A few weeks ago, Canada’s Evolution 107.9 radio station featured Sustainability Is Sexy on a short feature called Our Planet Earth. The station let us run with the script – our conversation jumped from the environment, to coffee cups, to what makes sustainability so sublimely sexy.It’s a great clip.
Besides being entertaining, this radio show was personally inspiring.Interviews like this one help revive the roots of our group, and remind us why our campaigns are so effective.It’s easy to run a program to promote reusable coffee cups, but it’s much more difficult to host one that’s successful and achieves a real impact.Simply put, boring campaigns with underwhelming messages and banal tactics just don’t work.
Earlier this week, I spent some time trading emails with a student group who was interested in promoting reusable coffee cups on their campus, and they landed on the same thoughts I was having throughout the radio show:
“We don’t just want to use posters or invite speakers - IT IS BORING.We want people to join us and have fun, we’d like to talk to people and help them understand their impact on the environment and their responsibility.”
Now I think posters and speakers can be great – but it has to be the right posters and the right speakers.After all, plenty of bands still use posters and speakers to fill concert venues.Encouraging coffee drinkers to practice eco-friendly habits can only be done with engaging, exciting ideas that exhibit raw energy – just like a good rock and roll band would do.
Poster used in Portland, Maine Reusable Cup Campaign. April 2009.
Coast-to-coast distances be damned! The Maine Potters Market, O’Naturals restaurant and Morning in Paris coffee shop, are partnering with Sustainability is Sexy to promote reusable coffee cups in Portland, Maine. MaineToday.com has a great write up online of the ongoing campaign:
“Wednesday, April 22, 2009, is both Earth Day and Administrative Assistants Day. To honor these holidays, the Maine Potters Market will be promoting the use of ceramic, reusable cups by offering coupons for $5 off any mug in our store during the whole month of April. Break the disposable cup habit and reward yourself with a free cup of coffee when you bring your own mug to Morning In Paris Coffee House, April 12-18, and O’Naturals Restaurant, April 19-25. Thanks to these local businesses you can do your part to celebrate Earth Day. Go to www.SustainabilityIsSexy.com for more information on the environmental impact of using disposable cups.”
For Sustainability Is Sexy, this campaign first began back in March. Susan of Ash Cove Pottery, (a participant in the Maine Potters Market Co-op), contacted us seeking thoughts on promoting reusable coffee cups. As the project instigator, Susan already had some serious opinions regarding reusable cups. “As a potter, it’s [reusable coffee cups are] a no-brainer.”
As a coffee lover, its a no brainer for us too. If you’re a coffee house, business, or community interested in promoting reusable coffee cups, then Sustainability Is Sexy can help. Our all-encompassing campaigns are designed by young adults immersed in the coffee culture and well-research. Smart and sexy - we’re the perfect storm when it comes to eco-campaigns. Track us down for more info at SustainabilityIsSexy.com
And for those enjoying the beautiful sights in Portland, Maine - don’t forget to stop and smell the coffee in Old Port. Happy Earth Week!
My father once explained to me why the Grateful Dead was so successful. “The Dead would take their money and pump it right back into their shows. When other bands were comfortable with house sound systems, the Grateful Dead spent a fortune developing a monstrous Wall of Sound that could be heard from a quarter mile away. Phil Lesh’s bass lines were so deep and loud that you didn’t just hear them - you felt them. The Grateful Dead weren’t selfish, they never focused solely on profit, and they cared about their fans and the music community. That’s why Deadheads are so loyal”.
Businesses often talk about customer loyalty. Yet it’s rare for a business to see the type of loyalty that was developed by the Dead. Pepsi-heads? McDonaldites? I think not.
However, some progressive organizations are beginning to take lessons from the jam band, and it’s beginning to show. Peace Coffee, a Minnesota based coffee company, is growing at an annual rate of 20%. This is a great rate during good times… but an absolute miracle considering today’s financial environment. For perspective, China’s growth rate in 2008 was around 10%. Starbucks saw annual growth rates of 27% during the dot-com decade. How is Peace Coffee able to seem unaffected by the financial storm in which we find ourselves? It’s hard to say without being the company accountant, but I have a hunch it’s from a business philosophy that considers a triple bottom line.
The term “triple bottom line” was coined in 1994, but the idea is older than that. Conceptually, a triple bottom line refers to a business practice of measuring and basing decisions on financial performance, ecological impact from company operations, and social effects on workers and their communities. At its reduction, the triple bottom line means caring about people, planet, and profit.
Peace Coffee applies the triple bottom line theory throughout a multitude of business aspects. Regional deliveries are done through bio-diesel vans or by bicycle. The coffee beans are grown by small coffee farmers and cooperatives and certified as fair trade. Peace Coffee’s recently installed coffee roaster is also equipped with a catalytic oxidizer - which burns away hydrocarbons to limit emissions. And these are just the tip of the iceberg. A full enumeration can be found at the Peace Coffee website, here.
The idealists in all of us love stories such as these. But the selfish cynics in the back of our minds are wondering “What’s in it for the business?”. Of course, the immediate effect of Peace Coffee’s triple bottom line will be beneficial to its surrounding environment and communities. The benefits even spread to small fair trade farmers and help pump money into eco-sound businesses, such as bio diesel companies. But the practice also develops long-lasting customer loyalty and relationships. Today’s customers are demanding that businesses be more personal, and more socially and environmentally conscious. Every time Peace Coffee delivers a product by bicycle, their meeting that specific consumer demand. And just like the Grateful Dead, Peace Coffee is cultivating a community and developing a loyalty that can weather a financial storm.
Of course, the pendulum can swing both ways. Metallica, the guitar-slinging antithesis to the Grateful Dead - learned this lesson a decade ago. Metal-heads all remember when Metallica prioritized profits over its fans by suing Napster for enabling music piracy in 2000. The legal action created an exodus of hard rock fans, some of whom had been fanatically loyal since the band’s early days. Years later, people are still bitter and CD sales have never recovered. In 2007, Metallica was named #17 on Blender’s list of “biggest wusses in rock”, citing its lawsuit against Napster. And the 1990’s remain Metallica’s glory decade, with the band’s 2003 release selling only 2 million copies (compared with 14 million for 1991’s “Black Album”).
“Selling Out” can hit business just as bluntly as a hard rock band. Nike’s choice to prioritize profits over social responsibilities by using sweatshop labor caused an uproar in 1997 among consumers. Social justice groups sprang up to protest Nike and demand boycotts. Even my alma mater experienced protests and many student groups demanded that the university athletic programs refrain from outfitting teams with Nike products. The negative publicity was a nightmare for Nike’s PR department, and the company’s reputation has remained stained ever since.
In the end, it truly depends on consumer demands. Consumers are evolving. We’re placing demands to businesses that are more complex than “cheaper and better”. Customers have become more engaged in many aspects of business. We want to see Company Social Responsibility Reports, we want to know carbon footprints, and we want to know that our money isn’t having a negative impact somewhere in the world. So do the other bottom lines truly count in the business world? For Peace Coffee and others, the answer should be a deafening YES.
Peace Coffee riders stay sustainable with reusable coffee mugs
Sustainability Is Sexy Plug:
Our online store is once again having a discount sale. Order any T-shirt, tank top, or canvas grocery bag by February 11th and receive a 14% discount. If you’re looking for a Sustainability Is Sexy reusable coffee mug, email support@sustainabilityissexy.com.
A picture can be worth a thousand words.Or, in photographer Chris Jordan’s case, 410 thousand paper cups.The above picture is a screen shot from a video the artist gave at a talk called Picturing Excess in February of 2008.The 410,000 paper cups stacked together in the photo depict the number of disposable cups Americans use every 15 minutes.Jordan added a silhouette of two people as a scale reference.
At only 15 minutes worth of cups, the stacks blur into cream colored stripes.At one day’s worth of cups, the problem is even worse.The lines smear into a solid cubicle-colored canvas.The stack of cups in real life would be as tall as a 42 story building.Jordan has added another scale reference in this photo – the Statue of Liberty.
I could preach about the environmental degradation caused by our need for disposable coffee cups, but eyes begin to glaze over once too many numbers sputter from my mouth.Jordan’s artwork does true justice to showing our nations’ staggering consumption habits.
This piece simply titled Paper Cups is just one of many pieces in a Jordan’s newest series.Called “Running the Numbers – An American Self-Portrait”, the collection features artwork on many social issues of our time. Plastic bottles, paper bags, prison uniforms, cell phones, and other consumer products are showcased.
Treat your eyes to the rest of Chris Jordan’s beautifully mind-blowing collection at his website or truly indulge by viewing his 11 minute talk at TED’s website.
They say half of all new businesses fail within the first year. They also say half of those remaining fail within the second year. By the third year, any business owner still around undoubtedly knows how to play the game.
It’s easy to tell if a coffee house is run by one of these vetted business intellects. The tell tale signs are visible almost immediately upon entering the store; ceramic mugs by the espresso machine, or signs urging customers to bring their own coffee cup by the register. By the time I pay for a coffee, the message is clear –this coffee shop thinks disposable cups are bad for business. Being a thrifty consumer, that small discount I earn when I BYOC always puts a smile on my face. But the smile of the coffee shop owner must be in a class all of its own. Thanks for the discount, I think to myself. No, thank you, the coffee shop owner chuckles back.
How are disposable cups bad for business? Truth be told, it’s all because of the bottom line. Disposable cups cost money, and high overhead costs can be fatal to a business. Even more so, offering disposable cups does nothing to enhance customer appreciation, nor does it help a coffee house attract new customers. The coffee industry is already oversaturated with competition – and it’s becoming more important to stand out from the crowd.
These conclusions are illustrated in a study published by Starbucks and the Environmental Defense Fund. The two organizations teamed up in April of 2000 to develop a set of strategies to reduce the environmental impact of serving coffee. In so doing, the group also found that reducing their environmental impact contributed toward better finances in three specific ways:
First, let’s examine the claim that the supporting reusable cups saves coffee houses money. At its heart, it’s a logical claim. After all, when customers BYOC, coffee houses don’t have to pay to purchase disposable cups. This might seem like small savings, but the table below (reproduced from the Starbucks/EDF report) illustrates just how quickly it can add up:
Researchers concluded that Starbucks could save hundreds of dollars a day just by offering reusable coffee cups. Depending on the size of a coffee house’s customer base, the potential savings are impressive.
The second claim - that reusable cups increase customer satisfaction - originates from market research studies published in the same Starbucks/EDF report. Researchers found that 82% of customers surveyed favored reusable coffee cups. These customer noted that reusable cups “insulated coffee well, were attractive, and prevented waste” - all very good reasons. 59% of those surveyed cited environmental concerns as their primary reason for supporting reusable coffee cups. Interestingly, this survey took place in 2000, before global warming became a main-stream issue in the public eye. Chances are that even more customers favor reusable coffee cups in a “post-An Inconvenient Truth” world.
The final claim is that reusable cups can help a coffee business develop an identity to which customers can relate. Marketing people call this “developing brand equity”. Customers may think, I can buy my coffee anywhere, so why should I buy it at this coffee house? The answer is in a company’s brand. For example, drinking a Starbucks coffee has always been more than just coffee. Beginning in the 90’s, that white cup and green logo became part of an image, even part of a lifestyle. Right now, McDonald’s is working to brand its new espresso products as the antithesis of Starbucks. Billboards that state “Espresso served cold, not snobby” are hoping to capitalize on consumers who like their espresso, but don’t identify with the Starbucks image.
So how do reusable cups factor into positive brand equity? Remember that more than half of surveyed coffee drinkers care about the environment, and those same coffee drinkers are looking for businesses with which they can identify. A coffee house which displays support for reusable coffee cups is also branding itself as an environmentally aware and socially conscious business - something which is important to more than half of all coffee drinkers!
Regardless of the environmental implications, it’s hard to ignore the positive financial benefits reusable coffee cups offer. Sustainability Is Sexy offers programs which help businesses transform the potential of reusable coffee cups into real results. More information about these programs can be found at www.SustainabilityIsSexy.com/Join.html.
To steal from conventional investing wisdom – why should a business work to pay for coffee cups, when those coffee cups could be working to pay the business?
Last week, I was asked a question which completely stumped my brain. “Which is the most eco-friendly disposable cup to use?” The question was asked by a writer from CHOW magazine who was working on an article about environmentally-friendly parties. The article, Drunk on Recycling, was published today and speaks more about disposable party cups than about coffee. Nonetheless, it’s still a good article. The writer raises the question about whether or not it’s acceptable to ask guests to bring their own cup to a party. Of course, answers to this question vary. Most readers seemed hesitant to ask guests to BYOC, and elected instead to use cups from their own shelves. After all, cups are cheap and easy to come by, many said.
But that still leaves the original question, “Which is the most eco-friendly disposable cup?” After the question was posed to me, I began researching the issue. The information I found reminded me of playground argument. The paper cup guys claimed some victory by arguing that their cups take less energy and materials to make than do Styrofoam ones. The Styrofoam people fought back, asserting that their cups could be recycled, whereas paper cups were destined for a landfill. Even newly made compostable cups carried some baggage. One “green” coffee roaster complained that his compostable cups leaked. And as is pointed out in the CHOW article, a compostable cup doesn’t do any good if there isn’t a compost bin in which to put it.
In the end, I came to this conclusion: There is no disposable cup which is truly eco-friendly. Using a cup only one time is wasteful because each one-time-use requires energy and materials and produces garbage. Just as it would be silly to wear a shirt only one time, or drive a new car every commute, it shouldn’t be accepted that we use a coffee cup just once.
This is a philosophy that can be applied to many in the disposable world. I spent a good part of my young adulthood shaving with a disposable razor. It was a abhorrent experience! The razors were cheaply made and didn’t work very well. I went through Gillette’s and Mach 3’s at an alarming rate, always looking for a fresh blade to keep a clean shave. After years and years, I made the switch to an electric razor. What a relief! No more garbage, no more spending money on new razors every few weeks which meant increased savings for me, and no more worrying about a patchy shave due to a dull blade. Not only did I do something to cut down on my own waste, but I turned an experience I normally detested into something which I now can enjoy. Clever, aren’t I?
The same philosophy ought to apply to your coffee habit. Why drink out of a cheap disposable that won’t keep your coffee hot? Treat yourself by using a cup that will make your coffee pleasurable all day long. It seems to me that the most enjoyable cup to use is also the most eco-friendly. Be responsible, use a reusable coffee mug, and enjoy!
I’ll be the first to admit - I spend a considerable amount of time on the internet. Some may say it isn’t healthy - but how can I give it up? The internet has become my number one resource for learning and staying connected. It serves as my phone book, my newspaper, and even now is replacing email and telephone time as a new way to interact with people.
There’s a lot of sites that connect eco-minded people and organizations. Unfortunately, it’s hard to test the waters without finding yourself submerged in a mess of networks, websites, and links.
One site I particularly like is GenGreen. It has a growing network of businesses and people, but their real strength is helping people find everything eco-minded. Think of this site almost as Google Gone Green. From their site, you can find Green Events, Coops and recycling centers, Green Business, and everything else. Best of all, your search is narrowed down by the state and region you live in. It’s nice.
The folks at GenGreen recently decided to place Sustainability Is Sexy as one of the featured businesses in Washington. If you’d like to check it out, here’s how to find us:
Go to gengreen.org
On the left hand side of the page, there is an image that says “Find.” Use the drop down menu to select your state, Washington.
From the Washington page, scroll down to view our “buttons” and select the button that says “Featured Businesses”
This page will display all of our featured businesses and organizations for the Western Region…. Sustainability is Sexy should be on the list!
If you do decided to join the GenGreen network, don’t forget to add Sustainability Is Sexy as a friend!
Peace Coffee applies the triple bottom line theory throughout a multitude of business aspects. Regional deliveries are done through bio-diesel vans or by bicycle. The coffee beans are grown by small coffee farmers and cooperatives and certified as fair trade. Peace Coffee’s recently installed coffee roaster is also equipped with a 
“Selling Out” can hit business just as bluntly as a hard rock band. Nike’s choice to prioritize profits over social responsibilities by using sweatshop labor caused an uproar in 1997 among consumers. Social justice groups sprang up to protest Nike and demand boycotts. Even my alma mater experienced protests and many student groups demanded that the university athletic programs refrain from outfitting teams with Nike products. The negative publicity was a nightmare for Nike’s PR department, and the company’s reputation has remained stained ever since.
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