Earth Hour - A year of coffee savings

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since 2008's Earth Hour (scene from our house pictured above). We'll be turning off the lights again tonight for the 2009 affair, but the lead up to this year's Earth Hour has made me reflect on one of the simple things I started doing about a year ago to reduce my carbon footprint and save some cash at the same time. I started using an enviro mug.

I know, I know - it's not revolutionary, but it's still a feel good story.

Here's my story:

I take my dog Jack on a walk every morning - and most days I stop by my local Starbucks. It's a great way to start the day as I have blogged about before. Each morning I leave with my favorite tumbler which fits nicely into my hooded sweatshirt pocket.

 

I ask for a Tall Bold (12oz), but the barista invariably tops up the tumbler which is more like a Grande (16oz). The charge for a Tall coffee is $1.68 (after the enviro mug discount). The cost of a Grande coffee in a regular Starbucks cup is $2.02.

So, here's the math on annual basis:

($2.02 - $1.68)  x 52 weeks x  5 average weekly visits

= $88.40 per year

While I am not going to get rich doing this, $88.40 is better than nothing. It's also nice to know that I am not sending 260 Starbucks cups and lids into the landfill every year.

There you go - I still get my morning coffee treat, and I save cash and reduce the landfill in the process.