Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, coming second to oil. With an
average of 150 million Americans drinking coffee on a daily basis, a local coffee shop
wanted to do its part and help the environment while still grinding out coffee.
Fair Trade Cafe, located at 1020 N. First Ave., is decorated with mismatched chairs and light fixtures, one-of-kind art and flowers for sale. Small picture frames are sprinkled around with facts about the business inside and QR codes for access to its full menu. Fair Trade Cafe has also been certified “green” for over four years.
Opened in 2007, the cafe has received awards throughout the years for its sustainable practices. In 2019, Fair Trade Cafe was awarded the Recycling Excellence Award for a small business.
All of the coffee and tea served at Fair Trade Cafe are Fair Trade and Organic Certified. To qualify as Fair Trade a company must have “requirements around worker’s rights, fair labor practices, and responsible land management.” The product produced must also have been grown, harvested, or made with care by farmers and workers according to “rigorous social, environmental, and economic standards.”
To be certified “green” by the city of Phoenix, a company must accomplish at least 10
items off of Phoenix’s “Green Business Checklist.” Some criteria on the checklist
include waste management, transportation, water conservation, energy reduction and
sustainable actions.
In the past, the cafe partnered with the Arizona Sustainability Alliance and the St.
Vincent de Paul Farm to create an “Urban Fresca.” The fresca uses watermelon,
blueberries and kiwi with the food waste from the St. Vincent de Paul urban farm.
To help reduce its waste the cafe has three separate bins around the cafe for the
different types of trash. One for landfill, recyclables and compost.
“Our baristas take great measures to compost and recycle and reduce the amount of waste
material we send to the landfill,” according to the cafe’s Instagram account. The cafe doesn’t skip over the minor details either, offering compostable straws to those who don’t own reusable ones.
“I am extremely passionate about the environment and sustainability, so I am always
looking to support businesses that have those values,” Lauren Brazele, a recent customer, said. “I would describe the cafe as being loving. Everything on the menu is made with love, both for the food and for the planet.”
The cafe has specialty drinks, smoothies, teas, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, changing varieties of locally made artisan ice cream and, of course, coffee.
“The sustainable practices are one of the reasons I wanted to try them,” Brazele said. “You can truly taste the difference between their coffee’s quality and the quality of coffee at other cafes.”
Bringing in local vendors every weekend and featuring local artists throughout their cafe monthly, Fair Trade Cafe has become a local favorite.
“Fair Trade Cafe honestly has one of the most pleasant environments I’ve experienced,” said Gabriella Burton, a frequent customer.
The cafe’s culture “is a reason I continue to recommend the cafe to people,” she said.
“The people that fill [the cafe] are not customers or employees, they are my family,” owner Stephanie Vasquez said on her Instagram account.
Contact the reporter dmtanne1@asu.edu.
