But I just read that the roaster supplying McDonalds with their espresso coffee blend is Distant Lands in Tyler, Texas. Distant Lands is the same eco-friendly roaster that is supplying Panera. The beans are not organic but I believe that they are Fair Trade coffee beans.

Anyway, I like Panera coffee. That means that more than likely I will like McDonald’c coffee… and the thought scares me. You can read more about that here in the Chicago Tribune.

The Bible, in Proverbs, talks about things that the earth can’t hold up under. Things that are just too weird. Well..this may be one of them.

McDonald’s can’t get environmentally concerned and serve good coffee, that’s like Sonny Bryans BBQ place starting to serve only vegetarian meals. It is the end of the world as we know it!

It could add a whole new Happy Meal concept though. A little Happy Meal bag with a couple of biscotti, a macchiato, and maybe a section of the New York Times?   It could work!

If McDonald’s REALLY wanted to sell a lot of coffee they would turn to the brilliant, albeit criminal, minds in Malaysia.

Sometimes I know I have missed my calling and should be in marketing somewhere. Other times I know that I took way too many hallucinogenics as a teenager in the 70s and should probably be listening to Black Sabbath at 78 speed. You decide which it is tonight..I am going to bed.

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Frankly, I am not sure that any large company can ever be green. No matter how much they try their very existence as a corporation will preclude them being environmentally friendly.

Green belongs to the small, local coffee shops that use “for here” cups and buy their organic, shade grown, bird friendly coffee from a local roaster or roast it themselves. Green belongs to small, family owned companies that operate in communities, support the local communities, and refuse to grow past a certain, controllable point.

The problem with those small green companies is that the big companies that pretend to be green run them out of business. People prefer to save a buck here or there and in this economy who can blame them? And it isn’t just that. If you have ever owned a small business you know that all of the various regulations, inspections, permits, and taxes work together to maintain a high level of stress and frustration. You are expected, as a business owner (at least in a small town) to be nice, friendly, always available, always compliant, and always ready to give your product away for free to friends, neighbors, and city officials.

Companies like Starbucks are corporations. That is an entirely different set of rules. It is sort of the difference between being a work at homemom and a work at an office mom. Both work really hard, and both may be equally talented and successful but the work at home mom will be expected to babysit for neighbors, make cookies for the class party, and keep an eye on all of the latchkey kids for two miles. Different standards apply.

There is a point that you have to choose between your budget and your commitement to green-ness. Pretending like a corporation is green is like pretending a president or other government official really will do something about the environment. They won’t. As long as there are private jets using gallons of fuel, and multiple domiciles with staff I can’t be comforted that they care as much as I do about environment.

Starbucks will always be more interested in growth and profits than environmental concerns. If that wasn’t the case ALL of their coffee would be organic.

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I was emailed the following story.  How cool is this?

A coffeehouse opened in Tunkhannock, Pa in December.  It’s name is Swirls and it is owned by Dawn Kuduk.    She wanted to support the environment and promote sustainability…what to do?

She decided to offer one dollar off coffee to anyone who used a cup that they brought from home.  That means that she has a lower overhead, she has less trash to mess with, and less to inventory.

Brilliant.  You know what?  It is people like this, who do one seemingly small thing, that make the biggest difference! Great job kudos  to Dawn!

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The caffeine in your pee is bleaching the coral reefs.

Apparently the cleaning process that wastewater goes through at sewage plants does not effectively get the caffeine out of our personal wastewater.  It leaves up to three percent of our caffeine out-go in the cleansed water.  The water is released into the environment and finds it’s way into the ocean.

Well caffeine in the ocean apparently means more than buzzing tuna. Yep.  Apparently the caffeine kills off the algae that has a symbotic relationship with the coral (that means they are buds) and gives coral its color.

You can read more about it here.

So what is the solution going to be? I mean, should the government outlaw caffeine consumption? Can Monsanto come up with a genetically engineered coral that withstands the onslaught of caffeinated pee?  Will Will and Grace ever come back to television?

I want you to know that I grew up in a home of green freaks before it was cool.  In the 60s my family was all about recycling, sustainable living, and cutting back on pollution.  My first babysitting job momey went to a Save the Wild Horses campaign.  But….once again..is this not a bit overboard? Seriously?

Maybe they could just collect the wastewater and create a new energy drink.

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Best of all both the fuel and the exhaust SMELLS like coffee.  Imagine, we could lure aliens from all over the universe with the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafting through space.

The technology uses used coffee grounds, something that normally gets thrown away.  This is awesome because corn, one of the primary crops used for biodiesel, is used as feed for livestock.  With the depand for corn on the upswing because of more demand for biodiesel, farmers who raise livestock are basically screwed and so are consumers.  Increased feed costs translates into increased costs for meat.

Since coffee grounds are not good for anything (except gardens, facials, and body scrubs) they are a cheap source for fuel.

Think of the possibilities!  Starbucks could have a whole new coffee career.  Starbucks, home of the breakfast happy meal, instant coffee and good smelling biodiesel.

And if your car was knocking and shaking? It might be too much caffeine.

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With so much emphasis put on the slow food movement and eating locally, and I can tell you that I am a firm believer in that, is it possible to cafeinate locally when you live somewhere other than a coffee growing area?  How about tea?

I am really curious about this.

I mean, is this an area where we just ride on our laurels as far as the trade off?  “Oh, I raise my own chickens and goats, so that offsets the coffee I buy from Indonesia”.

Let’s face it, even getting green beans is going to mean that those beans are imported from far away places and the footprint they live might not be the size of Maxwell House but it is going to be pretty big.

The other option is to, of course, not drink it.

That seems sort of radical to me.  I am not sure that global warming concerns me enough to stop drinking coffee.  Just being honest, here.

If you buy organically grown, fairly traded coffee is there really more that you can do to make the earth a better place, short of, you know, the unthinkable?  Coffee Celibacy?

Thoughts?

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Michel Kreuger of Amsterdam’s Studio Noach has come up with a unique way to deal with styrofoam coffee cups.

Make floating homes out of them. These homes are so cool.  They are made from panels that are created from recycled coffee cups, packing material, and the styrofoam thingies your hamburger comes in.

The homes are actually afloat on  a lake, connected to the shoreline by a winding walkway.  This sounded beautiful to me until I thought about the amount of groceries that I buy…first of all, the idea of carrying all of them from the car to the house down a winding walkway that floats on water is not that cool to me.  Second, I realized that you would  always know which one of the homes was mine..it would be partially submerged from the weight of said groceries..

However…

These homes are covered in vegetation which  I imagine helps to insulate them, as well as releasing oxygen into the air…and I guess a mound of green plants looks better floating on water than a giant coffee cup?

Water from the lake will be pumped through the stucture to water the plants.

You can read more about this and see a video at  Treehugger.

What do you think?  Would you live in one if given the chance?

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