Innovative Sydney-based coffee roaster, wholesaler and café group Single O announces it will achieve carbon neutral* status in time for Earth Day, April 22. Single O will relaunch its ‘No Death to Coffee Month’ initiative as part of a long-term goal to achieve net zero**, rallying customers and the wider industry to take part in a range of ‘Missions against Emissions’ to curb the trend towards a 60% reduction in the world’s Arabica coffee supply by 2050.
Single O’s ‘Missions against Emissions’ (April 22 to May 14):
● On Earth Day (April 22) Single O will partner with Three Blue Ducks, to ban single use cups across their venues for the day (including Three Blue Ducks venues in Melbourne, Nimbo Fork Lodge, The Farm in Byron Bay, Bronte and Rosebery in Sydney). The first 10 customers in each location will receive a free reusable cup, with Single O also offering extra ceramics (with seconds supplied by Mud Australia), its Loan-A-Mug program and Standing Bar to help customers enjoy their cup of coffee, sustainably. The initiative aims to inspire an additional 50 cafés to take part, which could remove 10,000 cups from the waste stream in a single day. As a call to arms for the wider industry, 66,900 tonnes of carbon could be saved if Australia’s 20,000 cafés took part for a single year (the equivalent of removing 4,549 passenger vehicles from the road, or 2.8 million trash bags of waste recycled instead of landfilled).
● Single O will launch a new blend Stone’s Throw – its “Missions against Emissions blend” (with beans from Sumatra, Papua New Guinea and Byron Bay, Australia), sporting 50% fewer shipping emissions than a typical Single O blend, further offsetting delivery from the farm to customers’ doors (launches April 23). This is not a declaration to stop shipping from afar, as Single O will continue to work with and support growers in Central America and Africa. Regionally though, quality initiatives are giving rise to more diverse and delicious profiles and this blend was an experiment to see how Single O could impact the emissions through its composition.
● Single O’s Surry Hills café will also introduce a range of plant-based dishes for vegan customers and those looking to experiment with more meat-free meals (a vegan diet is reported by Oxford University as the ‘single biggest way’ to reduce an individual’s carbon footprint, with an average reduction of 73%). Single O will also reduce the price of plant-based milks to match dairy [a 50c discount at all Single O cafes] from May 1–May 14).
“Single O is now carbon neutral and we’re absolutely stoked with that, but the fact is, our carbon footprint still sucks. Like most businesses, we still have a footprint the size of an army boot,” says Single O General Manager, Mike Brabant. “Our long-term goal is to achieve net zero status. Not only is that important in the context of a climate emergency, but carbon is threatening coffee and we’re certainly not taking that lightly either. In fact, according to the Climate Institute, over 60% of Arabica could disappear by 2050 – for us that means war! Our ‘missions against emissions’ have been created as a call to arms for ourselves, our customers and the wider industry to think about the journey our morning coffee goes on before it reaches our cup. We make subconscious decisions every day beyond just “extra hot, one sugar” that are all important in the context of a climate emergency, and these ‘missions against emissions’ are really about getting us to approach those choices consciously.”
For more information and to get behind Missions against Emissions, head to singleo.com.au/nodeathtocoffee
*https://perfectdailygrind.com/2019/01/australian-coffee-trends-in-2018-whats-brewing-in-2019/
**https://www.climateactive.org.au/sites/default/files/2019-11/Public Disclosure Summary 2018_4.pdf
***https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
Image credit: Alana Dimou