Undergrad Club Grades Area Coffee Shops

Grading Area Coffee Shops

How green is your favorite coffee shop? The answer may surprise you. Members of the UO Net Impact Undergraduate student club recently released a report ranking the sustainability efforts of sixteen Eugene-area coffee purveyors.

Club members created a fifteen-question survey covering efforts in four broad categories: waste, water and energy usage, products sold, and social responsibility.

“There's more to sustainability than just recycling. It's moved beyond that," said accounting major Patrick Wrobel "15, the club's vice president of finance and operations.

After creating infographics to showcase the survey results, club members set up in the Erb Memorial Union lobby—and later in the atrium of the Lillis Business Complex—where they offered free coffee to passersby and asked them which shops seemed most sustainable.

Nicknamed “Coffee Survey 2.0" by club members, the survey expands the scope of a poll that was done last year and presented during the University of Oregon's 2013 Earth Day celebrations. This year's survey doubled the number of coffee shops interviewed from eight to sixteen. Club members will also follow up with the businesses in coming months to see if the survey prompted coffee spots to increase their sustainability efforts and whether the survey has brought an influx of new customers.

“The businesses we surveyed gave a lot to us by answering these questions, so we want to give something back to them," explained Wrobel.

The coffee survey will return to campus this April, when UO Net Impact Undergrad members set up a table in Lillis' Jubitz Atrium for Earth Week.

UO Net Impact Undergraduate is a chapter of the international Net Impact organization, a nonprofit inspiring, educating, and equipping individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world.