think one day without coffee is bad? climate change patterns aren’t just affecting the farmers who grow coffee as a way of living.  it’s affecting the countries exporting tons of coffee beans daily.  it’s affecting the coffee-loving customer who is seeing higher prices at the register.  it’s also impacting small coffee shops and the way they run their business in dc and across the country.

traditional coffee shops are now forced to adapt to earth’s changing chemistry, introducing innovative business models to combat climate change.  swings coffee, founded in 1916 as mesco by m.e. swings and his son, edward, is one of these shops.

when natalie and i visited the swings roasterin alexandria, virginia, the aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans welcomed us as we walked through the door.  even with climate change in full swing, swings owner mark warmuth maintains a coffee product with high quality and delicious taste.  his adaptation efforts include a renewed business model characterized by a changing seasonal menu.  this kind of model lets swings get beans under optimal weather conditions.  one week, customers may see beans from guatemala, the next, a dark roast from colombia.

swings, like many other shops, must also tackle the economics behind this issue.  although the increases are now minor, the price for a cup of coffee has gone up at many shops across the nation.  starbucks had a public freak out in october and lifted the prices on its drinks.

seeing how climate change affects the local coffee business brings climate change to the fore.  it’s not just causing glaciers to melt or summers to be warmer.  it’s affecting americans right down to their cup of joe.

we talked to quadlogic controls corporation (qlc), based in new york city, which is a small business that produces these devices. smart meters are conduits that allow for communication between utilities and consumers. they enable customers to monitor their electricity usage in real time. smart meters make individuals and businesses responsible for the cost of electricity use, which can lead to smarter, greener, and more sustainable decisions.

our piece focuses on illuminating the ways in which blind energy usage contributes to overall habits of energy waste, and how empowering consumers with a means of literally itemizing their energy usage can reverse this effect.

– charles pulliam-moore and sayre swarztrauber

in 2005, new orleans’ levies failed to protect its residents from the force of hurricane katrina. while washington dc’s does not face the same level of threat from storms as new orleans, dc’s chief environmental official, christophe tulou, has devised a plan to protect the nation’s capital from storm damage. the flood wall is 9 ft tall and will protect the national mall and its monuments from storm surges.

natural disasters are supposed to happen in order for the earth to evolve. it is, indeed, a natural re-occurring process. global warming, however, is not. it is man-made and harms our planet we call home. climate is changing, sea levels are rising, and all the while our earth is becoming more vulnerable. how can we survive and minimize the damages that natural disasters and global warming induce. by adapting to the walls of the future! flood walls can help prevent or pacify the destruction that flooding has on the environment while being one with nature. sometimes battling with nature is not the answer and adapting is. the future holds great promise so adapting to our environment as well as sustaining our planet is the first step.

you drive to a restaurant, you wait for a table, you sit down at the table, you look at the menu, you order, your food arrive and you eat. little did you know but the activity of dining requires a lot of energy and excess amounts of oil. yes, oil. it’s an obvious fact that you are using up energy when driving to the restaurant, but it is not so obvious when you’re indulging in a sirloin steak. many restaurants are becoming more energy conscious and are taking initiative, by the simple act of giving up their vegetable oil waste! now you may ask, what good is left over vegetable oil? well for starters, chefs use a ton of oil to cook with and they need to dispose of the waste. the problem is you simply cannot throw that amount of excess oil away and you can’t wash it down the drain either.

this is where the greenlight biofuels company comes in. employees of greenlight schedule a routine pick-up with restaurants. the employee physically comes and extracts the container of oil (which range from 100 to 400 gallons). the oil is then transported to their facility in prince ann, maryland. this is where their machines convert the oil into biofuel. biodiesel is a renewable substitute fuel for diesel engines. many states have issued a mandate to make use of biodiesel. cars and buses can run on this alternative energy source. so the next time you are eating a sirloin steak, remember that the oil the chef used to prepare your meat with, is actually the fuel that is powering your car!

video produced by – jordan petitt and samantha lafer of team #thinkfwd

but while we may appreciate all of these things, how much do people actually know about the roofs over their heads and the water from their sinks and showerheads?

over the summer a local company, skyline innovations, teamed up with the george washington university and installed three solar thermal systems on the roofs of gw’s residence halls ivory tower, building jj and 1959 e street.

we spoke to sophie waskow from gw’s office of sustainability and zach axelrod, the ceo of skyline, and got some more information about the water a good portion of gw student’s use when they take showers and do their laundry. the process developed by the team at skyline makes it so that the water heater that would typical be of use to obtain hot water doesn’t even need to be turned on!

skyline innovations installed the systems at no cost to the university and charges them for hot water at a discounted rate. skyline has installed the system on other d.c. buildings and is currently expanding the business across the nation.

-samantha stone and jason calabretta

at first when my partner and i set out to do this project, we thought our innovation was the fact that a local brewery, dc brau, reused their waste by paying farmers to take it to their farms and feed it to their livestock. we later found out that this has been going on for ages.

anheuser-busch, the owner of global industry leading beers such as budweiser and stella artois, has been recycling their beer waste since 1899! and that’s not all — as the recent craft beer movement has been expanding, so have sustainability initiatives of these small companies.

many of these breweries use wind and solar power to power their electricity, and one, alaskan brewing co. even catches and cleans its co2 emissions. many of these smaller breweries release annual sustainability reports as well as a means to show the public about their efforts.

so what’s the best part about all of these local companies giving back to our planet? we think it’s the concept itself and the potential it holds for future companies. but if you want to know more, you’ll have to check out our video and tell us what you think!

cheers!

-jen wolfe & melissa turley

looking to keep track of team thinkfwd?

team thinkfwd is a group of fifteen students from frank sesno’s class at the george washington university. see all of their videos here: visit the member page

looking to keep track of team thinkfwd?

team thinkfwd is a group of fifteen students from frank sesno’s class at the george washington university. see all of their videos here: visit the member page

most people don’t know that when you buy a bottle of water, the water accounts for only about $0.04 of the total cost. the rest of the cost of bottled water goes towards the packaging and transportation fees.

statistics show that coke — which produces the bottled water dasani — and pepsi — which produces aquafina — are responsible for 24 percent of u.s. bottled water purchases. these companies also allegedly just fill their extremely well marketed bottles with the very water we can get for free each day — tap water.

and it’s not just these brands that are accused of such travesties, these just so happen to be the big names. many brands including the most popular, poland spring, are believed to just be tap water hiding in a shiny plastic costume.

americans consume roughly 90 bottles a year per person. that translates to 28 billion water bottles per year as a nation which costs roughly $15 billion out of american’s pockets and only 24 percent of these actually get recycled.

approximately 8 out of every 10 plastic water bottles purchased ends up in a landfill after use and only about 13 percent are recycled. many of these bottles can be reused at least a few more times without any risk to health, however due to convenience and the availability of water in the u.s. this rarely happens.

the leading cause for purchasing bottled water is that people are so often in a rush and don’t think about carrying a re-usable water bottle. next time, take a little extra time before running out the door and try carrying something with you that will keep the money in your pocket and the plastic out of the landfills.

make a change. #thinkfwd.

-jen wolfe & melissa turley

looking to keep track of team thinkfwd?

team thinkfwd is a group of fifteen students from frank sesno’s class at the george washington university. see all of their videos here: visit the member page