Hello! It’s been nine weeks since my first post and I would like to thank each and every one of you who have stopped by to read through my posts 🙂 We’ve looked at the issues of waste generation and leftovers in my café, the way we dealt with them, the environmental costs of regular and soy lattes, the possible consequences of decreasing the price of soy lattes and some observations I made at work.

             Let’s see if you remember all the post titles!

Overall, I would say that it is not easy to set up a food business and it’s even more difficult to be one that is fully sustainable. Being both a staff at work and a BES student, I often find myself struggling to balance these two roles.

       Just like how I’m still trying to balance                           both sides of this latte art

As a staff working for the café, I find the need to serve the customers quickly and efficiently. However, there would be some trade-offs – throwing receipts into the same bin as used coffee grounds, the use of takeaway cups for drink orders on a busy day and the use of disposable tea filter bags. As a BES student, these actions are undesirable, but I acknowledge the need for them especially when the crowd at the café gets larger. I admit that I’m not at the point of saying no to all disposables or that I will give up coffee to do my part for the environment. Sometimes, when my co-workers and I are too tired from work, we’d rely on these unsustainable actions to get through the rest of our shift. Even I can’t give up certain things, what more would it be for a food business whose aim is to gain profits?

Although it is hard to give up everything or be fully sustainable at work, it does not mean that sustainability cannot be achieved. I believe that everything starts from something small.

       This was my very first cup of latte art                   and look at how far I’ve come today!

Given that my café has joined others in reducing the use of plastic straws, introduced the use of reusable tea infusers and even reduced waste by collecting coffee powder to flush the coffee machine every morning, it shows that there have been efforts to be sustainable at work. Although these actions may seem small, they could create a huge impact in the long run. I believe that not everything could be given up and there needs to be a compromise for businesses to achieve sustainability and for sustainability to exist in businesses.

Of course, it takes two to clap. It is impossible to solely rely on businesses alone to be sustainable. Customers would also have to support these businesses and their decision to change certain actions. Only then, would we see that it is not that tough for sustainability to exist in businesses. That being said, I believe that every step counts. We can’t expect every food business to be fully sustainable overnight. Every business has its own problems and requires different amounts of time to eventually reach the same spot – of being sustainable.

There was really A Latte to Learn and indeed A Latte to Share. Once again, thank you for joining me on this journey!

               Signing of as your BEARista 🙂                    If you’re ever craving for coffee or more   beautiful latte art, pop by my café and say HI!