Sustain­abil­ity exists in a world where the hori­zon is always reced­ing. It is a con­tin­uüm, not a recipe. But the ide­al­ism asso­ci­ated with sus­tain­able prac­tices does not make it unquan­tifi­able. And those who prac­tice sus­tain­abil­ity have demon­strated that it is a sound busi­ness model.

So why isn’t every shop sustainable?

It’s per­ceived as costly and incon­ve­nient. Many sig­nif­i­cant changes are not eas­ily appar­ent to cus­tomers who then don’t appre­ci­ate or reward the effort. Confronted with over­whelm­ing options many shop own­ers often decide to take no action. CoffeeTalk dis­pels these objec­tions in this series and out­lines the first steps toward a sus­tain­able shop.

“It’s all about the lit­tle ways to be more sus­tain­able,” says Bret “Buzz” Chandler, President of Asean Corp. in Portland, Ore., mak­ers of StalkMarket Earth Friendly Products. “I can tell you that those who make it part of their busi­ness plan find that sus­tain­able prac­tices pay back over and over,” says Chandler. “The switch to green, even though it requires addi­tional effort, becomes so pop­u­lar that your own employ­ees won’t let you switch back,” he says. Chandler iden­ti­fied three “first steps” dis­cussed at length below. None require large cap­i­tal invest­ment or con­struct­ing a LEED Platinum cer­ti­fied build­ing from scratch.

Reduce & Recycle Expendables
Bottom Line: A shop using five cases (5,000) hot cups can expect to pay about $95 a case. Switching to com­postable paper hot cups will cost $105, a pre­mium of 10 per­cent at most. Research by the Natural Marketing Institute has con­sis­tently shown cus­tomers are will­ing to pay up to 20 per­cent for prod­ucts offered by firms that embrace sustainability.

“The first step is to hand them a cup,” says Wendell Simonson, Marketing Director for Boulder, Colo.-based Eco-Products. “The prod­uct that you put in people’s hand is a vis­i­ble tes­ta­ment to the com­mit­ment of the shop’s own­ers. That is the foot in the door, the point of entry to sus­tain­able prac­tices,” he says. The price dif­fer­en­tial for sus­tain­able prod­ucts is not as great as you might think, he says. A 1000 cup case of 12 ounce con­ven­tional paper hot drink cups sells for $99.50. The same com­postable cup runs $105.45, a dif­fer­ence of about $6.

Simonson points out that cups offer a ter­rific oppor­tu­nity to men­tion that com­mit­ment. “There is a lot of room to drive home a mes­sage to the cus­tomer,” says Simonson. But, he cau­tions, once the deci­sion is made “it’s a mixed mes­sage if you don’t fol­low through with your entire inven­tory of expend­ables. Investing in com­postable green hot cups and Styrofoam take-out con­tain­ers is not going to work.”

Kurt Anderson is Vice President of Sales at Repurpose Compostables located in Los Angeles. His con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­abil­ity is a plant-based plas­tic from renew­able resources that emits fewer green house gases and com­posts in 90 days. Anderson dis­pels the notion that sus­tain­able hot cups are inferior.

“No con­den­sa­tion, no sleeve, these cups are avail­able in mul­ti­ple col­ors, the lid makes a good seal and it’s good to 200-degrees,” says Anderson. The cost? Repurpose sells 12 oz. hot cups for 9– to 11-cents, in quantity.

Tom Martin, Executive Vice President and COO at Pod Pack International, Ltd. says that high-volume cof­fee ven­dors, fast food and con­ve­nience out­lets can make a big con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­abil­ity because of their mar­ket pres­ence. The Baton Rouge, La.-based man­u­fac­turer praises the fast growth of single-serve cof­fee machines as a big improve­ment over a glass pot in deliv­er­ing a fresh cup of cof­fee. “Pod machines don’t require a hot plate or burner and the paper we use is com­postable, takes up less space and dis­ap­pears in the land­fill,” says Martin.

Outside the Box Packaging President Ron Hill remains a cor­ru­gated card­board fan. The Toledo, Ohio-based firm man­u­fac­tures the Barista Box, a to-go con­tainer that is 80 per­cent com­postable. A met­al­ized poly­ester bag inside each box is eas­ily removed. “Every land­fill accepts cor­ru­gated paper and there is a well-established after­mar­ket for recy­cling card­board,” he says. It’s a com­mod­ity that brings $150 to $160 a ton,” says Hill.

Conserve Energy & Resources
Bottom Line: A small retail busi­ness pay­ing approx­i­mately $24,000 per year in energy costs, with a few effi­ciency upgrades and by chang­ing some oper­a­tions can reduce con­sump­tion by up to 30 per­cent. That’s almost $7,200 in energy sav­ings year after year.

Digital makes all the dif­fer­ence, says Kevin Curtis, Executive Vice President at Wilbur Curtis Co. The Montebello, Calif.-based firm man­u­fac­tures a broad selec­tion of brew­ers, boil­ers and bev­er­age equip­ment. “The first con­sid­er­a­tion is good qual­ity dig­i­tal equip­ment. Over time a sleep mode alone will save sig­nif­i­cant energy but it also cuts down main­te­nance expense and reduces scal­ing,” says Curtis. “Our equip­ment sleeps at 140 degrees at night but reaches serv­ing tem­per­a­ture in 10 min­utes. Digital tech­nol­ogy also keeps you from over­shoot­ing tem­per­a­tures,” he says. “To con­sis­tently get 200-degree water you used to have to shoot for 204 degrees which wastes energy and speeds up lime build up on heat­ing ele­ments and ther­mostats,” he says. As a result heat­ing coils are less effi­cient and tem­per­a­ture read­ings were never pre­cise. Curtis says brew­ing equip­ment with IntelliFresh tech­nol­ogy and 1.5 gal­lon satel­lite con­tain­ers use pre­cisely con­trolled heat­ing blan­kets to extend the serv­ing period up to three hours with­out dam­ag­ing the fla­vor. “The secret is to never vary the tem­per­a­ture,” says Curtis. “When the cof­fee inside is no longer opti­mum a blink­ing light tells you to throw it out.”

Conservation is an impor­tant and often over­looked aspect of sus­tain­able oper­a­tions. Increasing the shelf life of cof­fee by even a few days adds greatly to the prof­itabil­ity of pri­vate label cof­fee. Brooklyn Park, Minn.-based MOCON, maker of pack­ag­ing indus­try instru­men­ta­tion, booked record sales last year help­ing roast­ers extend the shelf life of fresh prod­ucts by test­ing all aspects of the process from select­ing the cor­rect bar­rier, through mod­i­fied atmos­phere pack­ag­ing to reduc­ing head­space, leak and seal test­ing. “As you become more suc­cess­ful and your dis­tri­b­u­tion increases, so does the time from roast­ing to con­sump­tion. If all of the cof­fee you roast will be con­sumed with a two week period. It’s unlikely that you need be con­cerned with extend­ing shelf life,” MOCON advises. “However, in this com­pet­i­tive world where there is a cof­fee shop on every cor­ner, can you afford to sell cof­fee that is not at its peak freshness?”

Here is a check­list of energy savers:

n    Examine Your Equipment
Examine your brew­ing, espresso and refrig­er­a­tion equip­ment as well as the facility’s water heater for wash­rooms and cleanup. Determine which equip­ment can be dis­con­nected at cer­tain times. Check that your equip­ment is energy rated. If older than 5 to 10 years, there is more effi­cient equip­ment on the mar­ket. Replacements typ­i­cally have a very short pay­back. Installing humid­ity con­trol sys­tems in refrig­er­a­tors lets you reduce tem­per­a­tures by 2 to 4 degrees.

n    Look at Your Lights
Replace your exit lights with upgraded energy effi­cient mod­els. Replace T12 flu­o­res­cents and mag­netic bal­lasts with T8 lamps and elec­tronic bal­lasts and reduce energy use by 40 per­cent. If you use dec­o­ra­tive lights for hol­i­days, con­sider replac­ing them with LED lights that can result in an 85 per­cent reduc­tion in energy costs. Replace any Exit signs with LED models.

n    Turn Up the Thermostat
Implement a dress code for warm weather that encour­ages employ­ees to dress com­fort­ably for warmer tem­per­a­tures and set the ther­mo­stat in your work­space 78 degrees dur­ing work hours. Raise it to 82 degrees when unoc­cu­pied. The energy sav­ings are sig­nif­i­cant. Raising the ther­mo­stat a sin­gle degree can save 2 per­cent of your air con­di­tion­ing costs. In win­ter, set the ther­mo­stat to 68 degrees dur­ing work­ing hours and 62 degrees at night.

n    Energy Efficient Ceiling Fans
Install an energy effi­cient attic fan or evap­o­ra­tive cooler. Attic fans or evap­o­ra­tive cool­ers help reduce or replace air con­di­tioner use. Energy effi­cient ceil­ing fans cre­ate air move­ment that can cool a room by up to 4 degrees. Close win­dow blinds to shade your space from direct sun­light and install win­dow film, solar screens or awnings on south and west fac­ing windows.

n    Regular Maintenance
Perform reg­u­lar main­te­nance to keep heat­ing, ven­ti­la­tion and air con­di­tion­ing (HVAC) sys­tems run­ning more effi­ciently. Maintenance activ­i­ties can save up to 30% of fan energy and up to 10% of space con­di­tion­ing energy use.

n    Talk with Your Landlord
If you lease your space to a ten­ant or if you are a ten­ant, talk with your land­lord or ten­ant about energy effi­ciency. Working together and even shar­ing costs to improve energy effi­ciency also improves the value of their prop­erty and cuts elec­tric­ity bills.

Market the Message
Bottom Line: A LOHAS Consumer Trends study in 2008 found 70 per­cent of U.S. res­i­dents sup­port causes and two-thirds work to build a sense of com­mu­nity where they live. Eleven per­cent vol­un­teer to clean up parks and trails and neigh­bor­hoods. Sixty-eight per­cent say that even in a reces­sion they would remain faith­ful to a brand if it sup­ports a good cause (Edelman PR) and four out of five peo­ple say they are still buy­ing green prod­ucts and ser­vices today, even in the midst of the reces­sion (Green Seal and EnviroMedia Social Marketing)

Simonson, with Eco-Products, says sus­tain­able prod­ucts add to the value of a shop’s offer­ing. “Sustainable lines enhance the prod­uct offer­ing. Packaging adds value, he says. A cup of cof­fee or a grab-and-go salad is worth more to the cus­tomer. It has value in itself and it offers a mean­ing­ful com­pet­i­tive advan­tage com­pared to the cof­fee house down the street, it is enough to con­vert some­one because cus­tomers in this cul­ture under­stand that green pack­ag­ing makes us think,” says Simonson.

Kevin Bardsley, the prin­ci­pal at Green Nature Marketing in Morrow, Ohio, says the key for the busi­ness owner after intro­duc­ing sus­tain­able prod­ucts and prac­tices is to edu­cate end users. “I have seen time after time a busi­ness changes from a petro­leum based cof­fee cup to a com­postable cup, but they do not “toot” their own horn,” he says. Although it may rep­re­sent a very few cents these invest­ments in sus­tain­abil­ity her­ald a sig­nif­i­cant mar­ket­ing oppor­tu­nity for busi­ness own­ers, says Bardsley. Explaining the shops com­mit­ment through table tents, posters, and cut sheets explain to cus­tomers the advan­tages of green prod­ucts. “These are vital mar­ket­ing tools that all busi­ness own­ers should use to edu­cate their customers.”