DENVER (KDVR) — A local coffee shop is serving up much more than lattes and pastries this month. Blue Sparrow Coffee has an in-depth sustainability report all the way down to its water bills.
Their coffee started in 2017, and then over the last two years, the sustainability really got going.
Food and beverage is a really interesting space to work on sustainability because it’s so customer driven. That’s where Blue Sparrow Coffee started, with the customer’s trash.
Now this year, they have a full gown of it on display to show off their sustainability report.
“The star of the sustainability report is this gown made by local designer Alejandro Gaeta. It’s made completely from products within the store. The bottom is made from pastry bags. The detail in the flower are to–go handles dipped in coffee. The dress is dyed with coffee and matcha powder. The dress is all single-use cups that were disposed of and cut up and then sewn into this beautiful gown.” said Sara Van Hatten, sustainability analyst for Mainspring.
All of Blue Sparrow’s work now makes them a Certified Green Business with the City of Denver, which is relatively rare for cities to offer a recognition program like this.
“We have this full report of data that’s very untraditional for a coffee shop to have. It’s going through the process of identifying your water, waste, and energy usage,” said Van Hatten. “We quarterly do a sustainability training with our baristas to ensure they are familiar with the work we are doing and why we are doing it.”
Last year, a lot of their work was in waste auditing – they literally dug through the trash to identify their top three contaminants to work on.
At the top, sugar packets.
“We now buy bulk sugar and make syrups instead and in glass bottles. It significantly reduces the waste because you’re no longer using single servings,” said Van Hatten.
Second, coffee cups.
They charge customers 10 cents for every cup they take out of the store, and that money is then used to keep the cost of alternative kinds of milk low.
“Alternative milks are traditionally much more expensive than cow milk but we want to ensure that the more sustainable option is kept affordable for individuals,” said Van Hatten.
And napkins.
“This year, we are hoping to work with our suppliers to create reusable and recyclable lower waste products that we hope will have a larger impact not only for us, but as the coffee industry as a whole,” said Van Hatten.
“So, no matter who is here and doing it, it doesn’t become optional. Baking sustainability into our DNA,” said Van Hatten.
For Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, Blue Sparrow will have interactive ways to check out the full sustainability report, and you can see the gown through the end of the month at their Platte Street location.