I hear a lot about sustainability in the coffee industry, and much of that conversation is focused on negatives -- what we, collectively, aren't yet doing well. But I want to suggest that many of us already extend to our customers a profound and subtle invitation to sustainability simply by doing what we do.
Frankly, I get tired, worn down and mentally numb from hearing all the things I'm not supposed to do or buy or be because they aren't sustainable. Do I care? Yes, passionately, and that's exactly why I'm a victim of sustainability information overload. I think many of our customers, to varying degrees, feel the same way about the issue. Sustainability has become a buzzword, not only devoid of clear meaning, but ignored because it is over-used and usually associated with negatives -- green Thou Shalt Not's.
Here's where we can break through the clutter. Great coffee is not about what you don't get -- it's emphatically about what you do get. More importantly, a great coffee experience goes beyond the whole getting, consuming thing and offers customers a chance to stop buying for a moment and start savoring, enjoying and exploring again. Sustainability, I suspect, is ultimately about quality.
As rich westerners, it's about learning to value quality of experience, quality of life, quality of workmanship over quantity of stuff. As consumers, it's about realizing that quality experiences demand us to engage honestly with our baristas, and with those who stand behind them in the value chain as if we all had something to offer and something to gain from a great cup of coffee.
It's not about more information, really, because I will never know enough to be sure that the coffee I get is completely "sustainable," let alone the t-shirt I wear, my carpet, or broccoli. The problem with making sustainability mostly about more information is that I as a consumer (or as a coffee professional) already have too much information in my life.
What I need, and what I think most of us lack, is trust. Trust is the relational currency that backs a local cafe's rock solid standing with it's regulars. Trust calls me to value another person's opinion, effort and ideas because of who they are, not because I can check every single thing they do. This doesn't mean that information isn't important, it simply means that information transparency only really functions as it should within an atmosphere of trust.
I could say a lot more on this, but really all I want are more coffee experiences where I'm invited to have a cup of wonderful coffee and conversation and fewer coffees that come with their own sustainability mini-sermon. Thankfully, many of us do a good job at this already, and I think our very ability to offer a customer a chance to be a real human being for 10 minutes instead of a consuming automaton is a powerful act that gets at the very heart of "sustainability."
Frankly, I get tired, worn down and mentally numb from hearing all the things I'm not supposed to do or buy or be because they aren't sustainable. Do I care? Yes, passionately, and that's exactly why I'm a victim of sustainability information overload. I think many of our customers, to varying degrees, feel the same way about the issue. Sustainability has become a buzzword, not only devoid of clear meaning, but ignored because it is over-used and usually associated with negatives -- green Thou Shalt Not's.
Here's where we can break through the clutter. Great coffee is not about what you don't get -- it's emphatically about what you do get. More importantly, a great coffee experience goes beyond the whole getting, consuming thing and offers customers a chance to stop buying for a moment and start savoring, enjoying and exploring again. Sustainability, I suspect, is ultimately about quality.
As rich westerners, it's about learning to value quality of experience, quality of life, quality of workmanship over quantity of stuff. As consumers, it's about realizing that quality experiences demand us to engage honestly with our baristas, and with those who stand behind them in the value chain as if we all had something to offer and something to gain from a great cup of coffee.
It's not about more information, really, because I will never know enough to be sure that the coffee I get is completely "sustainable," let alone the t-shirt I wear, my carpet, or broccoli. The problem with making sustainability mostly about more information is that I as a consumer (or as a coffee professional) already have too much information in my life.
What I need, and what I think most of us lack, is trust. Trust is the relational currency that backs a local cafe's rock solid standing with it's regulars. Trust calls me to value another person's opinion, effort and ideas because of who they are, not because I can check every single thing they do. This doesn't mean that information isn't important, it simply means that information transparency only really functions as it should within an atmosphere of trust.
I could say a lot more on this, but really all I want are more coffee experiences where I'm invited to have a cup of wonderful coffee and conversation and fewer coffees that come with their own sustainability mini-sermon. Thankfully, many of us do a good job at this already, and I think our very ability to offer a customer a chance to be a real human being for 10 minutes instead of a consuming automaton is a powerful act that gets at the very heart of "sustainability."
 |
| A coffee farmer's hand in eastern Indonesia, near where I grew up. |
