Success Stories

Spoons Coffee Cafe

A restaurant building doesn't have to be new to feature environmentally friendly construction elements.

Take Spoons Coffee Cafe. The fast casual restaurant and coffee roaster in Baltimore's historic Federal Hill boasts plenty of energy-efficient features. Yet the building is 120 years old.

Owners Deborah and Bernard Kayes decided in 2006 to adopt environmentally practices. They wanted to stop depleting the earth's resources and saw they could save money by conserving water and energy and cutting down on waste.

"Running a restaurant the old way cannot be done any more," Deborah Kayes says. "Restaurants that want to make the switch to being green need to make the switch from the heart and think of it as an investment."

Making the switch

One of their first changes was to replace the building's black tar roof with aluminum-coated rubber.

The "cool" roof reflects up to 80 percent of the sun's rays, lowering the inside temperature. As a result, the cooling system doesn't have to work as hard to cool the restaurant's interior in hot weather.

A year later, Spoons switched energy sources. Today, 100 percent of the restaurant's energy comes from wind power.

Other green features include recycled furniture and equipment, as well as no-VOC (volatile organic chemicals) paint. New appliances and equipment, such as a new refrigerator, sandwich unit and printer, are ENERGY STAR certified.

Embracing change

A member of the U.S. EPA Green Power Partnership, Spoons has a comprehensive recycling program for glass, cardboard, plastic and metal. All food and biodegradable waste are composted.

Spoons buys non-toxic cleaning products, recycles ink cartridges and uses biodegradable paper products and take-out packaging, as well as eco-friendly menus. The neighborhood cafe replaced paper-towel dispensers with automatic hand dryers, and its dishwashing station features a low-water, pre-rinse spray valve.

In addition to its conservation and waste reduction efforts, Spoons buys local and organic ingredients when possible. Staff educates customers about the restaurant's conservation efforts and promotes Spoons' green initiatives on menus and in-store signs.

Says Deborah Kayes: "That which we touch, we will either leave it the same as we found it, or it will be enhanced by our relationship with it."

Read other stories     Submit a story