Powers Whiskey

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Issue 1791, May 2019 www.PowersWhiskey.com

PowersWhiskeyNI

ON SOLID GROUND FOR A GREENER FUTURE

Local scaled artisan co ee chain Ground Espresso Bars has doubled-down on its ethical duties by launching a pioneering initiative - ‘Reuse at Ground’ – which aims to encourage members of the public across Northern Ireland to change their habits and reduce waste by o ering an unprecedented 50p o all hot drinks when a reusable cup is used. Ground is the first coee chain in Northern Ireland to oer this level of incentivetocustomersandthecompany is also in the process of phasing out the use of plastic straws, which will be replaced with paper straws in all 24 stores. It is also trialling new fully recyclable cups within selected stores. The ‘Reuse at Ground’ initiative comes on the back of recent statistics highlighting that over 2.5 billion disposable coee cups are thrown away in the UK each year, with less than 1% of these currently being recycled due to the lack of recycling facilities in the UK that can fully separate the materials found in a coee cup. Darren Gardiner, Co-Founder, Ground Espresso Bars said, “We are really pleased to be launching our ‘Reuse at Ground’ initiative, which we hope will help change customer habits by encouraging more people to use a reusable cup. As a company we take our responsibility to the environment and the local community very seriously and through this initiative we want to ensure that our customers feel rewarded for playing their part in helping the environment and reducing wastage.” “Whether you order your coee to go five times a month or are a more

frequent consumer of up to 15 times a month, using a reusable cup could have a significant impact and in just one year a coee drinker could reduce waste by around 60 to 180 cups respectively,” adds Darren. This latest initiative from Ground complements the company’s responsible business initiatives in recent years which have included

support of the Growing Livelihoods project with Cloughmills Community Action Team, where spent coee grounds were used to cultivate a crop of mushrooms for use by the local community, and a unique partnership with the company’s coee growers in Honduras which involved the construction of a new education hub for children and young people in the community.