Current Event 12/7 - COP21 Sustainable Coffee Challenge

"A new initiative aiming to make coffee the world's first sustainable agriculture product has been launched with support from key industry players including Starbucks and the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA)."

This is huge. The Sustainable Coffee Challenge, looks to develop a framework for greening one of the largest agriculture commodities in the world: coffee. The challenge was launched this week at the Paris climate conference by Conservation International, a US environmental charity. Peter Seligmann, chairman and chief executive of Conservation International claimed "This will require commitments by roasters to support increased demand for sustainability. It will also require improved measurement of how far the sector has come in the sustainability journey — and just how far we have to go."

According to the article, nearly half of the world's coffee was produced in accordance with CI's sustainability metrics, however, only 12 percent was sold as "sustainable" in the international markets. 

The coffee industry has great incentive to lead with sustainability initiatives. They are at most risk for financial lost from a changing climate. "Nearly every major coffee-producing region of the world is now experiencing some impacts from climate change, with warming temperatures, drought and changing weather patterns all having an effect on coffee production."

Implementing sustainable practices in coffee production can stop deforestation and lay the groundwork for other agriculture sectors to follow suit.

I'm excited to see what other great challenges and initiatives are going to come out of COP21.

Reference:

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2437454/cop21-industry-giants-launch-sustainable-coffee-challenge

Ecological Footprint Re-calculation 12/7

After re-calculating my ecological footprint, I'm very stoked to see I had a .3 reduction in the number of Planet Earths it takes to support my lifestyle. The biggest reduction category I saw throughout the quarter was my impact through food consumption. My initial footprint was 3.7 Earths, 16.6 global acres of productive area. After implementing my reduction strategies into my lifestyle, my new calculations show 3.4 Planet Earths, and 15.1 global acres. It may not seem like a drastic change, but I'm pretty happy to actually see results, I was concerned that my calculation would remain the same even with the reduction plans I took on. Reduction plans listed below:

Reduction Plans:
1) I will reduce my consumption of meat products, by having 2 meat-less days a week.
2) I will do my best to purchase produce and meat products from local, sustainable businesses.
3) I will carpool to the river during salmon runs (fly fishing).
4) I will purchase and use a power strip for my apartment's media center.

I was able to stick with all of these throughout the quarter. At times, I had difficulty buying local, sustainable food, due to a lack of steady finances and it's availability. I think it will be way easier to stay local once the spring and summer Farmer's Market is open again. I believe the meat-less days added to my weekly diet had the greatest effect on my overall footprint. These reduction plans are definitely something I will adhere to for the rest of my life. They are seriously simple changes that practically every person should be able to do. I thought it was interesting that I didn't see much of a change in my electricity bill after putting in a power strip and monitoring it. One of my roommates is really bad about leaving all of his electronics and bedroom lights on, so I feel like that offset any ghost power we saved on with a power strip. Finally, I didn't go out fishing, or hiking for that matter, by myself. We were able to carpool and save on gas consumption and miles driven.