Starbucks … good or evil? April 28, 2008

I have never been a fan of Starbucks — I generally do not enjoy the taste of their coffee, it is incredibly too expensive, and most of their “fun” drinks and food are too calorie-laden for my taste. I also don’t like the idea that they are a huge conglomerate that kicks the unique mom and pop coffee houses out of neighborhoods that rely on small businesses to stimulate the local economy.

But the more I hear about Starbucks’ environmental practices, the less hostile I find myself toward them. Several impressive initiatives they have taken in the past few years include:

• “Grounds for Your Garden” – an initiative to reuse coffee grounds that involved Starbucks distributing grounds to community gardens, nurseries, and parks to assist in composting efforts
• Reducing in the size of paper napkins and the thickness of trash bags. This eliminated more than 1.8 million pounds of waste in 2004. Let’s just hope that workers aren’t using two bags to make up for a weaker, thinner bag!
• Making their cardboard cups with 10% post-consumer fiber content. This is minuscule in the grand scheme of things, but it is a start
• Assuring that 20% of the energy used to power their North America Company-operated stores comes from renewable energy sources
• They are North America’s largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified coffee

Now I have to say that, considering the reach of Starbucks and the depth of their pockets, I expect more from them; they should really be a leader in greening large corporations. But their efforts to date seem respectable and I commend their social responsibility.

Has anyone else experienced a slight change of heart about Starbucks like me?

 

Sustainability – the Journal of Record April 24, 2008

Courtesy of the Knowledgespeak newsletter today, I discovered that STM publisher Mary Ann Liebert has made available to the public the first issue of the new journal Sustainability – the Journal of Record. Its contents, downloadable in PDF form, can be found here: http://www.liebertonline.com/toc/sus/1/1.

After reading a fascinating article about architect William McDonough in Vanity Fair’s green issue, I have been thinking a lot about sustainable power sources and resources. I will have to sign up for the TOC Alerts for Sustainability!

K Cup Alternatives? April 22, 2008

After I wrote my recent post on K Cups  and how they continue to fill up our landfills, I found myself wanting to research more eco-friendly alternatives to this recent office addition. One of the benefits of the Keurig coffee system is that there are so many varieties of coffees and teas available, so potential alternatives would need to provide a similar benefit.

1. The old-fashioned office coffee pot

Cost per cup: about $.10

Advantages:

* Hundreds of choices of beans from all over the world

* Grinding your own beans will give fresher coffee

* Waste is all/mostly recyclable or biodegradable

* Tea bags made of unbleached, recyclable materials can be purchased for tea options

Disadvantages:

* Frequently having to brew a new/fresh pot

* Constant electricity usage from keeping the coffee warm

* Requires more maintenance to clean than a single-cup system

2. Coffee pods (brands include Senseo, Home Cafe, Melitta)

Cost per cup: about $0.30

Advantages:

* Quickly produce a single serving of fresh coffee

* Offers coffee and tea options – over 250 options available

* Coffee pod brewers are frequently less expensive than Keurig machines

* Coffee pods cost less than K Cups

* Coffee pods are made from biodegradable materials

* Option to purchase a refillable pod holder to further reduce waste and customize your brew with your own ground coffee

Disadvantages:

* Coffee pods are packaged in plastic cellophane wrappers.

* Your office may need to purchase a new coffee machine capable of brewing coffee pods

3. Coffee packets (Flavia)

Cost per cup: about $0.35

Advantages:

* Quickly produce a single serving of fresh coffee

* Offers coffee and tea options

* Filterpack technology uses 25% less coffee beans to make the same strength drink as a drip coffee machine

Disadvantages:

* Only 14 coffee and tea options are currently available

* Coffee is packaged in plastic packets that are not recyclable or biodegradable

 

Of course there are other options available, but these are the three best alternatives to the K Cups that I have found. I have tried all of these options, save for the coffee pods, and have found the freshly brewed coffee to best the best over all. If you have a large office this may not be feasible, but in a small office, it may be the most environmentally friendly and economical solution.

Earth Day 2008 – Announcing The Green Team! April 22, 2008

My colleague Victoria and I used Earth Day to kick off our new office project — The Green Team!

The Green Team’s goal is to find ways to make our office more environmentally friendly. We hope that we an raise awareness among our coworkers about environmental issues, reduce the amount of waste that our office produces, lower operating costs by implementing energy-saving measures, and have some fun while we do it!

Our group of 7-10 members will work on the following projects throughout the year:

• Recycled Paper Notepads: The IHC Green Team will collect recyclable 81/2 x 11 paper with handwriting, graphics or printed text of non-confidential material on one side and turn our recycled paper into notepads for use around the office. The Green Team can also turn recycled paper into bound notebooks with custom designed recycled cardboard covers. People working remotely can bring their recyclables when they visit the office, write to the Green Team for directions to make their own recycled notepads and notebooks, or request that a Green Team notepad or notebook be sent to them.

   

• The “Adopt-a-Mug”Program: The IHC Green Team will establish a donation/adoption center in each floor’s kitchen for non-disposable mugs, plates, bowls, & silverware. People can choose to adopt a mug permanently or just return it clean when they’re done. The Green Team will provide drying racks and dish towels in each kitchen. This project will greatly reduce the amount of waste we produce each day and cut down on the cost of stocking our kitchens each week.

 

• Composting:Since we are now fortunate enough to have fruit in our office several days a week, the IHC Green Team will coordinate composting stations on each floor. The Team will post lists of what-to-compost and send them out to everyone to promote home composting.

 

• “It’s Not Easy Being Green”: Periodically the IHC Green Team will send out “It’s Not Easy Being Green: Helpful Tips for a Greener Life”, these emails will include Tips & Tricks, News on the IHC Green Team, and Environmental Fun Facts (did you know that according to treehugger.com 120 is the number of tons of steel that would be saved if every UK office worker used one less staple every day?).

 

• Recycling: As an initial project, the IHC Green Team  will look into the recycling processes of our cleaning staff and building management and ensure that they are running as smoothly and efficiently as possible. The IHC Green Team can also assist people working remotely in researching their local recycling ordinances.

 

• K-Cups: As a long term project, the IHC Green Team will investigate the K-Cups that we use in our coffee machines at the office. Our ultimate goal will be to find the most cost-effective and low-waste way to enjoy our morning coffee. In the meantime we will brainstorm ideas to reduce and reuse the waste we produce: Make a friend, share a K-cup? K-Cup seedling planters?

I will definietly be updating the blog for new developments with the Greet Team. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

Green Game at IZOD April 1, 2008

It’s good to know that even the NBA cares about the environment these days. Rudy Larini of The Star-Ledger reports that the New Jersey Net’s Tuesday game will be the first game in NBA history to be carbon neutral. Sponsored by the Nets and the British conglomerate Barclay’s, all of the energy consumed by fans and teams traveling to the game, as well as that used to operate the IZOD Center in East Rutherford New Jersey, will be offset by carbon emissions credits for energy-saving projects in Europe and Asia.

This event is a part of the Nets GoGreen initiative, which was initiated in the fall of 2007. Other changes to the IZOD Center have included improved recycling programs and more efficient lighting systems. The Nets’ chief environmental officer Julianne Waldron expects the “greening” of the team to follow the Nets when they move to the new Barclays Arena in Brooklyn for the 2009-10 season.

K Cups April 1, 2008

I don’t have any official statistics, but it seems like these days every other office has a single-serve coffee machine like this one and the communal coffee pot has gone the way of the typewriter.

So an office buys the above contraption along with any of the 100 varieties of coffees and teas that come in these little plastic “K Cups”with foil lids, which are packaged in boxes of 24. Now each employee can have their own personal cup of Brazilian Mocha Java or Organic Green Tea. But at what expense to the environment (not to mention the office)?

The machine is pretty simple - you put the cup in the machine, close the door, and push the magic green button. Inside the drawer, the machine pokes a hole in the foil top of the Cup and in the plastic bottom, shoots water through it (brewing your coffee or tea), dispenses the beverage into your awaiting cup and then disposes of the Cup. It takes about 10 seconds and I would guess that an average office of 100 people go through about 100 of these Cups a day. It makes absolutely no sense to me that something that is used for 10 seconds will be sitting in a landfill for over 100 years.

The thing is — these Cups are not recyclable. I found a link to the Environmental Practicesfor Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, who owns a large share of the Keurig Corp. and manufactures K Cups, and they report that over 1 BILLION of these Cups have been sold since the product’s introduction. It is likely that all of these are in a landfill. They do report that they are exploring more green options for their product. Firstly, they are researching alternatives to the petroleum-based materials that make up the K Cup. Secondly, they are linking the K Cups with fair trade certified coffees, which will provide a sales boost to coffee producers who concentrate on sustainability. As an alternative, a reusable K Cup is available for about $20.

So if we can’t recycle K Cups directly — can we REUSE them? Here are some ideas.

1. Reuse for up to 4 more drinks!

After the coffee machine ejects your K Cup, go into the disposal bin and get it! I tried this with tea and coffee and found that I could get up to 4 cups of equal-strength drinks from the same K Cup. I probably could have gotten more but there were quite a bit of grounds in the cup after the 4th try.

2. Refill!

Using Glad Press and Seal wrap you can refill the K Cups with your own coffee grounds. Or try the K Cup Injector Lid.

3. Plant a tree!

Well, start growing some seeds at least. The drainage holes that the machine pokes in the bottom of each cups lends itself to this nicely.

Anyone have any others?