Canary Wharf Group have launched their first ever coffee waste initiative, ‘Wake Up and Smell The Coffee’, making the entire 128 acre Canary Wharf Estate a ‘Clean Coffee Zone’.
Coffee cups, lids and coffee grounds generated by over 300 shops, bars and restaurants across the Estate, will be recycled with the use of designated bins. They will be given second life uses, thereby repurposing hundreds of tonnes of waste generated from coffee drinking each year.
The campaign is being delivered for Canary Wharf Management Limited (CWML) by the Cawley Group, the waste management company for the Estate and Veris, the sustainability and communications partner.
To help increase awareness of waste recovery, those who take part will be rewarded with coffee vouchers for Change Please, an initiative which provides a barista training programme for previously homeless individuals. To encourage people to pledge support, KeepCup, makers of the World’s first barista standard reusable cup, will be rewarding the first 10 pledges each day with a KeepCup. Café Brera will also offer a free coffee to anyone who returns five empty coffees within a fortnight.
Steve Greig, Co- Managing Director of Canary Wharf Management said: “Canary Wharf is one of London’s greenest spaces, with over 20 acres of landscaped parks, squares, roads and promenades including the award-winning Crossrail Place Roof Garden. With 900,000 visitors each week, there’s a real opportunity to make a contribution to waste recovery at Canary Wharf.”
“Thanks to our ‘Making Sustainability Real’ campaign, we ensure that over 80 per cent of all the waste from the Canary Wharf Retail Operations goes to second life uses, which includes the donation of furniture and surplus food to community schemes. We want to change the perception of ‘waste’, proving that it can be a useful resource. Coffee is just the next step for us at Canary Wharf.”
Kate Cawley, Director of Veris Strategies, pioneered the commercial use of food waste to anaerobic digestion in the UK, and has championed the connection between sustainability and social causes in the retail sector since working with Waitrose in 2007. Such initiatives introduced Simply Cups to Canary Wharf Group, which will recycle the coffee cups and lids, as well as bio-bean Ltd, which will turn the coffee grounds into biofuel.
“It’s all about proving that an individual action will genuinely add up to something worthwhile” said Kate.
“Our team will be out and about from Monday 20th February talking to people and encouraging them to pledge to help. What’s exciting about Canary Wharf is being able to effect change on a massive scale: half a million cups a year, 300 tonnes of coffee grounds reducing Canary Wharf’s carbon footprint considerably, with local community schemes like Change Please benefitting too.”
Arthur Kay founder and CEO of bio-bean said: “The UK produces an estimated 500,000 tonnes of waste coffee a year, much of which was previously sent to landfill. We’ve built the world’s first coffee recycling factory in Cambridgeshire where grounds are turned into high performance winter fuels like our new Coffee logs.”
“This exciting new partnership means the waste grounds from the coffee that warms the visitors to Canary Wharf in the morning could soon be heating their home in the evenings – all while helping London reduce its carbon footprint.”
Retailers across the estate such as Café Brera are delighted to support the scheme as it provides an uncomplicated and reliable way to ensure they meet the highest standards of recycling.
Costa Thomaides, owner of Café Brera added: “Café Brera was the first coffee shop to open at Canary Wharf. We have been here since 1991 when the UK coffee revolution was first taking off. Initially, coffee was served in polystyrene cups, gradually moving on to environmentally friendly paper cups with sip through lids. As an independent café, it can be difficult to recycle every disposable item. Therefore, by making Canary Wharf a Clean Coffee Zone, we can combine efforts and tackle waste recovery on the Estate. Café Brera is always responding to the latest trends and new mechanisms of recycling; we’re delighted to be part of the initiative and look forward to seeing the difference it will make.’’
Suzie Themps of KeepCup, supporters of the campaign said: “We are at a time where considering the impact of our behaviours is critical. Made in the UK, KeepCup encourages and celebrates reuse – Reduce.. Reuse. Cycle. Salute the Reuser!”
Peter Goodwin Director of Simply Cups, the company which will be recycling the coffee cups and lids said: “The sheer scale of the Canary Wharf Estate makes this a really exciting scheme, where we will see a ‘new norm’ with regards to coffee waste. The scheme keeps Canary Wharf at the forefront of innovation while delivering real value to its workers, visitors and residents.”
ENDS
For more information please contact:
Press Office
Canary Wharf Group plc
T: 020 7418 2000
E: pressoffice@canarywharf.com
Notes to Editors
About Canary Wharf Group
Canary Wharf Group plc has overseen the largest urban regeneration project ever undertaken in Europe, designing and building more than 17m sq ft of London real estate, which now houses local and international companies and renowned retailers.
The Canary Wharf Estate is a major retail destination comprising around 1m sq ft across five shopping malls, including the award-winning leisure development, Crossrail Place, housing one of London’s most stunning roof gardens. It also has world-class, year-round arts and events programme offering over 200 diverse and culturally inspiring events performed throughout the Estate.
Canary Wharf Group is a wholly owned joint venture between Brookfield Property Partners and the Qatar Investment Authority.
www.canarywharf.com
Twitter: @CanaryWharfGrp
Twitter: @YourCanaryWharf
Twitter: @Level39CW
Instagram: @canarywharflondon
About Veris Strategies
Established in 2010 by Kate Cawley, Veris Strategies provides strategically effective solutions to resource management challenges. It identifies and delivers resource efficiency programmes for manufacturers and retailers in ways which deliver both a social and an environmental benefit.
Kate pioneered the use of anaerobic digestion (AD) in the UK as a solution for food waste in the manufacturing and retail supply chain, setting up the first commercial food collection service to AD with Waitrose in 2007.
Recognised as one of Management Today’s ’35 Women under 35 to Watch’ Kate has built Veris in seven years through a series of award winning staff engagement and resource management campaigns to become one of the leading sustainable resource consultancies in the UK.
Current clients include Canary Wharf Management Ltd, Bakkavor, Westfield Europe Ltd, London City Airport and The Belazu Ingredient Co.
About Cawleys
Cawleys is one of the UK’s leading independently owned waste and resource recycling companies. Established in 1947, its ethos is ‘local recycling, global responsibility’.
From its headquarters in Luton, Cawleys provides waste management services across the UK for hundreds of organisations from the smallest local businesses to the largest corporate estates such as Canary Wharf, London.
Cawleys has its own Materials Recycling Facility in Luton where materials which have not been pre-segregated are sorted into separate resource streams, which enables it to achieve outstanding levels of recycling and second life uses for clients general waste.
Specialist services include hazardous and liquid waste disposal, WEEE recycling, lithium battery and confidential waste disposal.