Leah Anderson
During my time as a Starbucks barista, I constantly caught myself feeling guilty about all of the waste we produced. I would brainstorm ways to be more sustainable, but it is hard to implement these changes for a corporation as large as Starbucks. I have been to smaller-scale coffeeshops that have begun their journey to becoming more sustainable and it inspired me to dive deeper into the topic. It was announced in our ENS 300 class that Outside Coffee Co, an extension of Woosah Outfitters, was looking for ways to become more sustainable in its practices. As a coffee lover and supporter of local businesses, I was thrilled to take this on as a case study.Duncan Misiak
The Outside Coffee Co is a local business to Grand Rapids Michigan, they are focused on connecting the community to the outdoors. The coffee shop is owned by a larger company named Woosah, also local to Grand Rapids. Outside Coffee Co emphasizes the concept of value into nature and doing your part to make it better. They are actively trying to improve their overall sustainability as an organization, they currently are using compostable cutlery, straws, bowls, trash bags, lids, and cups. Additionally they are composting all their food waste with Urban Roots, another local company to Grand Rapids focusing on embedding communities with sustainability practices to better connect them as a whole. The coffee shop also offers a discount to customers who bring in their own reusable cups instead of using the compostable cups, 25 cents off your total purchase. Inside of the coffee truck there is a compost bucket, recycling bin and trash bin; for the customers there's just a trash can currently. You can see through their actions that they are operating under a few key principles, being firstly connecting with the community to effectively advocate for sustainability, second being reduction of environmental footprint, and third being the importance of remembering the environment's true value.