KeepGreenGoing

Any working baristas out there? I know KGG contributor Alex has spent some time in the specialty coffee industry, and I’ve been working with a coffee company here in town for the last two-plus years.

You baristas know how idealistic we can be. At a certain point, serving coffee moves past the point of being “just a job” to a near-holy calling. For me, it came after attending my first cupping in the basement of our downtown cafe. I started to see not only how complex and interesting coffee can be, but how easily that fact goes unrecognized. Ours is a comparatively young industry, and our profession is one that has yet to gain the same level of prestige as, say, a sommelier or bar mixologist.

We’re a dedicated bunch, though, aren’t we? And I know many of you who have happily stuck it out in this business, continuing to build appreciation for the little brown bean we love, possess a unique spirit that manifests itself in other forms — a concern for the environment being one.

Matt Milletto at Barista Exchange, a coffee networking and info-swapping site, has made a few posts on the topic of a greener cafe. You can find them here and here.

Spent coffee grounds make up a huge portion of a cafe’s overall waste, which is a shame considering the wonders coffee grounds can do for a compost heap or garden. Starbucks has initiated a Grounds For Your Garden program where anyone who wishes to take away spent grounds packaged in a recycled bag from any one of their cafes need only ask. Say what you want about the ‘Bucks, but that’s a great move. I know in our cafe there’s at least one customer who comes in and takes away our spent grounds. We made the switch last year to unbleached paper filters which we use in our individual-servings brewbar. In addition to the environmental benefit of not purchasing bleached paper, the guy can also toss the unbleached filters filled with grounds right in with the compost.

Any thoughts? Most of all, I’m interested in any comments about the new breed of supposedly 100% biodegradable cups, the other huge source of waste a cafe churns out.

The good people at a company called Genepax say yes.  Their Water Energy System or WES is in line to be powering up cars in the future using a motor that operates on water by means of a basic yet superior fuel cell.  This technology has been around for sometime but it has been a challenge to make it useful on a scale that would have any strong impact on the environment. 

Best of luck Genepax.  Read all about it at here. 

Hey all - Sorry for the lack of articles. I just returned from our honeymoon. Give me a few days to edit some articles from Caleb and Alex and we’ll be posting again shortly.

Thanks for all the support and love.

::b

Hey all - KGG will be on a short break next week. I’m getting married this weekend and will then be on my honeymoon. Look for some more articles when I return.

Thanks for all the support and love.

Bryan

Some disheartening news from the frontlines of “clean coal” research:

“It’s a total mess.” Daniel M. Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley

“Coal’s had a tough year.” John LaVelle, general manager of gasification at General Electric

“A year ago, (it) was an aggressive target. A year has gone by, and now it’s a very aggressive target.” Steven R. Specker, president of the Electric Power Research Institute

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like any effort to pump or dump or inject things back into the earth in order to clean up the earth is just more backwards thinking. Is it time to turn the car around yet?:

As the weather has been taking a warm turn over the last couple weeks, I’ve started seeing small groups of college students out in our local pedestrian mall promoting Environment Iowa. Who was this old hat in the community? It was definitely new to me, so I did some research. It turns out, Environment Iowa has been working for years to protect Iowa’s air, water and open spaces. For a town like Iowa City, where I’ve been living for the past 6 years, the work they do is crucial. I’ve always taken the stubborn stance that drinking straight from the tap, no filter, makes me stronger. The truth is, however, that the Iowa River is currently listed as the third most endangered river in America. That’s our main source of water. Blech.

I’m highlighting this not because I imagine most of you will find anything useful about an Iowa-based organization. The point is, thinking about the environment in broad, global terms quickly gets discouraging and confusing. Environment Iowa is my way of connecting locally. Tell us: What’s yours?

It has been said that the single best thing one can do for the environment is not reproduce. I for one disagree. While I think we need to reproduce responsibly and probably try to adopt a few kids that sentiment creates a bleak outlook for the human race as far as the idea of procreation goes. Also you can bank on the people that don’t care about the environment ignoring the idea of living small and not reproducing and after one generation we greenies would only be a bleak memory and the planet is doomed. You with me?

In light of my wife and I’s imminent birth of a freshly developed human I thought I would put together some green baby ideas. Truth be told the subject deserves an entire book rather than an article so I’ve put together some of the best ideas and resources that I’ve come across so far.

Ideas:

One thing I’ve learned so far is what is good for the regular sized person is probably just as good for the miniature sized person as well. Take our recent talk on drinking apparatus; adults (particularly pregnant adults) don’t need BPAs and babies don’t either. Two of our readers, Claire and Jenna, put me in touch with the following products: The Babisil Silbottle and The Safe Sippy respectively. Both are BPA free and a great product. Responsibly grown fabrics are also good for baby, same with locally grown foods, etc. Forks are also good for baby… just joking. A baby’s only eating utensil should be yours or your partner’s boobs for the early months.

Our children are undoubtedly going to take on some of their parents behavior as much as they may desire not to. With that being said we can create an environment that helps to instill a degree of respect for the planet in our offspring. Be selective with what you expose your baby to; read them The Lorax and The Giving Tree, take them on a hike instead of drive, etc. I think I need to be careful here; I’m not insinuating that you should take your baby from womb directly to some sort of green solar powered box. If you are reading this you probably just need to continue the behavior that you’ve already started.

Resources:

Treehugger – Green Your Baby

This a great tree top article that will get you started on the right track with an overall green baby perspective. The article gives a brief on everything from diapers to clothing to breast milk. I think it’s a great place to start your green baby research.

Baby Earth

This is the best e-commerce site I’ve found dedicated to a wide spectrum of baby care products. With that being said, we may all be better served visiting individual companies to make our purchases, as Baby Earth sells a lot of products that I wouldn’t give my green stamp of approval to, but this was the best resource I found that had everything in one spot. They also do their best to fill you in on green jargon and how they review each product that they sell.

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth By Ina May Gaskin

This is my favorite book on birthing/babies that I’ve read. Written by one of the most prolific midwifes today, it gives an excellent portrayal of a medical model vs. a midwifery model of birthing. I strongly recommend it for anyone who is considering where to deliver their child.

There are a tremendous amount of “green baby” resources out there; I hope that this has helped to point your search in the right direction. My best advice though is, like always, to keep it simple and to keep green going.

::a

By now, you’ve all heard of the Carbon Footprint – the measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide. Today, KGG sheds light on the other foot; Your Water Footprint.

The Water footprint of an individual is defined as the total water used for the production of the goods and services consumed by the individual. It can be estimated by multiplying all goods and services consumed by their respective virtual-water content.

The water footprint of a nation shows the total volume of water that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the nation. The water footprint consists of two parts: Use of domestic water resources and use of water outside the borders of the country. The water footprint includes water withdrawn from surface and groundwater and the use of soil water (in agricultural production).

A Few Facts

• The production of 1 kilogram of beef requires 16,000 liters of water.

• To produce 1 cup of coffee we need 140 liters of water.

• The water footprint of China is about 700 cubic meter per year per capita. Only 7% of the Chinese water footprint falls outside China.

• The USA water footprint is 2500 cubic meter per year per capita.

Coffee Case Study

Background – Coffee is, in dollar terms, the most important agricultural product traded in the world. Producing coffee requires a lot of water.

Objective – A case study performed by A.Y. Hoekstra and A.K. Chapagain was conducted to calculate the volumes of water required to drink coffee and tea in the Netherlands.

Results – “We found that for drinking one standard cup of coffee in the Netherlands we need about 140 litres of water, by far the largest part for growing the coffee plant. A standard cup of coffee is 125 ml, which means that we need more than 1100 drops of water for producing one drop of coffee. Total coffee consumption in the Netherlands requires a total of 2.6 billion cubic metres of water per year, which is equal to 36% of the annual Meuse flow. The Dutch people account for 2.4% of the world coffee consumption. All together, the world population requires about 110 billion cubic metres of water per year in order to be able to drink coffee. This is equivalent to 15 times the annual Meuse runoff, or 1.5 times the annual Rhine runoff.”

What’s Your Water Footprint?

If you’re interested in finding out your individual water footprint, please use the extended calculator provided by WaterFootpring.org

Fellow apartment dwellers let it be known; growing a garden is not only for homeowners. If you have a porch or balcony that receives a fair share of sunlight, consider yourself good-to-grow.

Gardening for apartments, or container gardening, is easy, movable and can be accomplished in very small spaces. The first thing you need to do is to save containers in which to plant your vegetables. Coffee cans, water jugs with the top cut off, deep bowls, and empty milk jugs or flowerpots are all viable choices. After you’ve found the perfect container, make sure you put holes in the bottom of the container for excess water drainage.

Next, it’s best to put feet under the container like a brick or a terra cotta saucer. This is so the water can drain easily out of the bottom. Leave one or two inches between the soil and the top of the pot so there’s room to water without soil spilling out of the container.

If you’re not too sure what to plant, take a few picks from the following list:

• Sugar baby watermelon

• Small squash or melon

• Cucumbers

• Strawberries

• Tomatoes

• Small potatoes

• Carrots

• Onions

• Pineapples

• Lettuce

• Broccoli

You’ll want to take special note of which areas of your porch get the most sunlight. Place sun-loving plants where the most sun is and shade-loving plants behind those. Also, taller plants should go in the back where they can share the light with the smaller plants in front.

Another tip from Amber Seber at Associated Content says to hang old CDs from string in order to keep birds away - A great way to recycle CDs. The reflection and movement from the CDs will scare the birds away.

Last, have fun and be creative. There’s no space too small to grown a usable container garden. Check out Green Your Apartment for more apartment friendly ideas and solutions.

Solar Power…It’s free. It’s clean. It’s available everyday. What more could one ask for, right? With solar power systems down more than 80% in cost from the last two decades there are a variety of options available. But before we all go super-solar crazy, let’s take a look at the cost and benefits associated with each option.

How Solar Power Works

Solar power is produced by using photovoltaic (PV) cells that capture the energy of the sun and then covert that energy into electricity. The basic unit of the system is the solar cell, which are connected together into modules. PV cells are comprised of semi-conductors, most often made of silicon. The semiconductors absorb power when they are struck by light. The modules of PV cells are what you see installed on the roofs of homes and businesses. The electricity created by the solar system is direct current and the electricity we use in our homes is alternating current. Therefore, solar systems include and inverter that changes the CD current into useable AC current. Installing solar systems can be quite complicated. It’s best to find a solar installer in your area to get the process started.

Solar Power Home Systems

When it comes to solar power systems for homes, there are two main formats: grid-tie and off-grid. In a grid-tie system, a home has solar cells but is still connected to the local power grid. The home solar system includes solar cells installed on a home that collects the sun’s energy and converts it into DC electricity. Then the inverter converts the DC power into AC power, which can be used directly in your home. Electricity produced by the solar cells that is not used immediately in your home is returned to the power grid. When this happens, your electricity meter literally spins backwards as you are passing energy to the grid. You are also building a credit on your power bill. This is called “net-metering.” The benefit of the grid-tie system is that it does not include expensive batteries to be installed in your home for the storage of power.

Off-grid systems are typically used in remote locations where standard grid-based power is not available.  These systems are more expensive, but do allow for complete electrical independence. These systems require deep-cycle batteries for storing the electricity as well as a charge controller to assure the flow of electricity from the cells does not over-charge the batteries.

For a solar system to work well it needs an unobstructed view of the sun. In the United States, typically the best orientation for solar panels is to the south as the sun is in the southern half of the sky (lower in the winter and higher in the summer).

Solar panels can either be attached directly to a slanting roof, or bolted onto frames on flat roofs. If your roof is not a good option, then panels can also be mounted on the ground. They can either be placed on a fixed mount frame or on a “tracking mount” that follows the sun across the sky.

For an excellent consumer guide to selecting and purchasing the right solar system, please visit http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35297.pdf

For more detail on how solar power works, please visit: http://www.solarelectricpower.org/index.php?page=basics&subpage=pv&display=facts

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