15 Tips for Running a Sustainable Cafe

Climate change and environmental issues are becoming more pressing matters by the day. There has been no better time to turn your cafe into a sustainable business!

The carbon footprint of your business can be reduced through various methods. This will benefit your cafe in ways such as saving costs, attracting more customers and ensuring the long-term viability of your business. Here are 15 tips for running a sustainable cafe. 

1. Source sustainable coffee 

The root of every coffee shop is its coffee beans. Ensuring that these are sustainable is the first step towards your sustainable cafe. Evaluate the coffee beans you currently use and question where they are coming from and how they are being grown.

Unfortunately, it is common for coffee suppliers to exploit farmers and workers, particularly in developing countries. Often farmers are paid very little, making it difficult for them to support themselves and their families. Fairtrade certification ensures that farmers receive fair pay and that workers are treated ethically. 

The environmental impact of coffee production can be huge. Particularly when it comes to deforestation, pesticide use and water consumption. Some coffee growers use unsustainable farming practices that can lead to environmental issues such as soil erosion and water pollution. 

So utilising sustainable coffee beans is a great first step towards a sustainable cafe. A coffee brand we recommend is Puro Coffee. It is 100% fairtrade certified and has been working towards carbon neutrality since 2016. 

2. Get rid of single-use plastic 

The amount of single-use plastic that is wasted every day is vast. With so many ways around it, there is no excuse for it any more. The biggest culprit for coffee shops is single-use takeaway cups. The best way to solve this is to encourage customers to bring their own reusable cups. Offering incentives such as discounts and points for future purchases will boost the number of customers bringing their own cups. Selling reusable cups at your cafe is also a way to encourage this. 

Realistically, for cafes, giving out takeaway cups is unavoidable. So ensure you are using biodegradable or compostable materials – this can be applied to all product packaging. Some other tips to make takeaway cups more sustainable: 

• Provide recycling and compost bins that are clearly marked
• Hand out wooden stirrers. Or avoid disposable stirrers altogether by having metal spoons that can be used at the counter 
• Do not hand out lids unless necessary, and make sure they are recyclable or compostable. 

3. Upgrade to energy-efficient equipment 

Outdated equipment uses a lot more energy than new energy-efficient equipment. Not only are they built less efficiently, but they are also old and slow, using more energy to do the same job as a new model. Cafes use many types of equipment, so there are a lot of options to upgrade at your sustainable cafe. 

Lighting is a big source of energy consumption for any business. It is important to have a well-lit environment where people want to sit and enjoy a coffee. LED bulbs are a more environmentally-friendly option. They are more cost-effective as well.

Hand-washing dishes is a time-consuming task for cafes, upgrading to a dishwasher would be more efficient. Hand-washing also results in larger water waste than using a dishwasher, making dishwashers the more sustainable option.

The most important piece of equipment for a cafe is the coffee machine. Upgrading to a faster and newer model will increase the number of coffees made and is more energy-efficient. For a sustainable cafe, we recommend the Cimbali M39. It is designed for commercial use and has many advanced features baristas can take advantage of. The machine can make 300 cups per hour, which is much more than older designs. 

4. Shop locally and organically

To have a sustainable cafe you should be shopping locally. This can be buying food from local markets, milk from local farms and coffee beans from local roasteries. Shopping locally is more sustainable for several reasons. A major reason is the goods do not have to travel far so there is decreased pollution from transportation. 

The longer food has to be transported, the higher the chance of it being damaged. So food waste is reduced by shopping locally. Products that are travelling long distances use a lot of packaging to protect them. This excess of packaging is a cause of pollution and environmental damage. So buying local is the more sustainable choice. 

Buying organic products is better for the environment as toxic chemicals are kept away from wildlife and insects. It is much more ethical than traditional farming methods, so when buying for your sustainable cafe you should be looking out for these products. It is not only food products that can be organic though. Kitchen products have organic alternatives. For example, organic kitchen cloths. Non-organic cloths can be made of cotton grown with harmful pesticides, tainting the land and nature around it. 

5. Composting for your sustainable cafe

Food waste, coffee grounds and other organic materials can be used for composting. This reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills. Landfills are a major source of pollution and contribute to global warming. They produce toxins, leachate and greenhouse gases, harming our planet. So we should be doing all we can to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills. 

6. Choose an eco-friendly waste management company 

You may be putting your waste in the right bins, but none of that matters if your waste management company is not disposing of rubbish in an eco-friendly way. Several eco-friendly waste management companies are dedicated to sending zero waste to landfills and focusing on the recovery of resources. 

Eco-friendly waste management involves the collection, sorting, treatment and recycling of waste. When done right it provides a source of resources and energy. The ultimate goal is to lessen our impact on the environment and improve water and air quality. 

7. Vegan and vegetarian options in your sustainable cafe 

One of the biggest ways an individual can reduce their carbon footprint is by consuming less meat and dairy. As a sustainable cafe, you are trying to reduce your carbon footprint, but reducing your customers’ footprint is an extra step you can take. 

Having more vegan and vegetarian options will reduce the number of customers ordering meat or dairy dishes. If possible, you could even opt for a fully meat-free menu. Limiting the amount of fish in dishes is also a step hospitality businesses are taking in an attempt to become greener. This is because overfishing is becoming a rising issue, damaging ecosystems and habitats. It leaves oceans depleted, affecting those who rely on seafood for survival. 

8. No more paper receipts 

When making the move to becoming eco-friendly, businesses often overlook the paper receipt. Globally, we need more trees to absorb carbon dioxide. The amount of paper receipts that businesses print every day is enough to greatly impact this. 

Receipts that come from card terminals and most receipt printers contain a substance called BPA. This is a harmful chemical which means you cannot recycle the receipts. It also can cause a range of health issues when exposed to them long-term. It is now common for businesses to use cloud-based POS systems. Most of these allow you to send digital receipts, through email or text. So to run a sustainable cafe, this is an action you should take. 

9. Dispose of coffee grounds correctly 

Coffee grounds are very harmful when they end up in landfills. They release methane as they break down, which is a far more detrimental greenhouse gas than CO2. So cafes should not be throwing coffee grounds in the bin, there are far more sustainable alternatives. 

Coffee can be used as a fertiliser, adding nutrients to depleted soil and supporting plant growth. So, as a sustainable cafe, you could donate your remaining coffee grounds to local gardening groups. Or even offer to staff and customers to take home for their gardens. There are also companies dedicated to collecting businesses’ waste coffee grounds and recycling or upcycling them. Some examples of ways coffee can be repurposed: 

• Biofuels – Coffee grounds contain natural oils that can be extracted and used as biofuel. The oils are extracted and mixed with alcohol to create biodiesel. This is then refined and used in a standard biofuel generator to create electricity. 
• Cleaning products – Coffee grounds have an abrasive texture which makes them work in home cleaning products. They have also been known to be used as hair wash. Rubbing them into your hair in the shower removes residue left by styling products. 
• Coffee logs – The company bio-bean collects coffee grounds and upcycles them into coffee logs. Used as an alternative to burning traditional wood, this is a unique and exciting way to repurpose your coffee grounds. 

10. Energy-efficient building design 

The building itself of your sustainable cafe could be a source of wasting energy. A properly insulated building is important as otherwise there will be heat loss. This then results in heating systems being turned on more, using energy. 

Airtightness is an aspect of buildings that refers to how much air leaks out of the building. This could be from windows, doors and cracks. Having an air-tight building will reduce how much  heating systems are used, lowering your energy consumption. Another good tip is to check if your windows are double or triple-glazed. If they are not, you should look into implementing this. 

11. Limit your menu 

Quality over quantity is key here. Having a menu with fewer items means your sustainable cafe can be more energy-efficient with cooking and produce less food waste. A few high-quality recipes that the chefs are specialists in will mean less energy on oven time or other equipment. It also means fewer ingredients will need to be ordered, resulting in less pollution from the transportation of multiple products. Ingredients can be ordered in larger amounts as well, which generally means less packaging. 

Many hospitality POS systems can help with planning this. Some can track which products are being recorded as wastage. You can use this data to see which dishes are not selling well and potentially remove them from the menu. Some POS systems can also track ingredients of the your dishes. Reminding you when exactly to order which ingredients. This helps avoid ordering too much, or ordering too early. Resulting in less food waste. 

12. Offer dairy-free milk options 

Having dairy-free milk options available will reduce the number of people opting for cow’s milk, helping reduce individuals’ carbon footprint. The environmental impact of dairy milk is much greater than that of plant-based milk. It causes approximately three times as much greenhouse gas emissions. It uses ten times as much land and two to twenty times as much fresh water. Having plant-based milk options at your sustainable cafe is almost essential. There are so many to choose from, including soy, oat, almond, hazelnut and coconut.  

13. Ditch tea bags 

A staggering amount of tea bags contain plastic. Many are made with polypropylene, a plastic resin that is not biodegradable or recyclable. So the breakdown of teabags can take hundreds of years in landfills. Some alternative options are plastic-free, biodegradable or compostable teabags. Whilst these are better alternatives, they are not perfect. Often they require industrial composting facilities to fully decompose, so are not suitable for home or standard decomposing systems. 

Switching to loose-leaf tea is a great option for your sustainable cafe. No tea bag is needed, it is brewed in a reusable infuser or strainer. Loose leaf is also regarded as a better option by tea lovers, for many reasons. The flavour of loose-leaf tea is better and of a higher quality. This is because the leaves have more room to expand and infuse properly. 

14. Provide tap water 

By simply having a jug of tap water on offer, you are helping reduce the number of plastic water bottles being bought. A shocking amount of plastic bottles end up in landfills every year. Even when recycled properly, plastic bottles are still harmful to the environment. The manufacturing process releases large amounts of carbon dioxide, significantly contributing to pollution. 

Any attempt at reducing the plastic bottle pandemic is a helpful addition. Offering free water is also a nice touch for customers, helping build customer relationships. Your sustainable cafe can then also be a refill station, on the Refill app. The app lists your business as a station to get free water, attracting more footfall and potential customers. 

15. Use your sustainable cafe to spread awareness 

As a business, you have a platform you can use to spread valuable information to the public. Educate your customers about sustainability and how they can reduce their environmental impact. You can do this by posting informational posters around the cafe, posting on social media or hosting sustainability-themed events. Owning a sustainable cafe is something to be proud of, so spread the word and allow customers to learn from you.