Caring for the Environment

Being Environmentally Concious in Our Renovations

• In our demolition phase, all metals, windows, and doors were recycled or reused; old joists were sold to a company to make furniture out of them; insulation and other materials were donated to Habitat for Humanity; old tongue and groove flooring and walls were given to those who could use it for fire wood to heat their homes in winter and as much quality materials as possible was reused in our rebuilding process. For the entire demolition and renovation process it only required one dumpster.
• We pulled old bricks from torn down houses out of the dump to remake into sitting walls for our courtyard.
• We used open-celled foam insulation, which created a "thermal envelope," sealing off the exterior ensuring the highest level of efficiency to heat and cool the cafe.
• For all appliances possible, including the heating/cooling system we ensured they were Energy Star compliant. This included refrigerators, freezers, washers/dryers, the dishwasher, computers, the hot water heater, etc.
• Our hot water heater is a low-Nox power vent/direct vent system that reduces emissions from the efficient natural gas heater. It also has a condenser which catches lost hot air and uses it for water heating, which takes the efficiency to 96%.
• To replace the air that is sucked out of the building with the dryers and ventilation system, we have integrated a fresh air exchanger, which introduces fresh air into the building, blending it with the pre-existing air for temperature balance and consistency. This not only provides the freshest of air for our guests, it also limits extreem temperature air from entering the building causing the heating/cooling system to work harder inside.
• Our lighting system takes advantage of as many low-energy florescent, LED and low-volt bulbs as possible while not impacting the ambience of the cafe.
• All of the water that comes from the roof of our building is funneled into a underground filtration system of stone and sand that filters the water and reintroduces it to the water table.
• Our parking lot is tilted in such a way to channel storm water runnoff to the edge where it is funneled into a underground filtration system of stone and sand that filters the water and reintroduces it to the water table.
• We chose concrete for our parking lot surface rather than blacktop because it uses fewer natural resources and oil-based products, requires limited to no resources for resurfacing in the future, and doesn't soak up the sunlight causing additional reflective/conductive heat in our neighborhood.

Our Future Dreams/Plans:

• We hope to catch as much water runoff as possible from the upper roof and use it for irrigation of the planters in the courtyard.
• We plan to coat the upper roof of the cafe with white sealer that will reflect the sun's rays and reduce cooling costs by as much as 35%.
• We hope to place a "live roof" and roof garden above the roasting and laundry rooms which will compensate for water displacement and run-off from the building and provide added insulation which will help both heating and cooling costs.
• We hope to install a photo-voltaic (solar power) system on the roof above the cafe to help compensate for our energy use.