Sustainability

Sustainability

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Here at Insomnia, we care about sustainability. The social and ecological impacts of our daily business can be extensive. We are aware of this and put every effort towards acting sustainably.  We’ve been trying to achieve this by:

• Serving 100% certified Fairtrade Coffee
• Creating annual Fairtrade Community Projects since 2006
• Rewarding customers for using any reusable cup in our stores through our Treats programme
• Giving away our coffee grounds for customers to reuse at home
• Ensuring our stores are improving their energy efficiency with energy reducing lightbulbs, fridges and dishwashers

Coffee & Tea – Fairtrade Certified

Our coffee tastes great (even if we say so ourselves). And isn’t it satisfying to know that it also helps to sustain communities around the globe? Our signature dark roast coffee blend comes from four communities in Colombia, Brazil, Sumatra and Vietnam and our Voyager coffee is a dual-origin blend which comes from Honduras and Papua New Guinea (More on our Voyager blend here). We launched our 100% Fairtrade certified coffee and tea in 2006.

Over the course of a year we sell over 30 million Fairtrade cups of coffee.

With the steady and fair business generated by Insomnia, the communities we work with can build educational and medical facilities, improve water and electrical supply and facilitate living conditions.

Our tea is also certified by the Rainforest Alliance, meaning we ensure that the tea we serve is produced in environmentally friendly and socially responsible ways, and that workers receive good wages, have proper living conditions, and access to education and health care. If you want to find out more about our Fairtrade projects click here.

PAPER STRAWS

We have introduced paper straws in all of our stores, and...

We are happy to say that from June 2018 we have been completely free of plastic straws!

 Paper straws are so much better for the environment as they will biodegrade quickly and don’t need to be disposed of in a commercial composting centre. It’s another win for the turtles!

WASTE IN STORES 

As of June 2018 we were the first Irish coffee chain to introduce compost bins in all of our high street stores. This was a crucial step in our sustainability mission. You can dispose of your compostable coffee cups, tea bags and food waste in our compost bins.

We are happy to accept any other (non insomnia) compostable coffee cup in these bins too.

Our segregated bins have different sections clearly marked to show you where to empty liquids from your cup, where to place the cups for composting and where the recyclable lids and any other mixed recycling can be disposed of.

REUSABLE ALTERNATIVES IN STORES

Insomnia’s number one goal on our mission to sustainability is to eliminate all single use plastics from our stores. 

While most of the plastics we currently use are recyclable, we know we can do our part for the environment by replacing recyclable plastics with compostable or reusable alternatives where possible.

In the summer of 2018 we began trialling the use of glass tumblers for iced drinks consumed in store, in order to reduce the amount of recyclable plastic being used. So far this has been a great success and we've continued to add more glassware to stores for our customers who are enjoying a sit-in iced coffee or ICECAP.

REDUCE & REUSE

Insomnia’s takeaway drinks are even better when served in a reusable cup, which is why in 2012 we brought in Insomnia KeepCups.

By bringing your KeepCup, or any other reusable cup, into Insomnia you are helping to reduce the amount of disposable cups going to the waste and composting facilities.

As a reward, we will add €0.20 extra Treats Credit to your Insomnia Treats account every time you bring your Insomnia KeepCup or any other reusable cup into participating Insomnia high street stores. You can purchase a 12oz or 16oz Insomnia KeepCup in any participating Insomnia store.

REUSABLE WASTE

In our daily business we handle pounds and pounds of coffee.

After our delicious coffees have been brewed, we repack the coffee grounds and offer them to our customers for free.

The advantages the used grounds hold for the environment are countless and another great benefit is that the grounds are not added into landfill. Using coffee grounds on plants and gardens is sustainable and beneficial. There are three ways to use coffee grounds on your plants: for composting, as fertilizer and to control pests. 

You can also reuse coffee grounds for beauty products such as coffee body scrubs and rejuvenating face masks. Make a coffee candle, use the grounds to make a wood stain or even to make coffee seasoning. It’s great to know that our grounds can be put to such good use after you enjoyed your favourite coffee and we are happy to supply them to our customers. Pick up a FREE coffee ground bag in any of our stores.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION

We’re very conscious of the impact of energy usage within our stores and are proactively trying to reduce the amount of electricity wasted. Measures we have taken to reduce electricity wastage include:

• LED lighting
• Low energy fridges
• Ovens turned off when not in use
• Dishwashers – lower water consumption per cycle

REFILL IRELAND

We've joined Refill Ireland’s initiative which aims “to make Irish towns and cities tap water refill friendly for everyone while on the go”.

By the end of this year, all our high street stores will provide water refill stations for customers’ reusable water bottles, again reducing our single use plastic items!

Each store will have a sticker on the window indicating to customers they can refill their bottle inside. The best part is that this will be completely free of charge for the customer and is protecting our environment from bottle waste.