Gustavus Coffee Goes Green

The color of the coffee served in the Gustavus Marketplace this year will still be black, but it will also be green – as in environmentally responsible.

All coffee served in the Marketplace this year will be Tiny Footprint Coffee, which is roasted by Minneapolis-based Roastery 7, a wholesale supplier of artisan coffee beans from around the world.

Tiny Footprint Coffee is being marketed as the world’s first carbon-negative coffee. On average, it takes four pounds of carbon to make one pound of coffee. For every pound of its coffee purchased by businesses or schools like Gustavus, Tiny Footprint Coffee makes a contribution toward the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation in Ecuador to plant carbon-sucking trees that suck up 54 pounds of carbon from the environment.

In addition to sucking massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, the trees planted through the purchase of Tiny Footprint Coffee will serve an even larger purpose by helping to reclaim a large tract of Equadorian Cloudforest lost long ago to deforestation.

Gustavus is the first college or university in the country to establish a business partnership with Tiny Footprint Coffee.

“Tiny Footprint Coffee is exactly the type of socially and environmentally engaged enterprise that the Gustavus community embraces,” Director of Dining Service Steve Kjellgren said. “Understanding the implications of food and beverage choices and in turn, support of the industry behind them, is a great opportunity to reinforce and apply learning that takes place in our classrooms.”

Serving Tiny Footprint Coffee is not the only socially responsible initiative being implemented in the Marketplace this year. Kjellgren has also made a commitment to prepare and serve only cage-free eggs this year. The eggs will come from Minnesota and Wisconsin farms and are American Humane Certified. This means the farms follow strict guidelines in the care and well being of the laying hens. The hens are kept in an environment free of any type of cage system which provides them with room to engage in their natural behaviors.