Did you want cream and sugar with that?

Hi,

For a caffienated city like Vancouver, this change will have a big impact!

If you have the urge to stop by *$, then be sure to bring you mug to reduce paper consumption and save 10 cents.  Or, ask for a mug if you are planning to hang out in there. 

I hope that this helps. 

Hi there.

Some interesting stats on the waste that disposable coffee cups create:

Americans use 14.4 billion paper cups each year of which 1.9 billion come from Starbucks.

The 14.4 billion, in my friend Ruben's estimation (Ruben is my guru on all issues of sustainability), uses 560,000 trees. Over half a million trees per year, just to hold drinks for 15 minutes.

This site shows the savings of using 10% recycled fibre in Starbucks cups. The energy and water savings of not using a cup at all would likely be ten times greater.

Food and drink for thought...
Wm

I buy organic almost in many circumstances. I use environmentally safe cleaning products. I bring my lunch to work and sometimes when I get take out I do it in my own Tupperware. I use public transportation, I walk to work, I recycle, I am always turning off lights and putting on sweaters instead of cranking the heat. I use cloth shopping bags, tree-free toilet paper I find clever ways to use trash to make artwork and household gadgets. I even recycle the little cardboard thing-y that goes around the paper coffee-shop cup.

But the truth is that I love that paper cup. I love the feel of it - it really isn't the same to have a latte out of a steel cup. Sure, I'll drink plain tea out of my steel cup, but my latte has to be out of the paper cup. I wish it were different so I could escape the judgment I often feel about my paper cup use.

In frantic attempts at self-reform, I have purchased over 8 travel mugs in the past 2 years. Friends, desperate to change my evil ways have also bought me fancy cups (quite frankly, I think these people need another 'cause')

I think it's time to put my energy into changing something else. This is one of very few guilty pleasures of mine. I do a lot to make this world a better place, I think I'll pour my energy into something that has a better chance of success.

Well said Anonymous! It's really time we start putting our energy into 'picking our battles'. I remember going through a phase when I wanted to know every stat about how everything I was doing was killing the planet. In retrospect, it was a little like a moth flying into a candle, but it also a necessary part of the process of becoming really in touch with, or, almost in a spiritual sense - 'one with' the planet.

But it got to a point where I was spending almost all of my time/energy trying to avoid being part of the planet-killer statistics; going to truly ridiculous ends in order to reduce/reuse/recycle every single element of my life. And I wondered why I was going nuts, until I began to understand that the actual origins (and solutions) for what troubles our planet are found within.. NOT just in how we participate in our human 'systems', which is the bias that so much of the eco-culture is geared toward. And by 'within', I mean in self-understanding, self-awareness; understanding one's gifts and purpose, and allowing that purpose to express itself fully, in the world. (And ultimately, self-transcendance, which is actually the only place from which a truly 'sustainable' attitude can arise)

Sounds like there's just something about the 'experience' or the feel of a paper cup that inspires you to fight your important battles, so go for it, and thanks for all the other stuff you do to do your part!

Anonymous, I don't think you should get to enjoy your paper-cup latte free from the judgement of your friends.

In this case, you've made a conscious decision that your personal comfort & taste are more important than the impact that your actions have on the world around you (or at least, that's what it sounds like you've done, unless you're disputing the impact of the facts that William mentioned above). We live in a world where going the nice, friendly-for-everyone route of using a travel mug is pretty easy. You've chosen not to do that, and that's fine -- that's your prerogative. But you can't really expect others (especially your friends) to pretend like they support that choice when they don't.

And I think you're wrong that these friends should 'find another cause'. It's precisely these kinds of changes -- changes most of us can make reasonably easily -- that stand a chance of working. When your friends confront you about your use of paper cups, they're trying to tell you that they think you're acting recklessly, valuing the quality of your latte over the preservation of dwindling forests. Sure, they're being hypocrites -- we're all being hypocrites. But that doesn't change the nature of their objection, and it doesn't change the nature of your decision.

I'm not trying to say that you should use a travel mug, even though I do think that you should. What I'm trying to say is that I think it's important for you to be accountable for the decision that you've made. I understand that you 'do your part', and I think that's awesome. Really, I do. But all the karmic credit you've saved up from recycling your cans and shutting off the lights does absolutely nothing to help preserve the 560000 trees used each year for paper cups. The only thing that would help stop those particular trees from being made into paper cups is for us all to stop using paper cups. One way we can all help out is by using travel mugs. And you've decided not to do that. Like I said before, that's okay, but I do think it's fair for your friends to judge the integrity of that decision.

Well if it's okay to judge, allow me to judge the original poster on your behalf: Ms. 573ph4n13, how can you feel good about yourself using soy, you do know that 100% of soy is genetically-modified right? You can do you part avoiding dairy all you want, but it does absolutely nothing to address the GM soy issue..

See the endless futility in the finger-pointing judgment game?

Judgment is totally useless, whether it's value-judgment, behaviour-judgment or otherwise. It's so easy to judge. This kind of judgment comes from a need to hold others to the externally imposed standards to which one has subscribed. If you want to talk about judging integrity, that is where the integrity is lacking. But then, you might ask, how do we hold each other to higher standards of sustainable living? What we're after is discernment. We share and discuss the world, and trust one another to follow our deepest truths; to discern how and where to spend our energy, and what to consume in order to replenish our energy. And not just physical and subtle energy, but emotional, intellectual and spiritual energy as well. We will always consume, and sadly, right now it's hard to do that in a way that isn't somehow destructive. But to stifle our own health - in ANY of those dimensions, is to contribute to unsustainable living and behaviour, (and in my opinion, is what is doing us in as a species faster than any rainforest destruction.)

To be blunt, what I read in Anonymous' post is a higher capacity for discernment than what you have shown in your response. There are so many ways we're killing the planet, and you've been affected by one that gets a lot of press, while Anonymous makes his/her own choices, picks his/her own battles, and is therefore very likely unaffected by your conventional judgment of him/her.

Do you ever go to movies? Do your friends judge you because your paper ticket isn't old-growth friendly? Imagine the paper-statistics in that industry. But it doesn't get the same press as the paper cup issue, so it slides under the radar. Do you ever take ferry rides for pure pleasure? Well, allow me to judge you then for all the pollutants you contribute..

Happily, I'm free of the need to do any of that. Because I believe that you can make your own choices and that you intend to serve the deepest, most inclusive truth that you've realized. My only advice is to question how easily you're shaped by the most popular eco-issues, and how you craft your judgment of others.

what do you think of this? 

Starbucks raises expansion goal to 40,000 stores,

Starbucks Corp. on Thursday raised its long-term expansion goal to 40,000 stores from 30,000 and said it was nowhere close to exhausting opportunities in North America, even as possibilities appear internationally.

The company, known for its ubiquity in parts of the United States, expects to have 20,000 outlets in the United States and 20,000 internationally, James Donald, chief executive, said in a meeting with analysts in Seattle.

Well said! Small revolutions like that really can change the world. I wrote about a similar challenge here.