http://www.nwfecoleaders.org/forms/item/54/709

Campus, Community

First, reduce the amount of used coffee grounds being dumped into the landfill. This is achieved by recycling used grounds, which are a by-product of the café’s daily operation. Second, reduce the amount of harmful emissions into the environment. As the coffee grounds decompose in a landfill, they omit harmful greenhouse gases. By finding ways to repurpose the grounds, our cafe is helping to limit our carbon footprint. Finally, our team works to educate individuals around our campus on ways to reuse the grounds. Since our used grounds are free, we make sure to keep our customers aware of how they can help us benefit our business and our ecosystem. This is achieved by educating them on how it can be used as natural fertilizers, instructions on how to create DIY face scrubs and participating in college programs to educate our campus and local community.

Advocacy, Communications/Marketing, Education, Financing, Operations, Policy

All three of our goals were accomplished through repackaging the used coffee grounds. For the first goal, our cafe offers small packages of used grounds to the MC community for free. We have implemented procedures into our daily operations to prepare and distribute the used grounds on a daily basis. To measure our project we use a log to record turnover rates of the grounds. Based on these measurements, in the 2019-2020 academic year, we have recycled 2473.59 pounds of used coffee grounds. This in turn, achieves our first and second goal of reducing the amount of grounds entering landfills and lowering the cafe’s emissions. For the last goal, our team has promoted these grounds through campus-wide events such as our Raptor Tank Business Pitch Competition, and our Take Your Child to Work Day. We also have a social media account that informs customers on how to recuse the grounds.

Other

We reduced waste from consumption. We measure our success by tracking the number of bags of grounds processed and distributed in our community. We use a daily log to record this information.

The MBI Café opened its doors in 2003, but the Grounds to Grounds project began in the Fall of 2018. We plan to continue and expand our project to a second location, which would further reduce our ecological footprint.

Some challenges that we face in this project include: a transition of leadership, distributing all of the coffee grounds, and equipment maintenance. The Macklin Business Program is a two-year honors program, which means there is a high turnover rate of students. Each student is educated on the process of properly packaging grounds, but often this is difficult to train during operations. To combat this issue, we have created a video training program to help teach incoming students. Since our cafe is located on the Montgomery College Rockville campus many of the customers picking up the grounds are affiliated with the school. We find that during months of slow operation and COVID 19, it has prevented us from recycling grounds. In response, we have planned new avenues for distributing coffee grounds to our community. Once we can reopen the cafe, our team will be able to recycle more grounds during our slow seasons. This project requires supplies, such as plastic bags, labels, and a sealing machine. Occasionally while packaging the grounds, the sealing machine breaks down, which makes it difficult to continue our project. To maintain a longer storage life, the grounds need to be packed in an airtight container. To ensure that we can continue with our project, we have purchased a backup sealing machine and educating our members on proper maintenance.

Our project has been successful because of our cafe employees, students within MBI, MBI faculty members, and those in our community who have taken a bag of used grounds. Inside of the cafe we make sure our grounds are placed in a designated bin for the program members to pack and recycle. Our program members would package and date the grounds for them to be distributed to the staff and students in our community. We then rely on customers to take a bag for repurposing. With support from MBI faculty members, we are able to promote the grounds at school-wide events.

There is no expense for the coffee grounds because they are a byproduct of our products. Meaning these grounds are a​ continuous result of our daily operations. The supplies needed to package the grounds, such as sealing bags, are funded through cafe operations. The task for obtaining used coffee grounds has been integrated into our operations in the cafe as all used coffee grounds are thrown in a separate bin and stored in a refrigerated section.

We use our social media platform, digital menu boards, and informational displays at the cafe to spread awareness about our efforts in reducing ground waste and protecting the environment. These promotions encourage customers to take a bag or be more aware of their waste and possible ways to decrease the damage they are having on the environment. On our social media, we post different uses for reusing the grounds and provide educational facts about the impact of coffee grounds on our environment. The informational board is located at the cafe, where the bags are distributed for the taking. Our board summarizes the goals and benefits of our initiative. While informing customers on ways to reuse the grounds. We make sure to label all of our grounds and include on the board that the grounds are free and are not consumable goods. Behind the counter, our employees are trained to promote the grounds while we have a slide show menu board describing similar information, seen on the informational board. Another way we have promoted our project is by participating in a college-sponsored program. For example, during the college’s Take your Son and Daughter to Work Day, we conducted an activity that taught elementary school children about how they can make small choices to reduce their waste in the environment. During this activity, they learned how to seal and package recycled grounds, which they took home to be used in their gardens.

Group reflection, Statistical analysis and review

Revised goals, Communicated your project results through a blog or other media, Presented your project results at a conference or meeting, Added new team members with different expertise

One of the biggest things that we learned from the project was, many customers appreciated our actions to be an environmentally conscious business. Our community wanted to help our business grow because of our actions. We have received personal feedback from customers informing us about their continuous support for environmentally responsible business, like us. From this, our team has continued to look for new ways to make our business more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

For those who are working on a similar project, our advice would be to keep proper maintenance of your sealing machine and to purchase two good quality sealing machines in case one of the machines malfunctions. We also recommend being strategic on advertisements and placement of the grounds, to make sure people are informed about the project and that the bags of used grounds are free to take. In order for this project to work, strong and comprehensive training policies are required so we suggest making a training video that allows everyone to review at their own leisure.

Our project has been sustainable because waste is a by-product of our cafe operations. We do not have to outsource or purchase grounds for this project, which decreases our expenses. The main expense for the initiative, which is funded by the cafe, is the supplies to package the grounds for distribution. As we expand into our second location we plan to distribute more grounds to our community and decrease our carbon footprint. And we plan to improve our marketing and our presence within the community to further spread awareness about the Grounds to Grounds Project, in hopes to distribute more recycled grounds. There are several ways we plan to achieve these goals which the following are listed: Continue to collaborate at college events. Hold demonstrations on how to use the coffee grounds. Develop a strategic email list to place an order, increase communications with past customers. Expand our Grounds to Grounds project to our second location which starts in Fall 2020 Overall, we hope to inspire other businesses to take similar actions that benefit the environment.