INDUSTRY PROFILE
Waste not want not When it’s time to replace your coffee equipment with the latest market offering, Brew Solutions Australia wants customers to think again and make sure the outcome is made with sustainability in mind.
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n a time when roasters are aiming towards B Corp certification, sharing transparency reports, and making sustainable plans to lower their carbon footprint, coffee machine service and equipment supplier Brew Solutions Australia is on a mission of its own to educate customers about waste reduction. With so much emphasis already on the reusable cup culture, Brew Solutions Business Manager Stacey Benjamin says more attention needs to be paid to the way coffee machines are so often “swapped out” for shiny new ones. “We live in a pretty big throwaway society. There are too many café customers and baristas who don’t appreciate or understand the value of their equipment, and in turn, don’t necessarily understand the upkeep required to look after it. It breaks my heart to see the volume of machines that gets thrown out when they could so easily be fixed and repurposed. Quite often their end life doesn’t have to be so soon,” she says. What’s needed, Stacey adds, is better education so that café owners and baristas can understand how to best use, care, and maintain their equipment for a longer lifespan. “There’s often been a stigma not to play with equipment, such as adjusting the grinder, and to wait for a supplier or technician to come and look at the problem. But in many cases, it’s for a simple thing that could be fixed without a tech call-out, such as a seal not sitting properly, a blocked steam tip or a sugar packet clogging the drain hose, which we can absolutely help troubleshoot with people over the phone,” Stacey says. Brew Solutions aim for a first-time fix mentality to avoid charging customers additional fees for things that can be easily resolved or maintained. As such, when technicians do visit a call-out case, they ask the customer if there’s anything else that needs the technician’s attention. The other sustainable solution is regular customer preventative maintenance schedules every six months
or more, depending on volume output, which allow technicians to stay on top of any potential lingering issues. Stacey says simple things such as seals and shower head replacements are better checked regularly instead of waiting to find a machine dysfunctional because it wasn’t properly maintained. Technology is aiding the Brew Solutions team to assess potential issues. Most of its roaster and café customers are connected via an instant messaging
platform to first communicate the issue, and share images and videos to measure if something can be resolved on the phone or needs immediate technical assistance. “We are constantly thinking about how the decisions we make are impactful from an environmentally and economically sustainable point of view. If we can clean a shower screen rather than replace a perfectly usable part, it’s preferable from a cost point of view and a sustainable one. When we do replace water filters
Brew Solutions is passionate about customer education and maintenance to ensure equipment has a long lifespan.
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