Author: Cindy Tickle

Panera Bread opened its first non-profit cafe with the motto: Take what you need; leave your fair share.

I was surprised to read about Panera Bread’s new cafe in St. Louis dubbed the St. Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe. The concept is simple yet groundbreaking… take whatever you want to eat or drink and instead of paying a cashier, drop whatever you can afford into a donation box. And if you don’t have any money, you can donate your time. Crazy concept, I know.

According to a great article in USA Today, Ron Shaich, who stepped down as Panera’s CEO last week, is “trying to find out what human nature is all about” and is banking on our humanity. He said he’s dreamed about doing something like this for years. So the question is will Panera’s social experiment prove that goodness does exist in the human condition or that we are fundamentally selfish creatures at heart?

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Starbucks invites you to join a live online conversation about the company’s efforts to make its cups recyclable.

Imagine… you’re in a Starbucks enjoying your double tall, soy latte and chatting with a close friend. You finish your beverage, and get up to throw away your soiled paper cup. But there is no recycling bin. You feel guilty just tossing your cup into the trash so it ends up in some landfill some where. Doesn’t Starbucks know that 58 billion paper coffee cups are thrown away, unrecycled, each year? The company continues to promote its environmental initiatives so where are the recycling bins in the stores? It seems pretty simple to me or am I missing something?

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30 Greenpeace activists dressed as orang-utans urged Nestlé shareholders to “give orang-utans a break” and stop profiting from rainforest destruction.

Seriously – you gotta love Greenpeace. I wrote about the NGO’s creativity in an earlier post about sustainable seafood at Trader Joe’s. And now, they did it again. I mean, who else would dress up as orang-utans to attend Nestlé’s Annual General Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland? The activists certainly got the attention of shareholders, Nestlé executives and the media. Some plain-clothed activists even got inside the AGM and dropped banners from the rafters. So what does Nestlé have to do with roaming, homeless orang-utans? According to Greenpeace… a lot.

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At least a dozen global food companies collaborate toward practical, cost effective solutions to reduce the climate impact of specific farming systems.

I happen to be a fan of the Sustainable Food Lab, which is a group of businesses, NGOs and academic institutions working together to accelerate the shift toward sustainable agriculture.  I respect the group’s collaborative approach and believe it should be emulated across other sectors. As I heard someone say at Fortune’s recent Brainstorm Green conference, “Sustainability is a team sport.” Absolutely!

On that happy note, the Sustainable Food Lab (SFL) and the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform announced Wednesday the launch of a comprehensive global climate project to evaluate the greenhouse gas footprint of specific farming systems. The goal is to empower food companies to engage with farmers in their supply chain in an effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions and provide solutions needed to address the environmental impacts of farming.

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On April 15, bring a reusable travel mug into your local Starbucks and get a free brewed coffee.

When you hear the date April 15 what comes to mind? Taxes, taxes and more taxes. Well, how about a free cup of coffee? Sounds too good to be true. There must be a catch, right? What if I told you the “catch” was actually good for the environment? Yes, it’s true. Starbucks Coffee Company will give you a free brewed coffee if you bring in a reusable tumbler or travel mug on Tax Day, April 15.

Starbucks has an important environmental goal to reach – 100% of its cups will be recyclable or reusable by 2015. But the coffee giant knew it couldn’t go it alone so Starbucks asked its loyal customers to join in the global movement, “One person can save trees, together we can save forests.” It’s a win-win-win situation… good for your pocketbook, good for Starbucks, and good for the planet.

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Trader Joe's will offer only sustainable seafood by the end of 2012.

Greenpeace successfully targets Trader Joe’s and convinces the supermarket chain to adopt sustainable seafood practices by the end 2010.

I have to admit the folks at Greenpeace are quite effective, resourceful, and clever. The NGO challenged a popular supermarket chain known for its organic, healthy food offerings. Trader Joe’s has positioned itself as the “neighborhood grocery store” and an eco-friendly company. So why did Greenpeace target this “green” company with one of its campaigns? Greenpeace believed there was something fishy about Trader Joe’s seafood procurement practices. And the environmental activists were right.

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Betacup Challenge recruits designers to create a sustainable coffee cup

You have a chance to help create the perfect, sustainable coffee cup and win a piece of $20,000 through the Betacup Challenge.

Most of us enjoy a cup of java in the morning. And if you are anything like me, you typically get your coffee on the go. I make an effort to bring my coffee tumbler, but let’s be honest… I don’t always remember it, or I forget to wash it. Nothing ruins a great cup of coffee like day-old, crusty coffee residue at the bottom of my tumbler. Laden with guilt, I leave the coffee shop with a disposable, paper cup knowing all to well it will end up in some landfill somewhere.

Unfortunately, many coffee drinkers don’t realize that 58 billion paper coffee cups are thrown away, unrecycled, each year. Also, 20 million trees are cut down and approximately 12 billion gallons of water is used in the process of manufacturing paper cups. These fun facts are brought to you by the fine folks at Betacup who have decided to step up and do something about it.

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