Starbucks: people either love ‘em or loathe ‘em. My husband likes their coffee and admires their business brains. I, on the other hand, can’t stand them for their homogenized, yuppie style. Having grown up in grunge-era Seattle, once a land of artsy coffee shops crammed with kitschy sofas and local color, cookie-cutter Starbucks look to me like a department store: void of soul and chock-full of useless merchandise.

But how bad is Starbucks, really? I decided to find out.

1. Clean water is such a precious commodity in the world these days, but Starbucks didn’t seem to care. Their “leave the tap running all day” policy created an eco-scandal to the tune of 23 million litres wasted every day. Less than a year later, they’re installing water-saving faucets which purport to reduce water wastage by 150 gallons per day, per store. Note, they only changed their wasteful ways after they got caught.

2. Although some people claim that having a Starbucks in the neighborhood is actually good for local mom & pop cafes, the long-running belief is that Starbucks turns the uniquely local neighborhood vibe into cookie-cutter corporate…well, crap. Perhaps it’s really just a matter of taste, but most of your dollars spent at a Starbucks location will end up in the pockets of distant executives – and not circulate in your local economy.

3. Ever keen to new marketing strategies, Starbucks has decided to co-opt the unique neighborhood vibe. What you think is your local indie cafe might actually be a Starbucks in disguise. To try and get the business of economic locavores, Starbucks has sent out scouts to cop the look and feel of various neighborhoods, then create a “unique” coffeeshop under a different name. Some might call this a brilliant business strategy, but I think it’s pretty underhanded.

4. Then there was the Ethiopian coffee debacle. In 2006, the Ethiopian government attempted to trademark regional coffees such as Sidamo and Harar because these specialty brews sell for up to $26 a pound, with only about $1 getting back to the Ethiopian coffee farmers. Starbucks, working through the National Coffee Association, blocked Ethiopia’s trademark bid, helping ensure the continuation of poverty in an already impoverished region.

5. Did you hear about the tip scandal? A former (and clearly disgruntled) Starbucks barista successfully sued the corporation on behalf of all California baristas in a class action law suit. Starbucks was ordered to pay $100 million to baristas to make up for tips that had been given to shift supervisors. It sounds like the ultimate low blow, but there is a grey area here: although California law prohibits managers and supervisors from receiving tips, Starbucks’ shift supervisors do help customers and make coffee. They’re paid much more than the baristas; do they also deserve a cut of the tips?

6. After years of customers haggling them for recycling bins, or at least recyclable cups, Starbucks has finally launched a recycling pilot program. Puh-lease…coffee shops the world over have already had recycling and composting systems in place for years. Starbucks should have been able to do better, and faster – why has it taken them so long to jump on the greenwagon?

7. Starbucks has decided to increase their purchases of Fair Trade coffee – but that’s only after years of pressure from Fair Trade groups. Considering that the worldwide coffee trade is a huge source of oppression and poverty in third world countries, buying Fair Trade goes far to support better wages and working conditions for coffee farmers. So far, only a small percentage of Starbucks coffee will actually be Fair Trade Certified, but they’ve still created a marketing campaign around it. I’d expect better from a large corporation; since Starbucks is large enough for the world to pay attention to its products, they could push some powerful change by using their influence for the greater good.

8. No matter what they do to be a little more green, if Starbucks won’t pour coffee into a reusable mug, they’ll never win my heart. My husband informed me of his own infuriating Starbucks experience where they refused to fill his travel mug, instead handing him his latte in a disposable paper cup and telling him he could fill his travel mug himself. He’s not the only one who’s had eco efforts thwarted like this at Starbucks.

9. And besides, McDonald’s beat Starbucks in a coffee taste test. Ouch!

So what do you think? Personally, I think Starbucks can do better and set a positive example for the coffee business in general, but they won’t do that unless they feel the heat from customers.

Image: D3 San Francisco

Triple Certified coffee – the gourmet, deluxe, connoisseur’s brew. Coffee that’s organic, fair trade and shade grown. Coffee that’s good for the people, the forest and the birds.

Here’s a guide to the cream of the cup. These sites are worth browsing for the grower’s stories and photos of the people and the farms.

Café Altura
Café Canopy
Café Fair
Caffe Ibis
Café Mam
Coffee-Tea-Etc
Dean’s Beans
The Groovy Mind
Grounds for Change
Heine Brothers Coffee
Higher Ground Roasters
Higher Grounds Trading Company
Nectar of Life
Peace Coffee
PT’s Coffee
Pura Vida
Sabino’s Coffee
Tree Frog Coffees

Drop us a comment below if you know of any other Triple Certified coffees.

Image: Jeff Kubina

Not everyone has the space or budget for a large thermal wine cooler in their pad. Here’s a practical way to chill that organic vino and rescue the dying cork stopper industry at the same time.

The Cork Bark Wine Chiller from Bitters Co. is from and features unglazed terracotta wrapped with an outer layer of natural cork bark ($46). It cools your bottle by insulating it with these layers and lends some earthy style at the same time.

The way of life for Mediterranean cork harvesters has become threatened by the replacement of hand-harvested cork with cheaper, synthetic twist-off caps. So farmers in Portugal are brainstorming alternative uses for their product – like this wine cooler, as a way of salvaging cork production, which is organically farmed.

It’s one thing to go organic, but many California wineries are taking sustainability to another level. From ground to glass, the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) is ensuring that Californian vintners are known not only for quality organic wines, but for being leaders in the movement towards sustainable agriculture.

Some of the recommendations put forth by the CSWA for Californian vintners are:

Embrace alternative energy sources, such as solar, wind and biodegradable fuels.

Be at the forefront in habitat restoration and preservation efforts.

Use green building materials ““ straw bale, rammed earth, recycled lumber ““ in winery construction.

Use cover crops and compost.

Adopt water conservation practices.

Have employee-run recycled and solid waste management programs.

Give back to the community by supporting non-profit and charitable organizations.

CSWA is setting the standard for real grassroots change in wineries, and we can support them by urging our favorite vineyards to adopt these ideas and become shining examples for wineries – and other businesses – around the world. Learn more about these wineries.

Image: zest-pk

Although coffee gets a bad rap, it’s actually a medicinal food. In fact, this stimulating bean isn’t nearly so bad as we’ve all been taught. Although I’m skeptical about grande latte supplementation in the long run (it’s a drug, after all), I found myself surprised by much of the science on coffee. Poor Ponce de Leon; all this time he should have been searching for the espresso machine.

Step aside, acai. Here are 20 surprising health benefits of coffee.

Apparently, coffee and alcohol really do go together. Believe it or not, alcohol drinkers who also drink coffee regularly have a lower chance of developing cirrhosis of the liver. That’s not to say it’s a healthy lifestyle – obviously, lowering your alcohol consumption is better. But…science says…

Caffeine reduces risk of skin cancer. Sorry, venti quaffers, this prevention method is topical. Lotions containing caffeine (both from coffee and green tea) have been shown to prevent the occurrence of cancerous tumors on the skin – in murine trials, anyway.

Have a smile with your morning brew! If you’re a caffephile, you don’t need this Johns Hopkins study to tell you that a cup or two a day increases your sense of well-being and happiness. You can thank dopamine for that, which also contributes to coffee’s addictive nature. But be aware, the study also noted that more than 2 cups daily increases the risk of anxiety and panic attacks. Some people respond more readily than others – if you find yourself feeling jittery or nervous, ease up on the joe.

Caffeine may reduce chance of Parkinson’s Disease. A 30-year study has shown that non-coffee drinkers have a higher chance of developing Parkinson’s Disease than their coffee-drinking counterparts.

Most Americans get their antioxidants from coffee. That doesn’t mean it’s the best source of antioxidants, just that it’s the most consumed. But, it’s true, coffee is very high in antioxidants. As for me, I’ll stick to fruit.

Black gold. After petroleum, coffee is the second most valuable economic product in the world. Imagine the financial potential of running our cars on coffee grounds.

Coffee may cut colon cancer in women. A 12-year study on Japanese women found that drinking 3 or more cups of coffee per day may actually halve the risk of developing colon cancer. They found no beneficial effect from green tea on the colon – in this case, it was strictly a coffee thing.

Coffee and diabetes, that’s a tricky one. Even though a Finnish study shows that drinking large amounts of coffee can reduce the risk of developing Type-2 Diabetes, coffee drinkers who already have diabetes have a harder time controlling their blood sugar levels.

Coffee reduces muscle pain. After a hard workout, a cup or two of coffee has been shown to reduce muscle soreness (in women, anyway) more effectively than naproxen, aspirin and ibuprofen. (But don’t replace your water thermos with coffee.)

Coffee will detox your liver in surprising ways. This remedy is not one for drinking: we’re talking about the coffee enema. Some people swear by it – using a tube to introduce coffee into the rectum and colon in order to stimulate the liver to remove toxins. Definitely not for the squeamish.

Coffee may reduce chance of death from heart disease. Studies show that drinking 4-5 cups of coffee a day can make you less likely to die from heart disease. The researchers think it may have something to do with coffee’s anti-inflammatory effects.

The devil is in the grounds. When coffee, which originated in Ethiopia and became popular in the Arab world, was first introduced to Western culture, Christian priests denounced it as the devil’s drink, given to the Muslims as a substitute for the wine (Christ’s blood) they weren’t allowed to consume. The belief at the time was that any coffee-drinking Christian risked burning in hell forever. Hooray, progress!

Coffee may help with short term memory. It’s probably because of caffeine’s stimulant effects, but an Austrian study showed that volunteers given caffeinated coffee had better reaction times and short-term memory function than those who were given the cup of decaf.

For women, caffeine may prevent long term memory loss. Because caffeine is a psychostimulant, older women who drink 3 or more cups of coffee or tea a day have less memory loss and cognitive decline than their counterparts who drink less or none. Unfortunately, caffeine consumption doesn’t seem to have any preventative effect against dementia.

Caffeine won’t cause hypertension. Some of the studies can be contradictory and confusing. What we do know is that for non-habitual coffee drinkers, those first few cups will cause a temporary rise in blood pressure, but for regular drinkers, a tolerance develops and won’t cause any long term, permanent increase.

The injustice of cheap coffee. No, it’s not just an injustice to your connoisseur taste buds; conventional coffee farming exploits workers and destroys communities in third world countries. On average, 5% of the profits actually make it back to the farmers, who are hungry, underpaid and treated badly. Why do they work on coffee plantations at all? Because in many cases, the plantations own the most fertile land (which was most often acquired unscrupulously) and the local people won’t survive from subsistence farming alone. How can you avoid supporting the cycle of poverty, corruption and injustice? Only buy Fair Trade certified coffee.

Pesticides in your brew. Because almost all coffee is grown in third world countries with less stringent laws than Europe or the United States, your non-organic cuppa is probably laden with chemicals. That’s not just bad for you, it’s bad for the farmers and the tropical ecosystems in which the coffee is grown. Go organic, will ya?

Pick your poison – literally. Caffeine is an alkaloid, which is a type of poisonous, bitter substance found in plants. Other alkaloids include strychnine, nicotine, morphine, mescaline, and emetine (the deadly ingredient in hemlock). Fortunately, in small quantities the bean is harmless, but it’s worth thinking about if you choose to use other drugs (both pharmaceutical and recreational).

The FDA has approved caffeine for babies. This doesn’t mean you can wake up your sleepy infant with a bottle of latte. Caffeine injections have been used medicinally since 1999 in the United States to stimulate breathing in infants who are experiencing apnea. It’s still recommended that pregnant and breastfeeding women keep their caffeine intake to a minimum, but a modest amount is safe.

Coffee can fight cavities. Just avoid all the sugar and milk! Actually, roasted coffee has some antibacterial properties, particularly against Streptococcus mutans, one of the major causes of cavities. By the way, these properties have nothing to do with caffeine, so decaf drinkers will get the same protection.

Despite the positive health studies, it’s best not to intentionally pick up the caffeine habit if you’re not already a regular coffee drinker. Even though some of the studies suggest drinking 3 or more daily cups to get the benefits, everyone is different. If it makes you jittery and sick to your stomach, stick to a milder pick-me-up like green tea or yerba mate. But if that morning cup makes you feel awake, alive and eager to greet the day, you might as well indulge (in moderation) in the world’s most well-loved drink.

Editor’s note: Sarah Irani is not responsible for the contents of your EcoSalon headline.

Image: One2c900d

I’m not a soda drinker. Too much sugar and sodium benzoate (which has been proven to cause cell damage). But last year I discovered a product that seems to be flying off shelves in natural food markets and traditional ones alike: IZZE Sparkling Juice.

It comes in such flavors as pomegranate, apple, blueberry, clementine, peach, and my all-time favorite: grapefruit. All products are made with pure fruit juice from concentrate and sparkling water. And a portion of IZZE’s proceeds go to numerous philantrhopic organizations including The Global Education Fund, which works to improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children around the world.

It’s always nice to have a few additional recipes in your toolbox, and IZZE has gotten quite creative – from a Blackberry Vinaigrette to Grapefruit Punch. Who knew a little fizz could be so versatile?

Find fizzy IZZE in most major stores from Target to Whole Foods and online through Beverage Direct. Also look for their vitamin fortified and low-cal version, called IZZE-esque.

Forty years ago, human beings watched the Earth rise about the horizon of another world (or more accurately, a Moon). The most poignant image of humanity’s home, a fragile-looking blue-green circle of life set against the almost unimaginable emptiness of space, was first taken with black and white film – but earlier this year, a Japanese lunar satellite called Selene not only recaptured this iconic image in glorious HD color…it also filmed it happening. Happy birthday, Earthrise. We need you more than ever.

If you fancy earning $100 and at the same time help scientists map the movement of glaciers, all you have to do is find a rubber duck. Couldn’t be simpler. (Oh, and you’ll need a plane or boat ticket to the Arctic). Full story at The Guardian; via Treehugger.

And now for something memorably…unusual. Enviro Vixens – in Time! Um…thanks now, Ideal Bite. (But if you thought that was cheesy, we’d point you towards the truly excruciating White House Christmas Video. There should be a health warning for this one).

Someone at Alternative Consumer would like to bark a word or two on a topic that’s close to our own hearts – the right way to choose a new four-legged member of the family.

We’re currently in the festival of Hanukkah, and if you’ve never participated, Samantha at GreenUPGRADER outlines why it’s a deeply eco-friendly time for participants – and a good excuse for an energy-audit of your home.

When it’s time to reluctantly pull your Christmas tree down, there’s two places for it – the loft (if you have the plastic variety) or the scrapheap. In the latter instance, instead of saving it into a million compostable pieces, why not find a local Christmas tree recycling point using Earth911’s search engine? A fine idea suggested by Sprig.

Fancy a tipple? The range of organic booze and plonk has never looked more attractive, as you can see from Ecoble’s roundup. One can’t hurt. (And hey, you don’t think everyone has bright eyes and rosy cheeks because it’s cold?)

Speaking of cold, some less than stellar news for Bing Crosby fans – there’s a good chances that White Christmasses in the northern hemisphere will decline in frequency over the next century, reports Reuters. (But we’re sure hoteliers in Dubai are already thinking of ways around it).

Before you launch yourself with gleeful abandon into the January sales, you may find what you’re looking for (or at the very least an idea of what it is) over at DealStop.

Oh no – they’re at it again. PETA have announced they’ve developed a perfume that smells like decomposing flesh. Less an actual product that a response to a marketing campaign by Burger King…it’s very much business as usual for the animal rights organization.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that in the age of Google Earth, the world holds no more secrets. In fact it’s the opposite: take the discovery of a paradise of biodiversity in Mozambique, all from an unexpected patch of green spotted on Google Earth. So what else is out there?

Oh dear, McDonalds. Oh. Dear. We can feel the desperation from here, as the launch of the Quarter Pounder at the Osaka branch in Japan is apparently accompanied by 1,000 people paid to look like customers. We’re less than enamoured with the Golden Arches, so hearing stories like this? Lovin’ It.

But onto more serious matters. What’s your favourite of these eco Gingerbread Houses over at Inhabitat? (Ah, if only they were life-sized).

And lastly, if you found yourself in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, the new Ball (Cleantechnica reports) was made of 32,256 Phillips LEDs – 16 million colors, and yet using the same energy every hours as just two traditional home ovens. Rest of the world, please take note!

Take Back The Filter has launched a campaign pushing Clorox (the owners of Brita) to either set up a filter recycling program or create a reusable filter with a permanent housing, in which you only have to replace the environmentally-safe carbon granules inside. No plastic to throw away. British company Aqua Select has already done this, but so far no American company has jumped on this eco bandwagon. Take Back The Filter is working to change that, and if you’re a filter-lover like me, you can help them do it.

‘Tis the season…to have cold hands.

I’m convinced mulled wine was invented as a handwarmer in the depths of winter. It first pops up in the history books around 400 CE, although its European medieval name of Hipocris harks back to Hippocrates, the Ancient Greek “father of medicine” – and it’s not hard to imagine Celtic Mead being dangled over the fire for an extra-warming kick. Nowadays, mulled wine is a popular winter drink across much of northern Europe. For example, in Sweden it goes by the splendid name of Glögg.

The second-best thing about mulled wine (after drinking it) is that it’s a cinch to make. All you need is a nice full red organic wine, a few spices, a liberal amount of sugar or raw honey, and some heat. It’s as imprecise as that because there is no right or wrong way to mull (spice) your wine. If you don’t have a sweet tooth, hold back on the sugar. If you think Aztec hot chocolate is nowhere near fiery enough, double up on the spices. It’s your special recipe.

A few ingredients to consider:

Cinnamon, Cloves and Ginger (be careful: used liberally, these make for a fierce drink).

Vanilla and Nutmeg.

Citrus peel (orange peel is a personal favourite, but for a sharper, fresher wine, try lemon – or even lime, if you’re very brave).

Sugar or honey.

A set ratio of wine to water – purely personal choice. (I measure 2 parts wine to 1 part water, but then, the British winter can be bitter).

Preparation:

It’s no good putting everything in a pan a few minutes before you serve up. Mulled wine needs to be simmered so the ingredients impart enough flavor to the mix. Give it at least 20 minutes on the brink of boiling (but no further – boiling will evaporate the alcohol, and nobody would want that). Strain the mix, and you’re ready to pour…

Serving:

Serve in wide glasses or mugs – and ideally use earthenware goblets. The reason for this is that drinkers should be standing outside in the cold, holding the drink in gloved hands, enjoying the delicious twin warmths of holding and sipping. You want a cup that can be cupped.

As a final bonus, all the sugar and spices work as natural preservatives – so leftover mulled wine will keep for a rainy day!

Image: *Noema*.

I only invest in glassware if it serves both a functional and decorative purpose. (And, of course, it has to be recycled.) To accomplish this, nothing beats the beauty of hand-blown glass. If you’re flush with cash from Santa and feeling spendy, you might like the eco-friendly Bubble pitchers and cups.

Made by artisans who know that green goes beyond the materials used to craft something, this set is processed in a furnace that harnesses the wind for energy. For some more options, check out my top pitcher picks. (Available at Branch Home for $448- $648.)