You may have noticed that we care a lot about our environmental impact and sustainability. What you may not know is that our passion was originally inspired by our coffee producers! On one of our first origin trips we saw that they care a lot about the environment and the way their practices affect it. They often go the extra mile, even reusing their coffee pulp and repurposing water to grow grass for cows. Their passion for sustainability fueled ours and years later, here we are: a zero waste business always looking for ways to improve our impact, both locally and globally.
We want to share some tips with you for moving towards a lifestyle os sustainability, but first we want you to know that we practice what we preach! Here are a few of the things we do daily/monthly/yearly to improve how we practice sustainability.
COMPOSTABLE/REUSABLE STRAWS - Our to-go straws are 100% compostable, and if you’ve ever ordered an iced drink in the shop, we'll give you a metal one. Also, maybe consider not even using a straw at all. After all, mouths are for sipping!
RESPONSIBLE RECYCLING & COMPOSTING - If you had a video montage of all the time our staff spends sorting through the recycling and compost…well, let’s just say you’d be impressed. Not a single bag of recycled goods or bag of compost goes out of our doors without us first hand-sorting it. If a contaminant makes its way into the recycling, the entire thing goes to a landfill and that doesn’t fly with us. Give us a pair of gloves, cuz we’re diggin’ in for sustainability.
SET UP FOR SUCCESS - When we built the location in East Nashville that's dedicated to roasting and a small take-away cafe, we tried to look at everything through the lens of sustainability. From recycling whatever construction waste we could to purchasing secondhand equipment when possible. In addition, we made sure to set the shop up for success from the day we opened by paying attention to details that affect sustainability like choosing eco-smart water heaters for the building and incorporating a charging port for electric vehicles (that’s right, we use an electric vehicle for our coffee deliveries!).
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SUSTAINABILITY ENCOURAGEMENT - Studies show that you need to repeat a behavior 66 times before it becomes a habit. Grabbing a cup on the way out the door may not seem 'difficult' per say, but if it’s not habitual, chances are you won’t remember to do it. We always offer 25 cents off any drink if you bring in your own cup. We hope it serves as a reminder that it is simple to grab your own cup on the way out the door, it just takes forming the habit to make it last.
Not-so-fun fact: 16 billion disposable cups are used worldwide each year. Each month, we decrease that number by about 225. It may not be earth-shattering, but every little sustainability decision can make a difference.
Back to YOU! That’s enough of what we’re doing on our end, we want to empower you to implement some basic changes for the better. We're passionate about implementing sustainability practices in our daily lives, so she teamed up with barista Abby Clark (who just so happens to be a fantastic artist and creative visionary) to create
some simple steps toward sustainability that you can start taking right now!
Sustainability can certainly seem overwhelming when confronted with all of the ways our daily choices make an impact, both locally and globally. We hope that we’ve been able to inspire and inform - showing you that if we can do it, you can too! And you don’t have to start big or drastic, you just have to start somewhere.
Interested in taking the next step in your sustainability journey? Here are some valuable resources we love:
Let us know by sending an email to hello@crema-coffee.com if you used any of these sustainability tips; we want to congratulate you with a little something!
