The "world's most sustainable coffee shop" is coming to Old Street

Held in London’s Old Street tube station from 18 to 20 April, it will be entirely single-use plastic free. Milk will be sourced in recyclable pouches, any dairy alternatives will be supplied in recyclable containers, and there will be no disposable straws, stirrers or cups on site. 

The aim of the pop up is to encourage customers to make small changes to their coffee routine to become more sustainable. 

The company will also limit the amount of paper used on site by using washable cloths to clean instead of blue roll, and emailing receipts to customers instead of printing them. 

The pop up will also feature exercise bikes to demonstrate how much energy is used to power parts of the coffee shop, to make consumers more mindful of how much energy it takes to power the gadgets they have in their homes and lives (pedalling for five minutes will power the coffee machine for 11 seconds).

Coffee grounds used throughout the pop up will be up-cycled by Percol’s sister company, Green Cup. 

An example of how the used coffee grounds can be used will be seen in some of shop furniture, which has been made by eco-conscious company Smile Plastics using recycled plastic. 

The furniture will go on to their second home in the new Percol head office in London once the pop-up has finished. All the other fixtures will be recycled and repurposed after 20 April.

The coffee company hopes to roll out the pop-up nationwide to spread the sustainable message. 

The pop-up has been created by Cult Events, which will create a coffee tree made of recyclable plastics, with customers encouraged to pin pledges on the branches about how they plan to be more sustainable. 

Percol, which launched in 1987, has third party certifications from Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Soil Association.