Green Cup
Green Cup
Green Mountain Coffee & Environmental Responsibility
In a time and age when 'environmentally responsible' has become the latest buzzword in marketing for many corporations, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters of Vermont is refreshingly different and sincere. For Green Mountain, social and environmental responsibility is not a trendy marketing move. It is a key concept that has been part of the company's core commitment and values from the time when it was housed in a tiny storefront café. The company considers itself a steward, responsible for helping to preserve the Earth's natural resources for future generations and their history of socially responsible business and corporate decisions reflect their commitment to making the world a better place for us all.
For 25 years, we have been on a deliberate journey to create and sustain a values-driven company that views profit as a means to achieve a higher purpose.
Thus begins Green Mountain Coffee Roaster's statement of corporate responsibility. That higher purpose is, simply stated, to leave the world a better place for having been here. Green Mountain has taken that commitment seriously, starting small and growing their responsibility to the planet as the company has grown. In an open letter written in 2006, Green Mountain president Bob Stiller talked about the evolution of that commitment, starting as early as 1983, when the little café in Rutland, Vermont decided that composting was a socially conscious decision - and the right thing to do. In 1984, the employees - less than ten at the time - began informally taking on environmental projects, including a recycling program. In 1986, Green Mountain introduced its first Organic coffee, and in 1989, the company's Environmental Committee developed Earth-Friendly coffee filters that are dioxin free.
Fair Trade and Sustainable Coffee
Over the years, Green Mountain and their corporate officers have made decisions in keeping with the company's overall mission. Each step on the path may have seemed small at the time, but each step has built on the ones that came before to make Green Mountain Coffee Roasters one of the most socially responsible companies in the world. In fact, Green Mountain has been named one of the Top 100 Most Socially Conscious Corporations by Business, Inc. for two years running. The company's production plant has been certified organic since 1997, and they remain committed to offering high quality, completely organically grown coffee as a major part of their offerings.
In addition to their commitment to organically grown coffee, Green Mountain supports sustainable coffee production methods as a member of Fair Trade associations. Currently, Green Mountain offers 45 different Fair Trade certified coffees, accounting for over 20% of their sales. By contrast, Green Mountain's largest competitor in the specialty coffee business, Starbucks, called itself Fair Trade friendly in 2001, when only 1% of the coffees that the company bought were Fair Trade certified. Five years later, Starbucks had only managed to increase the Fair Trade percentage of their coffee sales to 6%.
Fair Trade is important in the discussion of environmental responsibility because coffee growers who are certified with the Fair Trade label have made a commitment to using environmentally friendly and sustainable growing methods, despite the fact that those methods yield less coffee per acre. In return, they are guaranteed a price for their coffee beans that provides a fair wage for their labor. By committing their resources to buying Fair Trade certified coffees, Green Mountain essentially has put their money where their mouth is to support the most viable method of encouraging global change in the coffee market.
Responsible Energy Use, and More
Green Mountain does not confine its stewardship policies to coffee sourcing and production, though. The company's earliest efforts at being environmentally responsible were decisions to compost waste and recycle materials, and over the years, the corporation has continued to make responsible energy and conservation decisions. Green Mountain tries to use renewable energy sources when possible, and offsets their use of carbon fossil fuels by buying renewable energy credits from a variety of sources. Their efforts and purchases help support the development of alternative energy sources like the wind power technology being developed by Vermont's Native Energy company.
In a similar manner, Green Mountain's recognition that disposable Coffee Cups lead to increased solid waste led to the company's development of an eco-friendly disposable paper coffee cup. Unlike most coffee cups, which use petroleum products for water-proofing, the Green Mountain cups are made entirely of natural and renewable materials. Green Mountain estimates that their new cups have kept over half a million pounds of petrochemicals out of landfills so far. The accomplishment has been recognized by the Specialty Coffee Association of America, who awarded the 2007 Sustainability Award to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.
About the Author
About Author:
Stephanie Larkin is a freelance writer who writes about topics pertaining to the food and beverage industry such as Green Mountain Coffee
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Go Three Days Without Food But Never a Day Without Green Tea
Green tea became well known in China during the period of the Tang dynasty (AD 618907) and was quickly prized as a promoter of health and vitality. There's good evidence, however, that its many benefits had already been known to the elite for thousands of years by then. In fact legend tells of a stray camellia blossom, drifting on the breeze one day in 2737 BC, which found its way into the Emperor Shen Nung's steaming drinking water and quickly infused it with all the characteristic refreshment and invigoration we associate with green tea.
So renowned did the benefits of green tea become that detailed rules of etiquette for its correct consumption emerged, culminating in the publication of Lu Yu's "The Classic Art of Tea". This famous poet and Buddhist priest laid down strict procedures for the preparation and serving of the perfect cup of tea. The water had to come from a gently flowing stream and be combined with leaves in a fine porcelain cup. And the resulting brew of green tea was ideally to be drunk next to a lily pond in the company of a beautiful woman.
Not surprisingly, given this kind of marketing, the popularity of green tea spread rapidly throughout China in the centuries following the publication of Lu Yu's work. "Rather three days without food than a day without tea" became the saying, as news reached the remotest corners of the vast empire. Books and poems were composed in green tea's honour; Emperors gave particularly prized samples as gifts, and the teahouse became a familiar feature of countless cities, towns and villages.
So just what are the health benefits of drinking green tea? The Chinese knew it from earliest times as an aid to good digestion when consumed after a meal, stimulating the absorption of nutrients from food; and it's since also become known as a powerful anti-oxidant and detoxifying agent which can speed the flushing of toxins from the body. But there's far more to green tea than this.
Most importantly, leaves for green tea are steamed rather than fermented, preserving the vital Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) compound. EGCG is just one of a number of catechin polyphenols found in tea, but research suggests that it's a particularly powerful anti-oxidant, the presence of which makes green tea anything up to ten times more powerful than the more common fermented (black) teas.
In fact, today's Western science is increasingly confirming the health benefits long claimed for the consumption of green tea. And as amazing as it may seem, EGCG and related compounds in green tea appear directly to target the most common killer diseases often attributed to western affluence and diet. Some research, for example, has credited EGCG with the ability to reduce total levels of cholesterol whilst at the same time improving the ratio of "good" (HDL) cholesterol to "bad" (LDL) cholesterol; thereby helping to protect against both heart attacks and strokes - still two of the most frequent premature killers in the Western world.
Some exciting Swiss research published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in November 1999 also suggests that green tea may help with the increasing problem of obesity by prompting the body to burn fat at a significantly increased rate.
But perhaps most excitingly, there's now evidence that green tea may even help in tackling cancer. For example, in 1994 the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published the results of a study indicating that drinking green tea reduced the risk of oesophageal cancer in Chinese people by almost sixty percent. And University of Purdue researchers recently concluded that as few as four or five cups of green tea a day may provide enough EGCG to help retard the growth of tumours and this without apparent damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
Now if after reading all of the above you're just raring to add green tea to your daily dietary regime I wouldn't blame you at all. In fact I'd actively encourage you. But it's only fair to give you the whole picture. And that means pointing out that the consumption of large amounts of green tea could risk adding some caffeine to your normal intake.
Let me put this in perspective though. A standard six to eight ounce cup of green tea will contain between 30 and 60 milligrams of caffeine. A similar size cup of coffee will likely contain more than 100 milligrams. So just replace a couple of cups of your normal coffee intake with your recommended four to five cups of green tea and your caffeine intake's going to stay level. But if you want to eliminate caffeine entirely then caffeine-free green teas are now becoming readily available.
So you can enjoy all the benefits cited above without any of the possible side-effects of caffeine, and with ever increasing interest in the health promoting properties of green tea, new benefits are coming to light all the time. Already for example, the anti-oxidant (ie antiageing) qualities of the tea are being applied to the manufacture of skin care products.
These applications may still seem a little far-fetched to you right now, but in terms of your internal organism there's no longer any doubt that green tea is truly one of nature's great gifts - a very inexpensive but extremely valuable health booster.
About the Author
Steve Smith is a freelance copywriter specialising in direct marketing and with a particular interest in health products.
Find out more at
http://www.sisyphuspublicationsonline.com/LiquidNutrition/Information.htm