Page 48 - CW-MAY-JUNE-2020

CAFÉ CONVENIENCE FROM PAGE 45 It had taken a long time, but sustainability was reaching the forefront of almost every business owner’s mind, beginning a couple of years ago. The message had finally filtered down that if we don’t start changing our behaviour, the environment that we know and love will cease to exist. It was full steam ahead for sustainability ... then the COVID-19 crisis gripped the world. My fears around sustainability’s decline began in March this year when cafes across the world began banning reusable cups for the health and safety of customers and employees. As reported in our story about the ban, Sydney cafe Bonnie Coffee updated customers, giving the reasons for its move: “Firstly, to minimise the risk of transmission to customers and our workers. Secondly, a keep cup handed over the counter could be contaminated. This could in turn contaminate equipment that would then be used to prepare drinks for other customers.” Following this came information in a report about sustainability released by GlobalData in which analyst Emily Salter said: “Making changes to materials, logistics and production processes to improve the sustainability of products and operations will slow, as sustainability is no longer at the top of retailers’ and consumers’ agendas.” Ms Salter concluded the media release with: “Although sustainability will slowly become more important again once the spread of COVID-19 has ceased, the increased awareness of cleanliness and germs is likely to remain at the forefront of shoppers’ minds and will continue to hinder the growth of sustainability initiatives.” Pour a cup for past achievements These developments, however, don’t mean it’s all doom and gloom. Before the attack of the COVID-19 crisis, the coffee category had already left significantly sized footprints on the road to sustainability. At the beginning of this year, 7-Eleven celebrated rescuing 10 million coffee cups from landfill, with thanks to Australia’s cup recycling program, Simply Cups. “We encourage reusable coffee cups and have an ‘rCUP’ available for purchase, which is a reusable coffee cup made from recycled coffee cups,” 7-Eleven CEO Angus McKay was quoted as saying in our story published on 20 January about Simply Cups. Stuart Haines, Managing Director of Haines Consulting Group and board member of Rocket Seeder, which is claimed to be Australia’s leading accelerator program for the food and beverage sector, spoke to Convenience World about the past achievements of Australian family owned specialty coffee roaster Jasper Coffee. Led by Directors Merilyn Parker and Wells Trenfield, Jasper Coffee has been heavily involved in the “environmentally conscious” production of coffee. In 2003, it became the first Australian Fairtrade licensed commercial roaster and a foundation member of Fair Trade Australia New Zealand. In 2012 the company installed the new Loring Smart Roast energy efficient roasting system and launched a compostable zip-lock package for Fairtrade Organic Instant Coffee. These are just two of the company’s enduring initiatives in advancing sustainability in the coffee sector. Latitude Coffee Managing Director Henry Miller also spilled the beans on his company’s previous work in sustainability, citing its contribution through processes such as “providing the ‘chaff’ or ‘husk’ that comes off the beans during the roasting process to a chicken farm as the litter \\\\\\\[and\\\\\\\] using hessian bags in the same application, or on-selling to ‘upcycle’ onto furniture or display walls, as we’ve done ourselves in the roasting facility.” This process for Latitude Coffee is “an important factor to our business and we aim to ‘close the loop’ by 2030 through reapplying all the by-products of our manufacturing process”, he adds. Will ‘conscious coffee’ suffer the consequences? “The restrictions against reusable cups in cafes is a massive step backwards in terms of sustainability in coffee, and I don’t believe any cafe owner or roaster liked this restriction, whether or not they’re environmentally and/or sustainability conscious,” Mr Miller said. However, both Mr Miller and Mr Haines remain confident that, post- COVID-19, sustainability’s progress will be back on track. “I believe the level of awareness that takeaway cups and sustainability in general around the cafe environment was high enough pre-COVID-19 for us to get back on track pretty sharpish post-COVID-19,” Mr Miller said. “There’s also a huge amount of investment that’s gone into making sustainable single-use cups, through the likes of Detpak and BioCup, that surely someone is close \\\\\\\[to establishing this breakthrough\\\\\\\], which will be an absolutely incredible feat for sustainability in coffee and other beverages.” Mr Haines is also optimistic about future generations following through with the sustainable pathway being paved. “My belief is that COVID-19 is affecting everyone,” he said. “However, environment and health will be more important than ever. The younger generation aren’t tolerating the waste of the past generations, and want to change.” What makes Fairtrade fair? Fairtrade Australia New Zealand, as it states on its website, is about stable prices, decent working conditions and the empowerment of farmers and workers around the world. TO PAGE 48 46 CONVENIENCE WORLD MAY/JUN, 2020