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Grinders Coffee’s flagship store on Lygon Street in Carlton, Victoria has been a pioneer in coffee since it opened its doors back in 1962. Now, the team is attempting to break new ground, this time in sustainability.
The company’s commitment to leading a sustainable future for the coffee industry is part of its passion for delivering a better coffee experience for everyone, from crop to café to cup.
For its flagship store, this is reflected in a focus on reducing its environmental footprint.
As well as reducing overall energy consumption and using cleaner sources of energy, the team is working hard to improve recycling and reduce waste.
This has led to a partnership with a company called Reground. Reground is a social enterprise that helps businesses help the environment by keeping resources as local as possible and minimising contribution to landfill.
Since joining Reground earlier this year, Grinders on Lygon Street has diverted 1,160 kilograms of ground coffee from landfill, that’s the equivalent to over 32,222 lattes! And through effective composting, the process has also saved over 2,204kg of harmful greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.
Behind the partnership is café manager Shannon Kiernan. “I’ve always been passionate about minimising my impact on the environment, now I’m in the privileged position of being able to make decisions that have a positive impact greater than I can alone,” he said.
“Implementing waste minimisation strategies helps me to start conversations with customers and staff, it’s fantastic to see how many people are just as passionate, and it’s rewarding to know that what we’re doing is really having an impact.”
Reground Director Kaitlin Reid describes the organisation as a “waste education service dedicated to helping people keep resources out of landfill and become more connected with their waste.”
One crucial element in Reground’s success in helping organisations like Grinders to minimise waste is the focus on separating materials at the source. This provides clean waste streams, which are more valuable in the waste hierarchy.
Shannon explains, “By simply separating our waste into six streams – ground coffee, milk bottles, general recycling, cardboard recycling, soft plastic recycling and general waste – we’ve been able to half our contribution to landfill, which is an awesome achievement.”
In addition to the work of its Lygon Street café team, Grinders is working to minimise packaging use across all its operations, through better design, light-weighting where possible and replacing virgin materials with recycled content in both primary and secondary packaging. Its commitment to Australia’s National Packaging Targets means that by 2025, 100% of all its packaging will be recyclable.
To read more about how Grinders Coffee is committed to a sustainable future for the coffee industry, check out the website here.
