Sustainable Coffee Shops in Vancouver #1

Today's post combines three of my favourite things: coffee, coffee shops, and sustainability. While this is exciting, it's controversial because how sustainable can a coffee shop be if coffee itself is often not very sustainable?

As always with my articles, I don't want to open Pandora's box but rather focus on one aspect at a time. I'm slowly getting to grips with the topic of sustainable coffee because I find this subject incredibly exciting but also terrifying.

So, what makes a coffee shop environmentally sustainable? A few things come to mind: Waste management, vegan products, environmental programs, charities and donations they support, where they source their ingredients (local, seasonal, organic) and more.

Here are four Vancouver coffee shops excelling in at least one area of sustainability.

To Live For Bakery - East Vancouver

When I think of sustainable coffee shops, To Live For by Erin Ireland comes to mind first. Erin has been showcasing her baked, vegan goods on social media for years, and even as someone who isn't vegan, I found her posts captivating, with treats that looked so delicious. Her lemon loaf, available at other coffee shops like 49th Parallel, is the best I've ever tried and I have to eat it every time I see it at a coffee shop.

A few years ago, Erin opened her own bakery in East Van to showcase her vegan pastries. We've visited a few times, and even vegan skeptics enjoyed the pastries. "You can't even taste the difference," many of them remarked and meant it as a compliment. :)

Nomad Espresso Bar & Bakery - North Vancouver

When you enter Nomad, you won't be surprised to learn that they are dedicated to sustainability. The place is lush with greenery and plants. Their goal is to achieve zero waste. Customers can bring their own cups, or they can use a reusable hot and cold cup provided for a $3 deposit. To-go cups are not available in this coffee shop. I think that's such an effective approach to change behaviour - if to-go isn't an option, people will automatically start bringing their own cups after forgetting their own cup a couple of times.

According to their website, they have saved 141,052 single-use cups from landfills.

If you want to learn more about why we should avoid using single-use cups, please read my post about the sustainability of to-go cups.

Virtue Natural Bakery - Kitsilano

We stumbled upon this coffee shop by chance. We have passed it numerous times without ever visiting, but one day, on our way out of the city, we stopped at the Virtue Natural Bakery. We struck up a conversation with the owner, who shared that they create all-natural baked pastries and bread using seasonal, organic ingredients, and everything is gluten-free.

If you have specific dietary restrictions, they most likely have a treat for you. They offer options like low-sugar, dairy-free, egg-free, low-carb, oat-free, rice-free, and grain-free. I didn't even know half of these options existed.

What else is organic?

• Coffee: Their coffee is made with locally roasted, fair trade beans by Moja Coffee in North Vancouver.

• Tea: Their tea is from the Denman Island Tea Company (Tea is also a big topic when it comes to sustainability, which gives me an idea for another post)

• Milk: Their cow milk is non-homogenized, organic, and grass-fed from The Farm House in Agassiz. They also offer almond-walnut milk, and pumpkin seed milk, interesting alternatives to oat, soy, and almond milk.

• Sweetener: They have organic cane sugar, local raw honey, organic maple syrup, house vanilla syrup, coconut sugar and monk fruit.

  
  

Feast and Fallow - Oakridge

Feast and Fallow is the only coffee shop on this list that I haven't personally visited, but during my research for this post, I read about F&F and wanted to include it. As a dedicated writer, I passed by on my recent run, but it was after hours, so I could just peek in. :)

What I like about Feast and Fallow is that they not only sell plant-based and vegan baked goods but they also engage in education and advocacy work. According to their website, they "will host regular workshops, both free and paid, on a variety of food issues, such as but not limited to urban agriculture and community gardens, food waste, composting, fermentation, nutrition, sustainable practices, and food security." I'm definitely going to watch out for an upcoming workshop.

They run a volunteer program to give people the opportunity to learn more about running a professional cafe and improve their barista skills. They will provide volunteers with training, covering foundational basics in coffee, kitchen prep, event hosting/planning, management and more.

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This is the end of my small but mighty list, but I'm sure there are many other coffee shops in Vancouver that chose a sustainable angle and fight for less waste, offer organic food or champion vegan pastries. Let me know, and we can extend this list for the next post.