Green initiative at Denver coffee shop

Last week, I wrote about a study out of the UK that identified an opportunity for coffee drinkers to reduce their carbon footprint by switching from drip-brewed coffee to the instant variety.  I said the study wouldn't change my coffee habits until I heard more, either to reinforce the findings or dispute them.  Recently however, I caught wind of an environmental initiative in a Denver coffee shop that I found very impressive.The Fluid Coffee Bar in Denver, Colorado took on an ambitious goal to encourage their patrons to stop using paper cups.  The goal was to keep 40,000 paper cups from going to landfill over the course of a year.  It started on January 1, 2009 and the goal was met at noon on December 30th.  Patrons were encouraged to enjoy their coffee in the shop in a ceramic mug that could be washed and re-used, or else to bring their own travel mugs and charged the same for the same amount of coffee.  At noon on the 30th, the 40,000th coffee was served in something other than a paper cup."The idea was to get people more focused on sustainability," said Nick Berry, employee of the Fluid Coffee Shop.The shop's owner, Jeff Aitken, wanted to raise awareness to promote environmental sustainability and show what just one shop could do.  Aitken says that 41 million paper coffee cups are thrown out each day by coffee shops around the world.  Aitken agreed to donate 5 cents for each paper cup saved from landfill and made good on a $2,000 personal donation to charity.I love this story!  I believe this is how you make a difference in the world, by showing what can be done at the smallest level and replicated across the world.  Good for Jeff, and unfortunate this story won't get more coverage because if any of the major chains took up the same challenge, the impact would be even greater and more coffee drinkers would understand what part they can play to reduce waste.