Velodrome cycles through to sustainability

Waste not want not is a motto to live by and Velodrome Coffee Company is making an effort to live by that in every way possible. They are only a few months old, having opened in August of this year, and are already trying to implement sustainable and eco-friendly practices into what they do.

“So, we decided that it was best to not just talk about sustainability in coffee and how we buy our coffee and that sort of thing, but also to practice it in whatever way possible,” said Brice Sturmer, Owner of Velodrome Coffee Co.

By June of 2018 they hope to be completely waste–free and they are already starting by separating recyclables and counting the use of trash bags. In addition, the business is also educating the public by announcing monthly goals for number of trash bags used or recycling made.

They are even hoping to host workshops that will teach sustainability. Customers are also being asked to hold Velodrome accountable and continue to help in the goal to become completely sustainable.

“Because I feel like a lot of it is education for people. If you’re going to throw something away it’s a matter of keeping another bin and keeping it separate and it’s as easy as it can be so we’re just going to educate some people. Put on some workshops and that sort of thing,” commented Sturmer.

There are hopes for the future that this business may be self–sustainable which requires research, suggestions, and help from anyone who has similar aspirations to making the world a bit cleaner.

“And, like I said, our goal is to be trash free and to put in a lot of other practices, so that we’re not even producing any waste, so we want to get to sustainable packaging, a system of sustainable service vessels and everything like that,” he added.

This all started with a passion for the environment and the people that live within it. After seeing how damaging current practices are for waste management it was time to take action.

“Eventually we would like to get some solar power up here. We may even want to have our own compost situation where we are getting compost from other people and be able to make use of that. We want to look at other things as well as far as roasting goes. There’s some different matter that comes off the coffee called chaff and we’re trying to find different uses to make that into something. We do a lot to destroy our Earth in little ways and these are some small things we can do to lessen our impact and help our environment over all. One thing here at Velodrome is that we care about our customers, employees, the people we get our coffee from, we go and visit them, all across the world. That’s all important and stuff, but we have to realize that the main thing that connects us all together is living on this Earth and we all should be doing our part,” shared Sturmer.

So, much like a bicycle wheel the cycle of Earth and human life continues to move us forward but how long will the wheel keep turning if we don’t take better care of it.

To follow Velodrome’s progress of becoming more sustainable look to their website or Facebook page.