Coffee shop popularity and in-home brewing in the US have become much more sophisticated over the past 10 years. These coffee industry trends are also now nudging employers to find good coffee solutions for their employees and customers. It can impact first impressions and retention. But most people think the only real advancement in office coffee service during that time is the invention of the K-cup. Office coffee has come much further and become much better than the plastic cup. You just have to know where to look.
But there are so many more options, and so much more to consider. Namely, does your coffee service reflect your company's policies or image on the environment?
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What happens in the breakroom stays in the breakroom
Last week I was in the office of a company who is considering changing their office coffee service to something of better quality and variety. This is a thriving company that has an industry leading reputation of their commitment to the environment. It appears that every decision they make takes environmental impact into consideration as a top priority. It was admirable to see, until I walked into their breakroom and found that they are K-cup users. They have nearly 150 employees and use some 36,000 K-cups annually. They were proud that they had gifted ceramic mugs to their employees so they weren’t throwing foam or excess paper cups into the landfills, but that paled in comparison to amount of plastic that was being tossed each day.
Single cup brewers are convenient office coffee solutions that do offer more black coffee variety over that of drip brewers. However every single cup system - whether it be a plastic cup, a plastic pouch, an aluminum cup or a plastic wrapped filter pod - has packaging of some sort that must be disposed of after each brewed cup. There are more than 12 billion single-cup packages dumped into landfills annually, enough to wrap around the planet nearly a dozen times. While it is now possible to recycle more of the packaging being used for single-cup brewers, little of that is happening because the package waste has to be disassembled for that to occur. Does this reflect your company's environmental commitment?
What are my options?
Finding the right coffee service to meet the needs (and culture) of your organization is not difficult if you know where to start. There are office coffee options that leave a near zero environmental footprint, and even others that have a net positive impact.
Your breakroom is one of the most behind-the-scenes parts of a company. And while it may not get much exposure outside company walls, it does indicate how committed you are to what you say outside company walls. Employees see that continuity (or not), which then impacts the respect they have for their employer. It impacts what they say about their employer to their friends, and possibly prospects.
Don’t forget about your breakroom when it comes to your environmental footprint. Make sure your coffee service looks like your organization’s culture. There are ways to get much better single-cup coffee in a breakroom while keeping, and even enhancing, your company’s commitment to the environment.
