What makes a coffee-shop eco friendly? How hard is it to tell? It is fashionable and profitable to sell your business as being eco-friendly but here we examine the signs of whether it is just marketing spin or if in fact the coffee shop you visit is really as green as their beans are brown.
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Is it that important? I mean a coffee is a coffee? Slap down your $4 and enjoy the hot (or cold) caffeine laden smooth tasting beverage. Well if you want to do your bit for the environment, should you consider any way to support the businesses that are also doing their bit? That's why I feel it is important to give you this guide and hope you pass it on to others.
Here's the easy one, cups and mugs vs disposable coffee cups. Of course if they are using reusble ceramic mugs and cups it is far better than paper cups. But it can get a bit more subtle as well. Do they have enough mugs that can they wait until their dishwasher is full before doing a load? Not all do, so they are wasting energy running a half empty dishwasher. And most coffee shops do take-outs so they have to use disposable cups. Here's an interesting thing I learnt from doing research for this article. In many cases the bad old styrofoam cup is better than the paper cup! Why? Because a lot of paper cups are covered in a plastic layer that isn't bio-degradable. And one coffee shop noticed that after switching to paper cups that a lot of their customers asked for cardboard sleeves. But bio-degradable cups (plastic or paper) can be found, and so can insulated disposable cups, so if your favorite shop isn't using them ask them why.
Onto coffee bean selection. Have you heard of the Rainforest Alliance and Fair Trade Coffee? The Rainforest Alliance is an organization that supports bio-diversity and sustainability. They also help countries develop eco-friendly tourism programmes and help improve education systems. They have a seal that is awarded to products only after they have past its stringent checks. Fair Trade Coffee is coffee that is bought not at the lowest price possible but directly at a rate that is fair to the farmers. This gives them greater incentives and prevents them being taken advantage of. One additional condition is that they have to be part of an co-op again helping their region and improving relationships instead of having them compete and drive prices down. So pick a shop that uses Fair Trade Coffee beans or Rainforest Alliance products.
I was going to talk about carbon credits and how a coffee shop can use them but my final point is actually something seemingly un-eco related, that is community. However I feel that community is an important part of our society, and that a coffee shop supportive and a part of the local community is a responsible one and one that has the power to influence its customers, or more accurately fellow community members to be ecologically responsible.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and that it has opened your eyes to how different coffee shops can be green to differing degrees. Enjoy your daily coffee, like I do in the morning while writing for my paper and printing related blog, have a look if you are interested, my latest post is about custom envelope printing.
