Reducing the Carbon Footprint of your Gourmet Coffee

Got a cup of steaming Celebes Kalossi (or your favorite cup of Joe)? Then welcome to our coffee blog.

Are you drinking out of a ceramic mug or travel mug? More and more the visitors to our coffee roastery in Cambridge, Vermont opt to bring their own mugs or to use our ceramic mugs instead of disposable paper cups. (We do use ones made of recycled materials.) Frankly, that's one of my favorite things about Vermonters. We’re the type of folks who take action, rather than just complain.

To that end, I thought I'd share some of the many ways that we've been doing our part, here at Brown and Jenkins, to reduce our own carbon footprint in the business we do everyday. I think you'll be surprised at some of the innovative ways our local friends, farmers and business owners find to help reuse and recycle the by-products of our Vermont coffee business.

Of course, we try to reduce the amount of waste we produce by offering coffee mugs instead of paper travel cups. And we follow state guidelines to have an after burner to mange smoke from the roaster. But the real innovation comes from working with our local friends and neighbors who find uses for several things that we are done with.

Burlap Coffee Bags are used by local:
Fisherman who fill them with cracked corn and use it to attract fish
Horse lovers to wipe down horses
Hunters to make curtains for their deer camps
Artists in their creations
Students for sac races
Residents for wall art

Leftover coffee grounds are used as fertilizer by:
Mushroom farmers and
Garlic farmers

Recycled coffee filters are used by:
Local organic farmers

Chaff (the outer layer of the coffee bean after it's roasted) is used as:
Fertilizer
Bedding filler for pets

As always, I love being such an integral part of our community. For my part, you'll notice that we don't use those one serving creamers here in the roastery because they produce so much unnecessary waste.

Living in a state with such beautiful natural surrounding, I suppose it makes sense that so many Vermonters are passionate about protecting our environment. Any ideas we haven't thought of?
What do you do?

Until our next cup,
Sandy Riggen