The benefits of choosing a sustainable coffee machine for your business

Coffee plays an essential role in most of our lives. In fact, it is one of the most popular beverages on the planet, with over 2 billion cups sipped every day worldwide, and many of us rely on our morning cup of coffee to get our days started right and to give us the energy we need. A recent study of employee happiness identified that a quality coffee in the workplace was one of the most important factors that contributed to a boost in morale. Essentially, providing excellent coffee for your employees is an easy way to put a spring in their step and keep them engaged, happy and inspired to achieve their absolute best.

It’s important to consider the sustainability of both the coffee you buy and of the coffee machine itself. According to the British Coffee Association, Brits love coffee, and we now consume around 95 million cups of coffee every day in the UK. Each stage of the coffee process, from where it’s grown to how it’s served, has an influence on the planet and the people living on it.

As well as the environmental consequences, in today’s world poor CSR policies can have a negative impact on your business’s perception, so now’s the time to start thinking seriously about what you can do to switch to a more sustainable coffee machine.

Modern consumerism has led to manufacturers constantly releasing new models, which means that businesses are discovering that their coffee machine has become obsolete within months of installation. Most coffee machines have many parts that cannot be reused or recycled, so they end up being added to the 50 million tonnes of e-waste added to landfill each year. The more frequently this is happening, the more harmful to the environment it is.

What if your coffee machine could grow with your business? IoT enabled coffee machines are a much smarter way to keep up-to-date with latest coffee brewing technology and market trends. IoT enabled coffee machines are also significantly more future-proof than traditional coffee machines. The bottom line is that even if you provide the most sustainable and environmentally friendly coffee, if you must replace your coffee machine frequently, you are contributing to the environmental problem.

Did you realise that the way your coffee machine works could have a negative influence on the environment?

Say no to in-built water boilers: Does your coffee machine have an in-built water boiler? If so, electricity is constantly being used to heat the water in the tank. Reheating water time and time again can also negatively impact the taste of your coffee, so as well as increased energy bills, you’ll have unhappy customers. Boilers also require an annual inspection which is an additional cost consideration. Instead, choose a sustainable coffee machine that flash heats the water for every drink.

Avoid coffee capsule machines: Similarly, it’s well documented that coffee machines that rely on single-use pods, although convenient, can be problematic due to the fact that the pods are incredibly difficult to recycle. Choosing a bean-to-cup machine will avoid this problem, and you can even recycle and reuse the coffee grounds!

According to UNESCO, Fortune 500 firms spend more than £15 billion on corporate social responsibility. Poor CSR policies can have a significant impact on your organisation. Clients are more thorough in seeking out businesses that place high priority on sustainability. Therefore, now is the time to seriously consider what you can do to transition to better, more environmentally friendly and sustainable practises.

Choosing a sustainable coffee machine not only benefits your business but also the environment (strong CSR policies are attractive to workers, so can help attract the best talent). As our understanding of the coffee we drink deepens, and as we continue to consume more and more coffee (daily coffee consumption in the UK has soared to 95 million cups), our expectations are growing. Choosing sustainably sourced coffee beans will also have a colossal impact on the communities in which the coffee beans are grown.

At Scanomat, we design and build TopBrewer to outlast conventional coffee machines to ensure that our clients are supplied with high volumes of coffee for 10 years or more. Our customers receive free over-the-air software updates, ensuring that they are always experiencing the most relevant and up to date TopBrewer experience. Purchasing a future-proof asset, such as TopBrewer, is a sure way to ensure you are reducing your carbon footprint, increasing the lifecycle of your assets, and focussing on providing a sustainable coffee solution that is built to last.

TopBrewer is developed and constructed with the environment in mind. Unlike most other bean-to-cup machines, there is no hot water boiler. Instead, fresh, filtered water is flash heated for every cup. This ensures that TopBrewer can be switched into power-saving mode during quiet times and includes a built-in scheduling system to automatically transition to low-power mode during less busy hours.

TopBrewer is also manufactured primarily from steel, which is the most recyclable material in the world. Steel can be recycled infinitely without losing any strength or durability, and using recycled steel saves up to 80% in C02 emissions and up to 75% in energy compared to creating new steel from raw materials.

At Scanomat, our pioneering Impact Trade approach to coffee sourcing goes a step further than Direct Trade, and certainly Fair Trade. In addition to building relationships with partner farms, we look to impact the community at the source and make a real difference to the community.

The essence of Impact trade involves making a valuable impact in the community we buy our coffee from.

Every TopBrewer in the world serves our Amokka coffees, and our entire range of Amokka coffees are bought directly from our partner farms around the world, from Nicaragua to Nepal to Peru. We strongly believe in our Impact Trade initiative. Our investment in our partner farms not only drastically improve the lives of the workers but also results in our clients receiving the best tasting and best quality coffee possible.

In recent years, we have worked with our partners to ensure good and fair working conditions, as well as working with specific farms to provide access to clean, safe water, to fund composting plants and to provide school uniforms for children in the community.

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