In celebration of Earth Month, Peet’s Coffee is amplifying its commitment to sustainability with a series of deals designed to encourage eco-friendly choices among its customers. This year, the coffee chain focuses heavily on promoting dairy-free beverages and plant-based food options, aligning with its broader mission to foster environmental stewardship through its business practices.
Peet’s Coffee
“The threat of climate change is real and endangers coffee production and communities around the world,” a Peet’s spokesperson tells VegNews. “Across the coffee-growing regions of the world, we will continue to work to improve the lives and livelihoods of those communities, while here at home, we work to combat food waste and hunger.”
The Earth Month deals at Peet’s Coffee
For Earth Month 2024, Peet’s has curated a special selection of drinks and food options that qualify for discounts, which helps drive customers to the more sustainable options on its menu.
The food offerings on the seasonal spring menu feature a new vegan Southwest Breakfast Burrito with savory plant-based chorizo, Just Egg, and Violife cheddar wrapped in a tortilla with Southwestern flavors such as black beans, corn, potatoes, salsa verde, and green chiles.
Peet’s Coffee
A permanent item highlighted on this menu is Peet’s Everything Plant-Based Sandwich made with Beyond Breakfast Sausage and layered with Just Egg and vegan cheddar, served on an Everything bagel thin.
As for beverages, the spring menu features the Almond Cold Brew Oat Latte, an Anniversary Blend coffee, and two other dairy-free drinks—the Honey Almond Latte and the Honey Almond Matcha Latte—that can be ordered without honey syrup for a fully vegan option.
For the month of April, loyalty members get $1 off of any non-dairy drink from its spring menu. To encourage bundling non-dairy drinks and plant-based food, customers who order both on Earth Day (April 22) will get 25 percent off their entire order.
“At Peet’s, offering plant-based items isn’t something we do only for Earth Month; we offer plant-based items year-round,” the spokesperson says.
“In fact, on our app, you can order every day from a special plant-based menu selection,” the spokesperson says. “It’s part of our broader commitment to sustainability.”
Peet’s—which operates 465 locations across the United States, China, and the Middle East—is one of the first major chains to introduce a fully plant-based sandwich to its menu in 2022. This beat out its biggest competitor, Starbucks, which has yet to add a vegan sandwich to its menus in the US.
Peet’s Coffee
However, while Peet’s temporarily dropped its $0.80 upcharge for vegan milk substitutions for Earth Month last year, it continues to charge extra for dairy-free milk options.
Building a more sustainable coffee industry
Founded in Berkeley, CA in 1996 by Alfred Peet, the coffee chain is known as a pioneer in the artisan coffee movement. Regarding beans, Peet’s Coffee has long been a proponent of ethical sourcing, with a significant focus on supporting smallholder farms.
“Smallholder farms make up nearly 98 percent of the world’s coffee, but most of the industry’s dollars go to larger growers—imperiling the livelihoods of entire communities and the future of coffee,” the spokesperson says.
Peet’s sources 90 percent of its coffee from small growers, aiding 59,000 farms globally and aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050 through the Science Based Targets initiative.
Peet’s Coffee
In addition to encouraging customers to make vegan food and beverage choices, this Earth Month, Peet’s is permanently increasing the discount for customers who bring their own cups (BYOC) to 25 cents for any drink, hot or cold.
This initiative has already seen a 15 percent increase in customers opting to bring their own cups since its introduction. By 2030, Peet’s aims to have fully reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging across its cafes as part of its broader strategy to minimize waste and encourage sustainable consumer habits.
Peet’s partnership with Too Good To Go, a resource that focuses on rescuing leftover food, is another pillar of its environmental strategy.
“Every year, Peet’s donates more than $2.5 million in coffee to food banks and other organizations that fight hunger,” the spokesperson reveals. “Since partnering with Too Good to Go in 2022, we have rescued more than 121,000 meals.”
As Peet’s continues to innovate within the coffee industry, it remains focused on integrating sustainability into every cup it serves.
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Anna Starostinetskaya is the Senior News Editor at VegNews and is always keeping an eye on all things vegan in her home city of San Francisco, CA and everywhere else.
