RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—We drink a lot of coffee. In fact, the U.S. consumes one-fifth of the world's supply, thanks in large part to a tendency for coffee joints and fast-food restaurants to sell it on every street corner. However, the world's coffee farmers don't often reap the benefits of our caffeine habit. Commodity prices for coffee rise and fall, affecting growers' incomes and causing them to turn to cheaper growing methods that can involve deforestation, child labor, and pesticides.
Many large coffee chains have started paying closer attention to the plight of the coffee farmer, and to the crop's environmental impact, and are switching to certified-organic coffee (grown without pesticides) or fair-trade coffee (purchased from farmers who receive a higher-than-average price for coffee grown in responsible ways without the use of child or slave labor). McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts, two of the country's largest coffee sellers, have both moved towards a greener coffee supply chain, so we wanted to crunch the numbers and see who's having a greater impact.
This: McDonald's
Pros: McDonald's is a multibillion dollar company that amassed more than $23 billion in global revenues in 2008, and coffee accounts for around 5 percent of that amount. So their choices can have big consequences. In 2005, McDonald's started selling Newman's Own certified organic and Fair Trade Certified coffee in 600 stores throughout New England and in Albany, NY. At the same time, the chain has started selling coffee certified by either the nonprofit Rainforest Alliance or other environmental groups in all 6,628 stores in Europe, which is evidence that supplying a large number of stores with greener beans is possible.
Cons: In the grand multinational scheme of things, 600 stores is a pretty tiny amount, representing a mere 4 percent of McDonald's stores in the U.S. Plus, McDonald's continues to use polystyrene foam coffee cups; they aren't recyclable and they expose coffee drinkers to the potentially cancer-causing chemical styrene.
That: Dunkin' Donuts
Pros: Dunkin' Donuts is considerably smaller, with half as many U.S. stores as McDonald's and a fraction of the global revenue ($5.5 billion). But at nearly one billion cups per year, the chain sells more cups of coffee than any other retailer in the U.S. So it's heartening that when the company launched its line of espresso beverages in 2003, they committed to purchasing only Fair Trade Certified espresso beans for those drinks.
Cons: Those Fair Trade beans account for only 2 percent of the company's total coffee bean purchases, according to a company press release, and Dunkin', too, continues to use hazardous polystyrene cups.
This or That?
Go with…This. McDonald's. Both companies have made laudable efforts at greening their supply chains, but at the global level, McDonald's commitment to greener coffee is likely having a larger impact on the world's coffee farmers. That doesn't mean they can't be doing better, especially considering that the company is able to source enough organic coffee for more than 6,000 stores in Europe but only 600 here at home.
Wherever you wind up for your morning cup o' joe, bring your own mug so you can avoid the environmental and health hazards associated with both companies' foam cups.