ABSTRACT
In contemporary New Zealand society, there has been a rise in the popularity of casual cafés with New Zealand coffee consumption now being in the top 20 in the world (Lee-Woolf 2015). This popularity has been driven by consumers’ need for approachable and convenient food and beverage offerings and a newfound love affair with quality coffee (Tourism New Zealand 2017). This coupled with the relatively low cost of setting up cafés has meant a proliferation in their establishment, generating a comprehensive and competitive market place. Within this competitive free market an understanding of consumer motivators has proven to be a key part in the success or otherwise for many cafés (Burge 2013).
Amongst these motivators, sustainability is now considered to be a priority, but the definition of sustainability is broad; for the purposes of this paper it will be defined as the relationship between people and planet (University of Canterbury 2015). Within the café context this simply means taking ownership for or acknowledging the ecological footprints created by the sale of commodities.
This paper outlines changes undertaken at the Eden Café at Otago Polytechnic to imbed sustainable practice into its operating model. This transition was achieved by assembling an interdisciplinary working group who adopted the methods of Vijay Kumar.
Kumar’s user-centric model sets out a series of seven organising principles, or modes of thinking, these placed in the order of sense intent, know context, know people, frame insights, explore concepts, frame solutions and realise offerings. They are oriented around gathering primary research data through fieldwork and organising supporting secondary research. Around each of these seven modes Kumar identifies additional tools and methods that create an organising framework in which to gather and analyse data, generate insights, and utilise insights to create innovative products or services. What follows is an example of how this model was utilised.
