Earth Day, Every Day

One of the many reasons I wanted to work for Stone Creek Coffee was for our great focus on sustainability.  Here at Stone Creek, we like to celebrate the Earth by being as green as possible 365 days a year.  It’s like a perpetual Earth Day!

First and foremost, our very own Vice President and Green Coffee Buyer, Steve Hawthorne, is an active member of the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) Sustainability Council, and will actually be giving a presentation at this year's SCAA Conference in Portland next week.  The Sustainability Council is a group of SCAA members who gather to create and promote ideas, concepts, and action plans to the SCAA board that enable the SCAA to become the global leader in business for sustainability.  When Steve and a few other members of our company (including a few of our retail staff!) return from their trip, I'll be writing a blog about their experience including highlights from Steve's presentation!

We also try to be green in some smaller ways: 

During the summer, we collect and save all our spent coffee grounds in a bin outside near our outdoor patio furniture.  (By the way, if you haven’t checked it out yet, we’ve got awesome new furniture this year!  When it warms up, it’ll be a great place to sip your iced coffee! )  You can pick up as many bags as you’d like to use for compost in your garden!  Coffee is a great, chemical-free fertilizer that you can use for FREE, and it’s much more Earth-friendly than harsh chemical fertilizers.  All you have to do is either sprinkle the grounds just as they are into the soil, or dilute them with water to expedite the process.  For indoor plants, use 1 part coffee:2 parts water, for outdoor plants use 1 part coffee:4 parts water.

My mom always makes me take literally a trunk-full of grounds home with me to Appleton whenever I go home to visit.  She doesn’t drink coffee, so this is the only way she can get composted grounds for her garden – she swears by it; her vegetables and flowers grew like crazy when she first started using coffee in the soil, and I can attest that they tasted way better too!

Our Whitefish Bay staff all contributes to the green cause as well – four out of the six of us don’t even own cars!  You might see Lisa, Ellen, or Nick biking to work – wave to them as they pass by!  Many of us take the bus in the winter.  As for me, I do own a car, but I am usually either carpooling with my boyfriend or taking the bus, depending on the day and my schedule.

We encourage customers to help us save resources by re-using their bags, java jackets, and trays, and bringing in their own mugs!  You can receive a discount for doing any of these things.  We also have double-sided punch cards – you can go for two runs of ten drinks on one card! 

So, these are just a few of the ways that we celebrate this wonderful planet and all it has to offer.  You can celebrate too – next weekend is Earth Day!  We’re offering 10% off all travel mugs, so stop by and grab one up!  Your first drink is free with the purchase; we’ll wash it for you.  We’re also offering DOUBLE discounts for reusing bags and mugs.  It’s a small way to make a difference, but if everybody reduces their waste by one cup per day or one bag per week, we can positively affect change in the world!

Sip Slowly - Ashley