You may wonder, what on earth does he have in common with this blog? Well the European Union is currently regulating the energy efficiency of, yes....coffee machines. And, as we know, Mr Clooney has been for a few years the face of a brand of coffee machines (which of course we are in no way endorsing here – in fact we are concerned about all those plastic little capsules and where they end up!)
Obviously he isn’t the only one who loves coffee! More than 20 million coffee machines are sold every year in the 27 countries that form part of the EU market. In 2010, around 110 million machines were in use there. That's a lot of coffee machines! And, as they obviously use electricity to make our beloved morning drink, they represent a fair share of energy use in our continent.
In fact, in the entire EU, coffee machines consume the equivalent of more than the electricity used by all households in a country like Austria (17 Tera-Watt hours per year). This translates to approximately 3.4 million cars on the road (8.5 Mt CO2 equivalent emissions per year). If consumables are included in the calculation – such as the capsules or the filter pads – the environmental burden will be higher. And this is not even taking account the environmental impact of coffee production and transport itself… a very interesting issue which is however unlikely to be covered by this EU regulation.
The Ecodesign Directive is at the moment discussing how to ensure these products – from traditional filter machines to capsule-fed and fully automatic espresso makers – do not consume more energy and resources than needed. This is particularly important at a time when consumers are seeing rising prices for their energy and electricity bills, as well as being crucial for meeting environmental and energy goals.
Of course this should be done without affecting the taste of this drink, which for most of us is what tends to matter most in chosing to buy a coffee machine over another. Nor will it affect the time it will take or how easy it will be. In fact, most of us won’t even notice that there has been an EU regulation setting minimum levels of performance.
However, we will be able to chose between the ones that consume less energy and other ones, thanks to a brand new energy efficiency label. And, if things go well, we may notice that there is more information about how to dispose of those capsules, for example. And ideally, the coffee machines will also be made safer: if manufacturers are forced to ensure they automatically switch off or at at least save energy while on stand–by: this would mean they are less likely to burn our coffee, and even more importantly, our kitchen.