
May & June were exciting months as we prepared to launch our first-ever sharefunding campaign. We wanted to open MOYU up and invite our fans to officially join the team on our mission to hack away at single-use paper. We worked closely with Eyevestor to get our numbers and legal sheets all in a row, and the rest is MOYU history: 222 new MOYU shareholders.
We couldn’t be happier with the result. And, for now keep it on the downlow, but rumor has it that new opportunity to invest is coming in 2024.
Building on our success in Germany and France, we partnered with Alan Travers from 4rbrands and Monia Lundgren to venture into Ireland & Sweden. The initial response is positive, with 13 big office supply stores selling MOYU notebooks in Ireland and 1000 Volvo personalized notebooks being sold through their global merchandise supplier in Sweden. Amongst other proud stone paper warrior companies in Sweden are the SKF and Swedish Chamber of commerce.
August had an extra special, noteworthy moment as MOYU became a certified B Corp as B Lab Benelux's member #300 in the Netherlands!
For those that don't know about the B Corp Certification, it's a designation given to a business that meets high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials.
This milestone was at the heart of our brand for 2023, and it's an achievement we'll proudly take with us into 2024!
About halfway through the year, it dawned on us that many enthusiastic MOYU fans enjoy spreading the word on the benefits of stone paper notebooks and the need to hack away at tree paper. And we felt these efforts deserved to be rewarded, so the MOYU Ambassador Program was born.
It turns out we love to engage and spoil our Stone Paper Warriors. No surprise there! So, to all you stone paper warriors reading this, expect many more exciting missions and rewards in 2024.
If this is the first time you read about the program, you can learn all about it and apply through our Ambassador Program page.
We took the first step to contribute sustainability content for education at schools. We created a teaching kit to raise awareness about global deforestation amongst students. The goal is to inspire younger generations to adopt more sustainable writing habits. So far, 45 schools across continents are testing the kit in their classrooms.
And what is a year-long highlight blog without a look at our impact numbers? Once again, we had another rock-solid year. Thanks to all MOYU users, we reached an impressive 204,870 trees planted and saved 473,055 CO2 emissions, 17,446,741 liters of water, and 8,523 Gj of energy.
Onto 2024 – our goal: 1,000,000 trees!
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As we step into 2024, exciting plans unfold:
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