Green Bay's definitely waking up after its long hibernation. And now it's April; buds are on the trees and the birds are almost annoyingly loud. Earth Day's coming up on the 22nd, and we've been pretty interested in examining how we operate Kavarna and seeing if we can think of better ways to do what we do. This "issue" of the Kavarna eNewsletter covers some of the ideas that we've had, plus some of the things that are happening in Green Bay for Earth Day. We're also excited about:

» New smoothies and new espresso beans. Our new smoothies are made out of rooibos (red tea), have no corn syrup, and we think that they taste even better. This will be introduced at Kavarna at some point in April. We will also be switching over to a new espresso blend from Stone Creek Coffee in Milwaukee. This is the best one we've found and we can't wait to start serving it on a daily basis, that should happen sometime in the next week.

» Kavarna and NatureWise, remember to bring in your WPS NatureWise bill for a free coffee, espresso, or tea drink! This is a great way to encourage the development of renewable energy. We've expanded this program and soon NatureWise users will be receiving coupons in the mail that will allow them to get one free beverage per month at Kavarna and three or four other coffeehouses throughout Northeastern Wisconsin. There's more on this topic at kavarna.com

» April 9th, The End of Suburbia. This is the inaugural film of the new film series at Kavarna presented by Paul Wozniak and Gus Glaser, see below.

» April 20th, supposedly we'll have a daughter. Hopefully around 10am. I've always thought that 10am was a good time for that sort of thing.

» April 29th, the Coffee Clunker Classic. This magnificent event is the brainchild of Mike and Pam of Easy Living Pedicab fame, and they always do a good job of putting it together. Traditionally, this bike ride (and its sister chocolate-centered ride) starts and ends at Kavarna. We've always felt lucky to be a small part of it. The ride starts at 10am (great time!) and will go from coffeehouse to coffeehouse until everyone's fully caffeinated and ready for a hearty lunch at Kavarna. This is a very leisurely bike ride, more of a mobile social event than an athletic event, so don't be intimidated! Riders are encouraged to wear interesting costumes. You can reach Mike and Pam at (920) 432-0520.

—Linda and Alex Galt

Naturally, the best way to celebrate Earth Day is to look carefully at the effect you, your family, and your business are having on the earth's ecology. Are there ways you could be making less of an imprint? I've been reading Jared Diamond's excellent book, Collapse, and it's clear that the Easter Islanders should have reconsidered how they made their statues before cutting down their last tree. I doubt their statues made them very happy after the deforestation led to soil erosion which led to a decreased ability to produce food which led to mass starvation and cannibalism. In fact, when Easter Island was first visited by Europeans, the statues had all been knocked off their pedestals.

But Earth Day is not all about self-examination, guilt and fear. It's also about family activities, education, and community building. Here's what's on the calendar for this year (this list probably isn't comprehensive):

» April 17th: "Earth Day 2006: Creating a Sustainable Future," Panel of Speakers, UWGB Room UU231, from 6pm to 9:30pm. For more information, contact: mandalk@uwgb.edu.

» April 18th: "Securing the Future: Global Warming, Energy, and the Role of Local Communities in Improving the Global Environment," Video Conference with overseas sites in Romania, Ecuador, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic, UWGB Mac Hall Room 137, 9am to 11am. For more information, contact: mandalk@uwgb.edu.

» April 18th: City of Green Bay Earth Week Kickoff and Mayoral Proclamation, Green Bay East High School, 10:45am.

» April 18th: "Here and Now Energy Solutions for Northeast Wisconsin", presentation of Madison Environmental Group, the Apollo Alliance, and the Green Bay Peak Oil Group, Solar Mining Company, 826 Vanderbraak Street, Green Bay, noon to 1pm.

» April 19th: "Energy and the Environment," Speaker from the Natural Resources Defense Council, UWGB, MAC Hall Room 206, 8pm to 9:30pm. For more information, contact: mandalk@uwgb.edu.

» April 20th: All Day Leave Your Car at Home Day, organized by the Green Bay East High School Environmental Club (Hey, I think I was a member of that about 14 years ago!).

» April 20th: Green Bay Green Drinks, Kavarna, 6pm - 10pm. The Green Bay Peak Oil Group will make a presentation on peak oil and how it will effect our region.

» April 22nd: Baird Creek Earth Fest, 9am - 3pm. See below.

» April 22nd: EarthJam, concert at UWGB, Student Union Phoenix Rooms, 6pm - Midnight.

For general questions on these events, please contact Jessica at jessica@conservationvoters.org. These have been produced and sponsored by a multitude of groups and I think they deserve tremendous credit, so thanks to: UWGB PEAC, the Baird Creek Preservation Fund, the Green Bay Peak Oil Group, the Green Bay East High Environmental Club, the Madison Environmental Group, the Apollo Alliance, UWGB, the City of Green Bay, the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, the Helfenstein Soup Council, the Wisconsin Student Education Association, the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity, and I'm sure there must be others as well.

Kavarna's been working with composters and organic garderners for a years now. Composting our organic waste not only helps our friends grow their gardens, it also means that our dumpster doesn't fill up as quickly, which saves us money (that we can use to help offset the cost of the "corn plastics," more about that below). You may recall all of the disgusting ice cream pails full of moldy food that we used to keep stacked-up behind the restaurant. Not only was that unsightly, it was inefficient. Well, we've discovered a better way! Over the Fall and Winter, we began buying our sprouts from a local organic farmer who uses seawater to water his vegetables. It seems that he captures this seawater out in the Atlantic Ocean in large, blue, plastic barrels. We have another friend who has a shoe-polish company and it seems that he also uses large plastic barrels in the course of production. Both of them face the problem of paying to have these barrels recycled.

So, one evening while looking online at commercially produced composting containers (all of which were just a little too expensive for what they were), Linda had a flash of inspiration, why not make our own? We've got two sources of plastic barrels already, all we need to do is to modify them slightly. So that's what we're going to do (with the help of another friend with power tools). While we haven't quite rolled out the program yet (pregnancy is our excuse), our intention is to begin providing these compost barrels to local businesses and to sell them cheaply to the public. The money we raise will help to sustain the program and to raise money for other Broadway District projects.

International Compost Awareness Week is the week of May 7th, and that's when we hope to roll out the barrels (sorry...). Go to the US Composting Council for more information about composting than I would have thought possible for something that seems so simple and elegant.

As part of our continuing attempt to be a low-impact, green coffeehouse (there will always be room for substantial improvement) we've already begun the process of phasing out the plastics that we use and replacing them with "plastics" manufactured from corn proteins. We've already replaced our cold to-go beverage cups and several others, but by the end of the month all of our "plastic" to-go containers (except ones used for hot items like yam fries, the "corn plastic" ones melt), will not only be biodegradable, they will be compostable. This means that they will quickly biodegrade in landfills, or if you prefer, you can just dump them into your compost bin and turn them into soil.

The big question that I have is, why isn't everyone using these? Well, the main reason that we haven't used them up to this point is that the technology is very new and we just plain, hadn't been aware that the option existed until fairly recently. They are also slightly more expensive (but still quite affordable). If your business would like to switch over to "corn plastic," drop us a line at info@kavarna.com and we'll tell you what we've learned. We've been working on getting our regular vendors to stock these items, so the more businesses that jump on board, the easier it will become to get them. Kavarna is a very small business, so we can't have much of an impact; but just imagine how great it would be if "corn plastics" became the norm rather than the exception.

Margaret Mary		Colleen Labrosse
Amie Sell	Amy Lynn Davies

Kavarna is currently exhibiting the artwork of five artists, Margaret Mary, Colleen Labrosse, Amie Sell, Amy Lynn Davies, and Brian Kralapp (who's hobo art isn't shown above because the photo didn't turn out), all of whom make artwork out of recycled materials. While we don't seriously think that transforming post-consumer waste into art would be a reasonable way to solve our society's waste problems, it does make for a great exhibition! Come check it out! We'd like to turn this into an annual exhibition, so let this exhibit inspire you to make some art from your garbage and to exhibit it at Kavarna next year.

Our friends Paul Wozniak and Gus Glaser are curating a documentary film series at Kavarna starting this Sunday at 6:30 pm. It will focus on documentaries about ecology, social issues, and politics. The inaugural film of the series will be The End of Suburbia. Here's the blurb:

Forewarned is forearmed, that's what we think.

The annual Baird Creek Earth Fest is on Saturday, April 22nd. It's been put together by the Baird Creek Preservation Foundation, in conjunction with the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity, the Public and Environmental Affairs Council (PEAC), the Round River Alliance at UWGB, and the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Institute. Like a trident, this annual event has three main points: education, family fun, and cleaning up Baird Creek.

Events include: Crafts and games for children! An EcoFair sponsored by PEAC of area businesses that are working to make a difference for our environment. Trash Clean-up! Invasive Pest Removal! Trail Repair! Lunch! Interpretative hikes! Lectures! Demonstrations! And later, at 6pm at the UWGB Student Union, the all-ages EarthJam featuring Atimevu (African drumming group), The Gary's (rockabilly) and Sloppy Joe ("slopgrass"), plus food and drink.

You can go to bairdcreek.org for all the particulars. You can also call Jessica at (920) 429-9008. (Unfortunately we probably won't be able to make it as we're expecting a new addition to our family that day).

• » April 9th, Film Series: The End of Suburbia, screening info here.
• » April 16th, Kavarna will be closed.
• » April 20th, Green Bay Green Drinks, 6pm - 10pm
• » April 20th, Arts On Broadway, 5-8pm, Questions?
• » April 29th, Coffee Clunker Classic, 10 am, starts and ends at Kavarna! (Call Mike & Pam at 432-0520).
• » May 8th, Jeanne Kuhns Art Exhibit at Kavarna
• » May 12th, Jeanne Kuhns performance/opening at Kavarna

Let us know if you'd like to share your event with the Kavarna Community in future newsletters, email us at: info@kavarna.com. We try to get this out within the first week of the month.

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