Green Living Tips: The Coffee Connoisseur

Since our last green-living post talked about tips for The Remote Worker, we found it fitting to follow that up with tips for The Coffee Connoisseur.

Around the world, coffee drinkers consume more than 2.25 billion cups of coffee per day. With such a huge number of drinks, making eco-friendly choices for each cup could make a difference. We suggest taking your coffee with a side of sustainability — because that’s a cup worth waking up for.

  1. Pledge to purchase sustainable coffee.

Becoming an eco-friendlier coffee drinker starts with the actual coffee. Sustainable coffee is grown organically and is Fair Trade™ Certified (read more in our blog). Check the labels on your beans or grounds to make sure your cup of caffeine is guilt free and planet friendly.

  1. Initiate a single-use boycott with reusable cups.

It’s not as easy as you think to recycle single-use coffee cups. Although the most common ones are made from 100% paper, most also have a nonbiodegradable, thin plastic lining that ends up in landfills.

It’s better to buzz through the day with reusable cups made from sustainable materials like glass, ceramic or stainless steel. They have a much longer lifespan and paying a little more upfront for a reusable option ensures the planet won’t pay for it in the long run.

  1. Introduce a sustainable coffee maker to your kitchen.

There are good and bad parts to common coffee makers, but we can help nudge you in a greener direction. Single-serve coffee makers are not planet friendly because of the plastic, paper and aluminum pods. If you can’t give up the convenience of these one-cup wonders, be sure to switch to reusable, refillable coffee pods that are Mother-Nature approved.

The issue with standard drip-coffee makers is the warming plates that run for hours — using electricity the whole time. Switch to stainless steel, thermal coffee makers that keep your coffee warm using insulation instead of excess energy.

While coffee connoisseurs get their fix from caffeine, another group puts their energy into living a healthy lifestyle — making good eating choices and being active. Read more in our next post in the series: Green-Living Tips for The Health Nut.