Reduce Waste At your Coffee Shop

In America we love our coffee and because of the abundance of coffee shops we can now pick up some quality blends and try many exciting variations without the need to purchase a complicated espresso machine or milk steamer, coffee bean grinder or tea infuser.

Although these Coffee shops are great for our coffee habits, there is a large cost associated with our visits. Beside the obvious financial cost of some of the fancier named coffee concoctions there is a very large environmental cost.

Coffee shops generally serve their brew in hard to recycle paper cups. A good estimate is that Americans throw away 18 billion paper cups every year. Paper and cardboard make up over 40% of the solid waste buried in North American landfills. Of that 40%, a disproportionate amount, is attributable to disposable coffee cups. Add to this waste the plastic lids and straws and cardboard sleeves that many of us use on our paper coffee cups whether we need them or not.

Luckily there are some very easy ways in which we can reduce our waste at coffee shops.
The best way to reduce this waste is to get a reusable mug or travel mug. Travel mugs tend to be better because they come with a lid in case you want to take them in the car and avoid spills and because they are insulated, which means your coffee will stay hot longer. Here are a few tips for using your reusable mug at the coffee shop:

1. Create a personalized travel mug that you will really like. Adding photographs and your name to your travel mug makes it stand out and you will want to use it more often.
2. Bring your Travel Mug with you. It will be of no use if you leave it at home.
3. Know how much liquid your mug can hold. At most coffee shops 12oz. is a Tall or Small, 16oz. is Grande or Medium and 20oz. is a Venti or Large.
4. Order the size drink you want that will fit in your mug. Sometimes you can get lucky and the barrista will fill up your 16oz. mug even if you only ordered a small or tall.
5. Order your drink type specifically and make sure that the barrista does not use a paper cup to write the order on. If you regularly enjoy the same drink get a reusable mug that describes your specific drink order on it and then point your barrista to this description.
6. Unscrew the top of the travel mug before handing your mug over. Keep the lid with you and replace it once you get your drink back.
7. Add your milk and sugar to your cup first before handing it over to the barrista. In this way you will eliminate the waste caused by spilling, if you add these later to an already full mug.
8. Ask the barrista what discount they offer for bringing in your own mug. Some coffee shops offer discounts as high as 30%. Don’t make this your reason for bringing in a reusable mug, just be pleased with yourself for helping to reduce the waste.

If you forget to bring in your travel mug then there are still a number of ways you can reduce waste during your coffee shop visit.

1. If you intend to sit in the coffee shop and enjoy your drink, you do not need a plastic lid. If you do need to take your coffee on the go then hopefully next time you will remember your reusable travel mug.
2. If you should spill any coffee on the counter top, do not use napkins to wipe it up. Ask the barrista for a rag to wipe up the spill.
3. The cardboard collar, meant for hot drinks, can also add to the waste. If you do not need one then do not take one.

Some estimates suggest that if we all use reusable mugs at one of the large chain coffee shops instead of their paper cups we would save more than 1 million tons of wood, 2 billion pounds of carbon dioxide, and 4 billion gallons of water every year. That’s the equivalent carbon dioxide reduction of keeping almost 800 000 cars off the road for at least 3 days.

So get a travel mug and persuade everyone you know to do the same. Make a difference, reduce the waste, get some discounts at coffee shops and feel good about yourself. Make the switch to a reusable travel mug today.

Contact us at support@gogreenmug.com or 714-345-1101, to personalize a mug or mugs for yourself or your business.

Everyday Tips for Combating Climate Change

Welcome, GoGreenMug Green News readers! This week, we'd like to discuss some easy-to-implement ideas for ways you can combat climate change.

Climate change affects habitats, wildlife, and people around the world. While some changes occur as a result of natural weather patterns, others can be directly linked to human activities. There is no question that the development of technology has advanced our capabilities exponentially over the past 150 years; unfortunately, some of that technology has had negative impacts on the environment, too. So now that we're aware of some of these impacts, it's our responsibility to our planet and future generations to take action. Many companies are devoting resources to designing cleaner and more efficient technologies to replace older equipment. But as individuals, there are many things we can change that will have a cumulative effect, as well. Some of these actions include:

1. Using compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) around the house - at least on commonly-used light fixtures, if not on all of them. The first few generations of CFLs weren't excellent; they took a while to warm up, and sometimes weren't that bright. But the technology has gotten a lot better, and there are many high quality options to choose from now.


2. Reducing the temperature setting on the water heater to "Warm" or 120 F. Especially during the summer months, your water will naturally be a little warmer, and things take less time to dry in the warmer weather (e.g., dishes, laundry).


3. Adjusting thermostat settings - during the summer months, increase the temperature a little, and if you have a programmable thermostat, remember to set it to turn off during the hours no one is at home. During the cooler months, decrease the temperature setting, and turn it off when no one is at home or when everyone is asleep.


4. Checking the showerheads - replace any showheads that use more than 2.5 gallons/minute with low-flow models.


5. Completely turning off appliances not in use. This means not only flipping the power switch on items such as tv's and audio equipment, since these usually have standby mode that continues to draw power. Turning off standby mode requires unplugging the device. As this is a little inconvenient, an easier way to implement this strategy is to connect multiple devices to an outlet strip; this way, you just have to flip the switch on the strip, and you're done. And if you use a surge protector rather than just an outlet strip, you'll have the added protection against voltage surges when the equipment is powered.


6. Checking that your vehicle's tires are properly inflated.


7. Using a resuable mug each time you get a drink, rather than using a single-use disposable cup. GoGreenMug.com is offering all mugs and gift certificates for only $14.99 this month.

We hope you will be able to make some of these minor changes to your lifestyles, in order to reduce your impact on the environment. All of these suggestions will also save you a good deal of money, as well. Have a great week, and if you have any other suggestions you'd like to share with the group, please submit a comment!

~Your friends at GoGreenMug

State Parks on the 4th of July

On July 4 every year, Americans celebrate Independence day. This falls almost bang in the middle of summer which means most people enjoy the day barbecuing, going to the beach or pool and in many cases camping out for the weekend.

This year we joined many others, camping at Leo Carrillo State beach park in Malibu, California. This is one of the beaches and parks slated to be closed should the State of California stops funding the parks, which they are proposing to do in order to cut their deficit.

As I was checking in to our camp site I was interviewed by KTLA news (a Los Angeles news channel) about the possible closure of the State Parks. I have talked about the State parks closing in a previous post (Saving California's State Parks) and that from our understanding the State may actually lose out on tax revenue by not funding the parks. I put this across to the interviewer and hope that I was able to make an impression.

The interview reminded me that we need to be vigilant and active to ensure we can continue to enjoy our environment and pass on this enjoyment to our children.

• We need to go out camping and make use of our State Parks.
• We need to join in at beach clean ups and similar environmental clean up opportunities.
• We need to let our selected Representatives, Senators and Congressman, both Federal and State, know that we support strong laws protecting the environment and reducing carbon outputs.
• We need to reduce our own waste in whatever ways we can.

Back to the weekend - we enjoyed a few days surfing, barbecuing and hanging out with friends on the California beaches. The camp site was full, which hopefully means the park was able to raise enough of its own revenue to support itself this long weekend. We hope that next year the state beaches, such as Leo Carrillo will still be open and that we can enjoy more of these fun occasions and not just on the 4th of July weekend. We have bought our annual state park pass, which means we feel confident that California's congress will understand the importance of the parks and keep funding them and gaining the tax revenue that the parks bring in.

At the beginning of July GoGreenMug.com linked with http://smart2begreen.com/ because we have been enjoying their website and articles for a while now. Please visit their site to find some green living tips.

The Case for Raising the Fuel Efficiency of Cars

Last week President Obama announced an agreement between the White House, Environmentalists and the auto industry to increase the average fuel efficiency of passenger cars to 39 mpg. Unfortunately this cannot become the standard overnight or within the next year and the car manufacturers will have until 2016 to meet this standard. None the less it is a great achievement and proves that those of us who care about our environment now have a strong supporter in the White House.

There are always those who will find fault with a policy such as raising the fuel efficiency standards. One that particularly concerns us, suggests that consumers will prefer to buy gas guzzling cars as long as the price of fuel remains in the $2 to $3 range. Therefore although the car manufacturers will build fuel efficient hybrids and electric vehicles, the consumer will still want to buy large V8 SUVs.

We believe most people understand the need for increased fuel efficiency vehicles both for the environment and for economic, political and international stability and will buy more fuel efficient cars, when there is a large selection available. For those who do not buy into the reduce waste and save idea, the US government can always increase taxes on fuel (the US driver still pays less for gas than in most other developed nations) and pay off some of the US national debt.
Let's take a step back here though. The reason we want and need fuel efficient and zero emission cars is not only based on the price of gas at the pump. We all know that right now the Hybrid and Electric cars sell at a premium to their all gas counterparts and there are concerns that the car prices will skyrocket with the fuel efficiency standards. But we are already seeing that new hybrids are causing competition and reducing prices and we imagine that with more hybrids and electric vehicles on offer and increased competition from different car manufacturers the price of a fuel efficient vehicle will not be too different from those of a less efficient vehicle today.

At http://www.gogreenmug.com/ we are all about reducing waste. So what is important to us is that all cars will have better fuel efficiency by 2016 and competition will take care of the prices. Remember though that there are already many cars available that get more than the proposed 2016 standard of 39 mpg. So if you plan to buy a new car before then look out for those with the best Environmental Performance ratings (discussed in a previous post http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/03/buying-environmentally-clean-car.html), there is no need to wait.

Have a great week and reduce your waste.

Reduce Waste - Win a Free Travel Mug!

On a recent visit to our local coffee shop we were once again astounded that we were the only customers using our own travel mugs. Yes that's right, of the 12 - 15 other customers enjoying their coffee drinks at the tables, all of them were using paper cups and many had plastic lids and cardboard sleeves too.

At GoGreenMug.com we are concerned with the number of paper cups, plastic lids and other coffee shop waste that ends up in our landfills. The simple solution is to bring and use your own travel mug at coffee shops. It's time to step up our efforts.

We will be giving away one free personalized travel mug (100% free, shipping included) each week over the next few weeks to promote the use of travel mugs.

All you need to do is visit http://www.gogreenmug.com and design your own personalized travel mug. Add your name, drink options or any other text, photograph and quote. At checkout enter the coupon code: xjumnw1 to see if you have won.


The coupon code will be activated at a random time between the first posting of this blog and Sunday May 17th at 5:00PM.
If the coupon code works then you are the winner for the week. If the code does not work you will get the error message "The coupon code you have entered has expired." If you get this message, the coupon code has either not yet been randomly activated (so you can keep trying this code until the contest expires) or the free mug has already been won for this week.


We will be sending out a new code next week for another free giveaway or you can use coupon code: flwmiblg to receive an immediate 20% discount. Depending on your web browser, your designed mug may be saved for your next visit if you do not checkout.

Rules: The free mug coupon code will be made active at a random time during the period from the posting of this blog until Sunday May 17th at 5:00PM PST. The first customer to try the coupon code therefore may not win. The first customer to use the coupon code correctly once it is active will be the winner. This decision is final. Shipping to the USA and Canada only. We will contact the winner and request a photograph with his/her personalized Go Green travel mug and permission to post his her name on this blog. This coupon is only redeemable for a travel mug on GoGreenMug.com, and has no cash value.

Carbon Credits - Is this really being "green"?

As businesses are being persuaded to go greener, one option available to some is to purchase carbon credits. By purchasing these credits, a business is not required to make significant changes to its processes in the immediate future, but rather, simply provides financial support either to businesses that exceed the government's environmental standards (and thus, have extra carbon credits they can sell), or to groups that promote conservation of the Earth's natural resources.

At first glance, it may seem that giving businesses the option to purchase credits is simply allowing them to put off ever making changes themselves. Should this option be considered a satisfactory way for them to meet the ever-increasing environmental requirements? The answer is - it's not too bad (at least for now). According to The Nature Conservatory, funding projects that prevent forest destruction is currently one of the most cost-effective ways to battle climate change. As discussed in one of our earlier blogs http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/02/deforestation-and-coffee-cups.html , deforestation accounts for a significant portion of the Earth's greenhouse gasses. And since the majority of deforestation occurs in other parts of the world, American businesses can get quite a "bang for their buck" when funding these preservation efforts.

So while businesses will ultimately need to make significant changes to their processes in order to have a neutral or positive effect on the planet, funding forest preservation and other environmental projects is a cost-effective way for them to handle the transition as cleaner technologies and processes are developed.

The Nature Conservatory is sponsoring conferences in Denver, Atlanta, and Nashville in the upcoming weeks, to discuss these options to businesses in more detail.

We welcome any comments; if you have any thoughts on this or any of our other topics, please feel free to post them or visit our site http://www.gogreenmug.com/ to see more about us and send a message. Thanks!