Barista Magazine

BAM_DEC 2013 -JAN 2014

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bor, Mich.—but he quickly goes on to prove that's not the case. Sanford, or "Sandy" as his friends and colleagues call him, shares a somewhat unusual space with several other businesses in an off-the-beaten-path part of town: "There are six houses arranged in a courtyard, and then 30 or 40 years ago someone decided to turn them into commercial spaces. Now there's a draw to this courtyard," he says—and his café is part of that draw. Being popular, however, comes with something of an ecological price for the (espresso) bar that he didn't exactly expect. "At first the plan was just to open for a few months, but then it started working, and I was like, 'Oh no, what am I going to do now?'" he says. With a limited budget and limited freedom on account of the shared space, Sandy knew he had to think creatively. Luckily, many of the things that seemed like setbacks actually have aided his early efforts to take eco-friendliness into account. "With the exception of our espresso machine, all of our equipment was bought used," he says. "Mostly it's a cost issue, but it's kind of shabby chic. A lot of it is just found objects that have come into the café. Our pastry case is a fish tank!" In addition to freecycling furniture, Sandy also experimented with different types of responsible to-go cups, and also offers customers a reusable glass jar for their coffees, which they could hang onto for a dollar deposit or turn back in for the dough. "The jars are really popular with a lot of our customers who bike, because they can throw a lid on and throw it in their backpack and take off." Sandy also separates all the café's spent grounds for compost, which goes to a local school garden. All of these are relatively small steps for a retailer to take, but they add up and can make a difference not only from an ecological point of view, but an economic one as well. "We didn't necessarily do all this because we were being green, but I think there's a lot of room to be green and be frugal," Sandy says. Drinking Not only are we all coffee professionals, but we're all also coffee drinkers, and as such there are plenty of considerations to make in terms of our responsibilities to the environment when we're on the other side of the counter. Remember that we vote with our dollars and with our palates: The things that we choose to buy and consume say a lot about our commitment to leaving the world better (or at least not worse) off than how we found it. Patronizing cafés that focus on organic coffee and local, organic milk is one small statement we can make, as is avoiding taking drinks to go in paper cups. (Though if we do have to take a coffee on the road, maybe we can skip the lid and/or the cup sleeve as a compromise.) If a coffee shop doesn't offer clear recycling or composting options, we can make an effort to hold on to items that can be sorted until we find someplace more appropriate to put them. (Yes, even compostables: Keeping a small airtight plastic container or zipper-top freezer bag with you will let you tote things that you can compost when the opportunity arises, without, you know, having a bunch of old banana peels just floating around in your rucksack. And no, the whole world doesn't have to know you're carrying compostables around with you.) Climate change isn't going to stop itself, and if we as an industry and as coffee lovers want this stuff to be around for a long time, we all have to do our part to recognize and reevaluate even the small actions we take that work against our caffeinated future. Taking a good, long look at our needs and responsibilities as conscious producers, salesmen, roasters, baristas, and consumers might not be easy, but I think we can all agree—as we sip from a cup of our favorite coffee while reading this very article—that it's definitely worth it. www.baristamagazine.com 67

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