Sustainability is no longer just a trend. People want to know that they are buying from businesses that care about the environment and the world around them, and if your business is not that, you’re going to struggle. Your coffee shop should be where people go first thing in the morning and throughout the day.
Going green is more than reducing your carbon footprint; it’s about connecting with your customers and aligning with their values. If your customers are environmentally conscious, why not make it part of your brand?
There are many simple ways to make your coffee shop more sustainable. From branding to everyday practices, every small change counts. For example, while reusable coffee cups are a popular trend, they might not always be affordable for everyone. Encourage customers to bring their own cups for refills to make sustainability more accessible.
Running a marketing campaign by giving away branded reusable coffee cups is a great way to promote sustainability. However, it’s important to remember that some purchases, like disposable coffee cups, may not always appear eco-friendly. The reality is, that disposable cups can still be sustainable if sourced from the right suppliers and are recyclable.
Maintaining a sustainable image for your coffee shop is easier than you might think. If you want to attract customers who value sustainability, use the tips below to get started.
Consider ethical and local sourcing
If you want to create a sustainable coffee shop, you have to think about your ingredients. The coffee beans you use should be sourced from ethical places, and you should only use ingredients for your food from local and ethical sources.
If you have local farmers, you can ensure they are paid fairly by purchasing directly from the farm, bypassing the middleman. If you do work with local suppliers, you’re also going to be reducing your transportation carbon footprint. That and the subsequent boost to the economy will impress your sustainable customers. If you can show that you are supporting the farmers in a local area for your community benefit, you’re going to find that they prefer to shop with you rather than the larger chains.
Your single-use plastics
Plastic disposable coffee cups are harmful to the environment, but paper-based cups are a better alternative as they can be recycled. By providing recycling bins in your coffee shop and educating customers on how to properly recycle these cups, you can encourage more sustainable behaviour.
Single-use plastics for food packaging can also be replaced with eco-friendly options like paper boxes or bags.
You don’t need to rely on plastic; encourage your customers to bring their own reusable containers for takeaway food, helping to reduce waste even further.
Replace plastic straws, lids, and stirrers for biodegradable alternatives. Educate your customers on the importance of reducing plastic waste. You could even incorporate this message into your coffee shop’s décor.
Make a Point of Going Zero Waste
Making a point of going zero waste is one of the biggest things that you can do to appeal to your local community by asking them to bring their own packaging to take away food. You can use reusable plates and cups and compost organic waste such as coffee grounds and food scraps. By building an outdoor garden on site, you’ll be able to show your customers how those food scraps are used.
Set up as many strategies as possible to reduce, reuse and recycle, and start with a waste audit to pinpoint how much of the money that you’re spending is getting sent into waste. Are you spending money on paper cups and paper plates only for them to be binned all the time? If they are, you need a better plan.
Upgrade Your Appliances
When you’re buying new appliances for your coffee shop, try to go for the most energy-efficient option. If they’ve been around for a while, you might consider upgrading.
Investing in energy-efficient appliances, and if you own the building, solar power can help you ensure that you are using less energy and therefore less of a carbon footprint.
Always look for equipment with energy-saving functions too, such as standby modes or auto-off. What’s equally important is shifting to LED bulbs in your coffee shop. These will use less power and last longer.
Go sustainable with your packaging
When people want to take coffee and food for takeaways, use compostable disposable cups, lids and napkins and make sure that you have affordable, decent double-walled coffee cups that are customised to your brand on offer. When you make them affordable, people will buy them and they’ll bring them back for you to refill.
Packaging is always going to play a huge part in the environmental impact of your coffee shop, so if you’re serious about being sustainable, you need to look up where you can get the right suppliers. You could even set up bulk bins for creamers, sugars and coffee beans and let customers buy what they need without the extra packaging.
Consider your use of water
You know that your water is a precious resource, and your coffee shop is going to use a lot of it every day. To minimise the water waste, check your taps and pipes for leaks and repair them straight away. Also, try to run your dishwashers just once or twice a day at the very maximum.
For your customer toilets, make sure that they are low flow and that your faucets are also low flow. You can implement water-saving measures and habits in your kitchen and teach these to your staff too which will reduce your cafe’s water use.
Go plant-based where you can
You don’t have to have a vegetarian or vegan cafe, but it’s important to make sure that you are highlighting the plant-based milk alternatives. If you look at your milk options, you’ll know that dairy farming can massively contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. While plenty of people still enjoy cow’s milk, many are switching to soy, almond, and oat-based alternatives.
If you offer a plant-based alternative such as soil oat milk, you’ll be able to reduce your carbon footprint and cater to vegans and lactose-intolerant customers at the same time.
You can still have your usual dairy products on tap, but if you make a point of advertising plant-based milk before the dairy ones, you will find more people choose those as an option.
Regularly review your practices
Sustainability is not something you do just once, to make your coffee shop truly sustainable, you need to stay committed and consistently work towards maintaining a positive impact on the environment.
It’s worth regularly taking a closer look at your operations and spotting areas that could be more eco-friendly if there are new green technologies or methods out there that you could try, you should.
Sustainability benefits both your business and the planet. Consider offering workshops or classes to teach others how to implement sustainable practices, such as starting their own compost heaps at home. Sharing your knowledge can have a lasting impact on the community, helping to create positive change that will be greatly appreciated.
