Green Options

Coffee Snob Chooses Starbucks over Artisanal Blue Bottle!

OK, I must admit, I’m not a coffee snob. If it’s thick as tar and wakes me up, it’s coffee. However, I know others who are. Especially here in San Francisco. I heard a lot of buzz about this “Blue Bottle” place, and although I haven’t yet tasted the elixir myself, I have a heartwarming story to tell. My sister-in-law told me about a recent experience she had at Blue Bottle at the Ferry Building. She asked the barista “Do you have fair trade coffee?” to which the barista reportedly replied in the negatory. So she and two others in line behind her left and went to the nearby national chain that happens to be the world’s largest buyer of fair trade coffee.

Image credit: Banky177 at Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

But I Want to Support the Indie Coffee Shop

Because I enjoy living in a diverse and entrepreneurial economy, I try to support independently owned businesses where possible. So it bothered me that this company which seems to be extremely particular about the beans they roast would not take the next logical step and choose fair trade coffee. So I asked them why. And here’s the heartwarming part. I got the following response from Blue Bottle’s Head Roaster:

I am a big fan of Conservation International (CI) and have been for ten years ever since I worked with the NGO during my previous life at a multinational corporation.  I admire CI’s collaborative approach by accepting the world’s largest corporations as part of the environmental solution and not just the source of the problem.  Realizing the importance of the private sector, CI created the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB) partnering with such companies as Starbucks, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart.

CELB’s mission is to leverage the power and reach of corporations to “improve human livelihoods through: innovative business practices that reduce companies’ ecological footprint, strategic investments in conservation opportunities and dynamic communications campaigns that engage consumers and employees worldwide to take action in their everyday lives.”

As part of their progressive communications campaign, CI recognized the influence and reach of social networking and social media.  And now, they are set to launch a groundbreaking tool designed to catalyze personal and collective action via the connective power of the web.  Are you ready for “Team Earth”?

This debate has already taken so many faces, and been argued so many times, that I cannot hope to add much more to it.

But I’ll try anyway.

A new study published by the Journal of Consumer Research has found that many Hummer owners excuse their large, oft-unnecessary H1 and H2s by crying patriotism and quoting American ideals like individualism. So are Hummer owners the morally righteous in the debate of anti-consumerism versus over-consumption?

Do you get your java on the go? If so, what do you do with the paper cup once you’re finished? Throw it in the trash…recycle it…maybe you never gave it much thought. But did you know that 58 billion paper cups are used in the United States every year, and if all these paper cups were recycled, 645,000 tons of waste would be diverted from our landfills? We would be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 million mtCO2e (Metric Tonne Carbon Dioxide Equivalent) similar to removing 450,000 passenger cars from the road. It’s amazing to think that something so simple could have such a big impact. Well, it sounds simple but actually the reality is quite complicated.

Global Green USA’s Coalition for Resource Recovery (CoRR) understands the complexity. Their mission is to help businesses increase profits by transforming waste into assets - ultimately, creating a win-win situation for business and the environment. However, CoRR can’t do it alone. It will take all stakeholders in the paper cup supply chain working in collaboration. And it all starts with one white, iconic coffee cup.

You drink coffee. Tea. When it’s at home, it’s organic, and when you’re out, you do your best. In so many ways, you live a green lifestyle. And yet, there’s one sticky point: the cup.

By Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, a leading U.S. coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Originally published at SolveClimate.

Tom Benson, owner of the World’s Largest Laundromat in Berwyn, Ill., is tired of listening to conservative industry groups’ bluster that climate change legislation is bad for business.

That’s because clean energy saved his.

When Benson bought his business a decade ago, all that hot water helping scrub everything from Speedos to sheets ate up a staggering 25 percent of total monthly revenues. With 153 washers using thousands of gallons of hot water daily, you can only imagine the energy costs. And that’s before factoring in the 148 dryers.

So to cut his natural gas costs, Benson installed a solar hot water system on his roof. Three dozen 10-by-4-foot solar panels now produce more than 2,400 gallons of hot water daily, saving him some $25,000 a year.

“Our energy bills could have sunk this business,” says Benson. “Now, they’re a source of pride.”

I am NOT a coffee addict.

Am not.

But I dare say I might become one.

I do enjoy a good cup of coffee, but caffeine sometimes makes me edgy.  Though I have managed to mostly avoid the lure of Starbucks, I have been known to indulge in a white chocolate mocha at Second Cup, or a French Vanilla at Tim Horton’s… and don’t get me started about Iced Cappucino in the summer!!

Then I read 5 Ways to Green Your Coffee and I got the itch.

So I bought myself a french press and some fresh-ground, organic, Fair Trade coffee.  And I just had to share a little about the company behind my coffee.

Starbucks has decided to stray from its ideals of “real coffee” by adding an instant coffee to its repertoire.

This morning I stopped at Starbucks for a treat - a soy gingerbread latte.  As I walked through the door berating myself for not bringing my travel mug, I noticed again all of the disposable cups and associated waste we now accept as part of our morning coffee ritual. 

Over 50% of adult Americans, more than 150 million people, consume coffee daily.  That’s a lot of joe, and a huge opportunity to caffeinate more sustainably.  Here are a few tips to green your morning coffee.

1. Brew Your Coffee at Home

Or, in the words of Bon Appetit, become your own barista.  In addition to reducing landfill waste, you’ll save money and have more control over the beans you brew, not to mention any sweetener or milk you add.  I’m currently in love with coffee made with a French press, and ask for a medium grind when I buy beans at my local specialty roaster.

2008 - what a year! As we get ready to draw the curtains on one of the most unsettling economic years in history, we the writers of the Inspired Economist are still wondering… was this year one that has left our battered economy begging for inspiration? Or have the sustainable events of 2008 spearheaded the initiation of what we believe is truly an Inspired Economy?

2008 was about the $700 billion bailout. Foreclosures. The plummeting stock market. As the year came [...]

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