Blue State Coffee, on busy Thayer Street in Providence, was founded to be a socially responsible coffee company, selling freshly roasted organic and Fair Trade coffee. They are also eco-responsible, now offsetting all their electricity use with 100% wind power from People's Power & Light. The café has also completed a successful experiment to test a workable method to compost its coffee cups, on its way to a goal of running a “zero-waste” business.
 
“We pay extra for 100% wind power, but it turns out to be only the cost of one latte per day,” said Blue State Coffee manager, Alex Payson. “If one more person comes into the shop because we’re green, it’s worth it.” 

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Being green also pleases the core market of the Thayer Street café, which markets itself (as its name suggests) as a progressive-friendly hot spot. The café promotes progressive politics through events at the coffee shop, donations to causes (determined by the votes of customers), and a commitment to Fair Trade and environmental progress.
 
 “We’re thrilled that Blue State Coffee has chosen our 100% wind green power product for the café,” said People's Power & Light spokesperson, Karina Lutz. “Blue State understands and promotes our mission to make energy sustainable and affordable in Rhode Island—so it makes sense they’d choose a nonprofit source that is as local as possible, like New England Wind Fund.” Like People's Power & Light’s other green power product, New England GreenStart, New England Wind Fund only supports renewable resources connected to the New England electric grid. New England GreenStart is available to residential and small commercial electricity users who pay their own bills. But for larger electricity users and those who don’t pay their own bills, such as renters like Blue State, New England Wind Fund is the solution.
 
Brown University students, under the tutelage of Kurt Teichert, lecturer and manager of Environmental Stewardship Initiatives at Brown University, designed a zero-waste program for Blue State Coffee. Part of the plan is to phase in all compostable and biodegradable paper goods, such as the Eco Hot Cup coffee cups from Eco-Products  that the café currently uses. Composting is a way to turn food waste—such as coffee grounds and paper waste—back into humus, an essential component of healthy soil. “Composting is something everyone can do, and it’s almost as easy as signing up for green power,” said Teichert.
 
Working with RI’s Earth Care Farm, Blue State conducted a composting experiment—and found the paper products lived up to their promise: they can be made into a soil amendment suitable for organic farming. Once he finds a source for compostable cup lids, Payson intends to compost all the café’s waste. “Then Blue State Coffee will be the greenest café in the bluest state!” said Lutz.
 
“They are environmentally progressive—not just minimizing negative environmental impacts, but maximizing positive impacts,” added Teichert.
 
Blue State Coffee, is located at 300 Thayer Street, Providence, and on the web at www.bluestatecoffee.com. New England Wind Fund is available through the web at www.newenglandwind.org. New England GreenStart is available through www.ripower.org.

via: People's Power & Light