Education
Green Cafe Network is proud to offer a number of services to educate managers, staff, and the larger cafe community on the strategies and benefits of greening cafes. Contact us at info@greencafenetwork.org if you’re interested in any of these opportunities!
GCN specializes in hands-on, face-to-face, on-site workshops with cafe owners, managers, and staff. We take time to understand each cafe’s unique needs and setup, and then tailor our presentation and activities to best fit each situation.
“This workshop was exactly what we needed to kickstart our commitment to sustainability. Our owners, managers, and – most importantly – our staff, are all united behind our mission of becoming a leading green business in our industry.”
- Peter Hottenstein, Operations Director, Cafe Venue, San Francisco
“The response from the staff has been overwhelmingly positive. I really think it was such a great format for getting everyone on board – it’s so hard to get a staff to make changes to their normal routine without a good picture of why it is worthwhile, and your workshop was exactly what we needed to take the right actions.“
- Austin Miller, Manager, Coffee to the People, San Francisco
GCN produced the first live, interactive series of online educational events focused on coffeehouse sustainability – the Green Cafe Webinar Series – in partnership with Barista Exchange. Participants joined the discussion from all across the USA, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and beyond. The experience developing and hosting these webinars was invaluable to the GCN team, and we are now proud to offer additional on-demand webinars catered to specific topics of interest. These 45-minute sessions can help individual cafes, chains, larger companies, or community groups understand steps they can take to improve the sustainability of their daily operations. Some comments from participants included:
“For someone like me who is in the process of opening a café and wants to be green, this webinar was certainly worthwhile.”
“Thank you so much for all of the information you provided. I can’t wait to tell everyone at my café all the things I learned today.”
“The tips are very helpful and I will be passing them along to my customers”
Ever since our founding, GCN has worked to harness the community-building element of cafes to facilitate educational opportunities amongst local residents and cafe patrons. GCN can collaborate with any neighborhood cafe to organize an event that will be valuable, educational and fun for your community. Examples of past GCN Community Education events include:
- Film Screening: “Kilowatt Hours” – Nomad Cafe. Guest speakers from Local Clean Energy Alliance
- Film Screening: “Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai” – Coffee to the People. Guest speakers from Kenya and SF-based organization, Nature in the City
- Speakers and Discussion: “Beyond Local and Organic: The Human Cost of Food” – Mission Pie cafe. Guest speakers from Blue House Farms, Swanton Berry Farm and Misison Pie
- Workshop: “Grow Your Own Food in Urban Spaces“ – Local 123 cafe – Guest expert from Planting Justice
Comments from participants of these events included:
“We had such a positive experience working with the Green Cafe Network (GCN) on an event at our cafe. This event brought many new faces into our cafe, reminded existing customers that we are a committed green business, allowed us to partner with two highly regarded non-profit organizations, and created a community buzz about our space. We could not have asked for more!” – Frieda and Katy, Co-owners of Local 123, Berkeley, CA
“Having community workshop at local cafes is a win/win situation. The community supports the local business as the local business helps the community come together. The permaculture workshop I attended was fantastic. Because the cafe had a courtyard, we were able to have valuable hands on experience sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings.” – Berkeley Resident
GCN has presented at numerous local, national, and industry events over the past three years – including Coffee Fest, SCAA, Green Festival, and more. We are more than happy to speak on a variety of topics tailored to different audiences surrounding sustainability, green design, the coffee industry, grassroots organizing, and community outreach.
