By golly, we are on the last leg of the build out of our new Coffee Bar and Roastery! Since we are opening THE Coffee Bar, we wanted to make sure it will be as green as possible. And there is no better place to start then with the counter of the coffee bar. But finding the material made from the most green resource at a reasonable price is quite the task - especially when living in a town where if you mention that you want an environmentally friendly countertop, most will just scratch their heads. At least that’s what I did when we started the search.
Here were the options Jody and I had to start with to cover our 70 square foot bar - Lowes’s - big 
box store, Home Depot - bigger box store, and your typical countertop, tile, and floor shops. Lowe’s suprised me and actually had one good option. They carry a Butcher Block selectively cut Maple from Wood Welded - not the most environmentally friendly source since it is not from a quick renewing resource but it is local and selectively cut.
After a bit of on-line investigation we did find Architectural Elements of Michigan just down the street that had three good options.
- Terrazo Countertops made by Terrazzo & Marble Supply - Rinato style Terrazo Countertops are a line of cementitious terrazzo slabs containing recycled glass. The cement matix which binds the glass also includes recycled flyy ash and slag to replace non-renewable and petrochemical based resources. A very pretty choice but extremely expensive at between $80 - $100 a square foot!
- Another amazing option was Shetka Stone which converts wastepaper, cardboard, cloth or plant fiber into non-toxic countertops. It is made from recycled materials and is also renewable and recyclable. They use 100% post-consumer or post-industrial fiber-based materials as their source of raw materials. Some of the coolest designs are made from recycled counterfit money or old newspapers.
- The third option was a countertop made from Eucalyptus. We took that out of the running immediately as our many travels to the Coffee Lands down south have taught us that although the Eucalyptus tree is fast growing and renewable, it is genetically modified and grown on huge swathes of monocultural farms. Local populations in Latin America where it is grown have been known to protest the arrival of foreign owned Eucalyptus plantations. Sometimes their is more to being green then meets the eye! To learn more about GM Trees and their effects on the environment check out this great article in Seedlings.
Two other options that are of your mainstream green variety are bamboo and cork. Both are fairly decent options but have their drawbacks. Bamboo is usually binded with urea formaldehyde, which produces a negligible amount of airborne formaldehyde. Some manufacturers don’t use it but most do from the research I’ve done. Bamboo does grow very rapidly, being able to harvest after just 3 years and many indigenous communities can essentially live off the tree as it provides shelter, food, and prevents soil erosion. Cork is the outer bark of the Quercus suber tree variety, which grows in the Mediterranean. Cork oak forests are carefully managed and cover approximately 5.4 million acres amongst the seven primary cork producing countries; (30% Portugal, 21% in Algeria, 20% in Spain, 16% in Morocco, 5% in France and 4% each in Italy and Tunisia). However, like bamboo, cork is finished and binded with volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) which are emitted into the air. It is recommended that you select low or non toxic products for these purposes.
The final option and decisive winner in our search for the perfect green countertop is …….. …….. …….. Old Growth Virgin Birch from the bottom of the Great Lakes! You can’t beat it (at least we can’t as we live on the shores of Lake Michigan and actually Emily, our roaster extraordinaaire, actually lives on a boat in Lake Michigan). Back in the early 1800’s timber companies would cut down old growth forests and ship them via the Great Lakes. Many times some would fall off the boat or sink to the bottom when floating. Georgian Bay Wetwood is one of the worlds’ most unique timber companies. They specialize in 100% environmentally friendly timber reclamation by scouring the bottom of the great lakes with their team of underwater deep divers and state of the art equipment to find old old old trees. They then kiln dry the wood in a radio-frequency vaccuum (RFV) kiln which is extremely energy-efficient and uses a fraction of the energy inputs required by traditional kilns.
According to them, they “believe it is wasteful - especially in today’s world of rapid climate change, rising CO2 levels and deforestation - to cut standing forests when there is an abundant supply of perfectly-preserved trees lying on the bottom of the Great Lakes, waiting to be used.”
The one we are purchasing sank to the bottom of the lake pre - 1810. Cross your fingers that we can get it to our new home safely and hopefully soon we’ll be putting back a couple of lattes as we glide our fingers across its smooth surface and make up stories about who sat in its shade in the 1700s.
Check back soon to hear about our exciting espresso machine story. it is coming direct from Italy this week, a one of a kind.
The Water Festival Fundraiser
