What is World Environment Day (WED)?
“World Environment Day is the United Nations day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment.” (worldenvironmentday. global) The 2019 theme is air pollution! #BeatAirPollution!
What can you do to help?
Even though coffee consumption and coffee production may seem unrelated to air pollution, they are both contributing factors. Contributing factors include coal-burning power plants, transportation, agricultural waste, and landfill waste. We can all reduce our impact as coffee drinkers by taking action in these areas.
BREW COFFEE AT HOME WITH LESS ELECTRICITY
You can use an alternative method or manual brewing if you enjoy a morning espresso at the local café or have an espresso machine in your home.
Here are some other brewing methods you can use with a kettle if you already have a coffee grinder (or buy your ground coffee in a store).
Pour and drink as is! Pour the coffee and enjoy it as-is!
Pour Over or Chemex: Place the medium/medium coarse grind into the dripper and then pour the hot water in circular, slow motions over the grind for up to 2 minutes.
AeroPress coffee: AeroPress is similar to a French Press but produces a stronger brew. Place medium coarse-ground coffee in the brewing chambers. Add hot water and let it sit for 2-4 minutes. Then press the plunger.
You can also use cold water to make alternative brews.
Cold Brew Coffee – a medium-coarse grind is immersed in filtered cold water for 12 hours. Cafes are increasingly serving cold brew as an alternative to coffee.
Browse our Cold Brew Products and Cold Brew Brewing Guide!
Cold Drip Coffee is the fancy and refined cousin of cold brew. Cold filtered water drips onto a medium coarse grind of coffee, allowing the grind to soak up and extract the flavor before the water begins to drip into the decanter. The brewing process can take between 3-12 or even longer hours. This piece is popular in cafes as a talking point and eye-catching item.
All you need to make espresso manually is hot water.
-Flair Espresso Handpresso & Cafflano Kompresso – these espresso makers are capable of producing as much pressure as home or commercial coffee machines. The result is a rich, zingy espresso topped with a thick crema – just like the machine!
Reduce the amount of waste your coffee consumption produces
It is much easier than people think. There are many different ways to reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills. Here are a few ideas to get you going:
Buy a reusable cup of coffee, such as a KeepCup.
Get a reusable stainless steel straw. They are easy to clean. You can use it as a coffee stirrer if you enjoy sugar in your coffee.
Use metal reusable filters instead of paper filters in your brewing. Or, if you already have a compost, you can compost the paper filters.
Repurpose coffee bags. We have clients who use them to store potted plants or other perishables.
If you are brewing coffee at home, use used or old grounds to make face or body scrubs.
GET YOUR COFFEE SHIPPED INSTEAD OF DRIVING TO PICK IT UP
Even though it may seem small, small things can have a huge impact. You can reduce your carbon footprint by having your coffee delivered to your home.
If you drive 15 minutes to get the coffee that you want, it’s a 30-minute round trip. If you do this once every two weeks, you will spend 1 hour per month driving to buy your coffee. That’s 52 hours a year.
You can even arrange a subscription to have your blend or single origin delivered to you every two weeks or month.