Now in its third year, Green Coffee Fortnight is an annual event designed by Cafe2U to raise awareness of environmentally-friendly practices in the coffee industry and encourage more people to adopt sustainable coffee drinking habits. This year's event will take place from Monday, September 27th, until Sunday, October 10th.
To celebrate, we're running down the new environmentally-friendly initiatives we're adopting at Cafe2U.
Compostable paper cups
You may have seen that we've already kicked off this year's celebrations by unveiling the world's first all electric coffee van, which will help reduce our CO2 emissions and carbon footprint. But that's not all - to help minimise our paper use, we're also launching a range of compostable paper cups.
Compostable cups are biodegradable, so they can be composted or recycled, reducing waste and ensuring fewer items are sent to landfill. And with people in the UK drinking approximately 95 million cups of coffee every day, we need to convince consumers to move away from single use cups as soon as possible.
Our new compostable cups are available from your local Cafe2U van now.
Reusable cup giveaway
Everybody likes something for nothing so, for the duration of Green Coffee Fortnight, we're giving our incredible reusable cups away free with certain purchases!
Please note this offer varies depending on your location so find your nearest Cafe2U van here and get in touch to find out how you can claim your reusable cup.
Coffee grounds recycling scheme
Throughout Green Coffee Fortnight, we're giving customers the opportunity to take our used coffee grounds away with them absolutely free.
Normally, used coffee grounds are thrown in the bin, where they end up as landfill or in an incinerator. However, neither option is good for the environment, which is why we want to let more people know that they can also be recycled, reducing harmful greenhouse gases and giving your latte a second life.
Used coffee grounds have a number of uses, including:
repelling insects. Simply put the used grounds in a bowl outside and burn them like incense. The grounds are very potent and will drive pests away in no time.
making a useful fertiliser. Sprinkling used grounds - which are packed with key nutrients - on the soil surrounding your plants will encourage them to grow quicker.
helping compost heaps. By adding some used grounds to your compost heap, you'll improve its structure and attract worms, which speed up the process by turning food scraps into compost.
eliminating smells. A handful of used coffee grounds in your fridge will absorb food odours and ensure your meals taste like they should.
cleaning your pans. A couple of spoonfuls of used coffee grounds are abrasive enough to clean the dirtiest of pans - just apply the grounds to a cloth and get scrubbing! Remember to check a small area of the pan first to make sure the grounds don't stain the surface.
Going paper free
Switching to compostable paper cups is just one part of our move towards becoming completely paper free by 2022.
In addition to the paper cups, we're also:
digitising all our files at head office
switching from print to digital advertising, and
doing away with the old loyalty card system in favour of a digital version accessible via the Cafe2U app.
We need your help!
Supporting our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint is easy - simply pick up a reusable or compostable cup next time you visit your local Cafe2U van and, if you could use some, take some of our used grounds away with you. You'll be helping us help the planet!
Find your nearest Cafe2U van here.