How to Drink Coffee Sustainably w. Almost No Work

Since C was born, our whole coffee life has changed. The second we woke up, my husband was making us French Press coffee (something we’d previously reserved for the weekends). 16 months in and we’re still doing French Press almost every morning. While our coffee setup might just be the most important part of our day, we also want to try to drink coffee sustainably. Luckily, our routine isn’t too bad!

The great thing about drinking coffee more sustainably is that you can pick up any one of these habits (and really not change your morning sip). And if you drink coffee every morning like we do, then it’ll be a good, long term change!

Between this and cutting back on food waste, I’m feeling pretty good about our kitchen changes!

How to Make Coffee more Sustainably

Everyone has their preferred at home coffee method. Over the years, I think we’ve tried it all: the classic pot, making it in a pour over, rocking the French Press life, and even using a Bialetti. Of all of these, the French Press and Bialetti require nothing disposable, so they’re obviously great options.

If you use a classic coffee pot or a pour over, then you might be going through single-use filters. You can switch out your disposable filters for an organic cotton filter for 2-4 cup pour overs, a stainless steel filter for large pour overs, one of these reusable filters for your coffee pot.

Coffee pod machines like Nespresso and Keurig are certainly not the most sustainable option, but I understand that life is sometimes only possible with these babies (and we have one, so no judgement at all). But make sure you’re doing the best you can with the pods after use.

Nespresso has a recycling program. You can add bags with a prepaid shipping label for free to any order. Send your used pods back to Nespresso where they recycle the aluminum and compost the group.

Keurig is also working to make their pods recyclable, though it certainly takes some work on your part. You can get the low down here on recycling your K-cups properly. But even better would be to use the Keurig reusable pod in which you use your own grounds!

Eco-Friendly Cups, Milk & Sugar

So we all know about using reusable mugs, tumblers, and straws by now! You can also use reusable sleeves to keep your fingers from burning (or freezing)!

Check out These Coffee Must-Haves!

As for the add-ins, bulk sugar rather than individual packets is better – to cut back on paper. And buying organic milk (we love Clover Sonoma products) and sugar is best. Plant-based milks are also better than dairy-milk, but everyone has their preferences here.

Sustainable Coffee

So this was probably the last change we made to drink coffee more sustainably. Our favorite coffee beans to have day after day are actually from Starbucks. We’re trying hard to mix in more local, more organic, and more fair trade beans between those, however.

We recently tried Sundream Coffee – a California based coffee roaster that delivers weekly-roasted coffee beans to your door!! They participate in 1% for the planet (businesses that donate 1% of sales to environmental organizations around the world), offer carbon neutral shipping, and use recycled paper. They also claim to remove trash from the ocean with every bag purchased, but I’m not quite sure how they do that.

Not knowing what the beans tasted like, I got the sampler trio to try them all out. Each of their coffees is bright, acidic, and not earthy at all. They also pack quite a punch in the morning!

So, I liked the Topaz, but my husband didn’t. He enjoyed the Terra, but it was NOT my cup of coffee. And we both enjoyed the Casa. So each of the beans is similar but yet certainly different!

Otherwise, we’ve been buying beans at our local coffee shops, including Chocolate Fish, Temple, Terranova, and Pachamama. Pachamama is Fair-Trade, organic, and tasty coffee and available in bulk at our local Co-Op. They also ship their coffees around the world, so you can order for your home too!

More commonly available, Stumptown Coffee Roasters is also a B Corp!

And if you’re craving one of those fancier coffee sips, try one of the homemade coffee recipes below…

However you decide to drink coffee more sustainably, just know that it’s pretty easy and small steps make big change in starting your day off on the right foot!

Cardamom Latte