At Common Grounds in Salisbury, Md., what started as a need for a church building has now spun itself into a groundbreaking green revolution, as well as a comfy spot to relax.
Tri Townsend, and his two partners, brothers Frank and Doug Potvin – all in leadership positions at their church – visited the National Community Church in Washington, D.C., which held its first service in the movie theaters at Union Station. That church has since grown to have five sites, including a nearby coffeehouse, because, as they put it, “the church is not a building. We are the church.”
After their visit to National Community Church, Townsend said that the coffeehouse/church model seemed like a good concept. And although they eventually found a separate building for their church, they went ahead with the idea for a stand-alone coffee shop.
“We looked at that with square footage for a church and a coffee shop, and it just didn’t match, so we found an older building and rehabbed it for our church, and we thought the coffee shop idea was still viable,” explained Townsend, just in a different location.
He said they had originally wanted to be close to Salisbury University and had looked at several locations in that area. But after the real estate market dried up, they changed their direction and found a space on East Naylor Mill Road, near Golden Corral and Toys R Us, just a bit off the beaten path.
“It was good, because it’s the shopping district and there is residential behind us, and when we looked at it, it had a stone floor and open walls, so we could build to suit,” he noted.
That was two years ago this April, and, ever since, they have been serving up a place to kick back.
As members of the Green Restaurant Association, Common Grounds is ahead of the curve for restaurants in the area but they want to eventually form a co-op between farmers and restaurants, to bring to the forefront the idea of fresh and local products in a sustainable environment.
A co-op would also allow them to leverage their buying power of those compostable products to get the best deal for everybody. And Townsend is currently researching purchasing an on-site compost machine that will allow them to compost more efficiently.
In addition to their fair-trade coffee products by makers Equal Exchange and the like, the actual building – which was built with the green concept in mind – serves as a place for meetings, networking groups, Bible studies and scrapbooking clubs.
They have LED lighting in the store and also noticeable is the lack of mammoth trash cans. They separate all the products and then recycle or compost what can be handled that way, so there is little need for trash containers. In fact, all of their drink and food containers are compostable. The actual building is also thoughtfully insulated.
Common Grounds currently has an agreement with a local farm for composting and even gives their used coffee grounds another life as part of an earthworm project. A majority of their products are sourced locally, to help reduce the carbon footprint associated with long-haul deliveries. And coffee from small-farmer co-ops that utilize sustainable farming methods and beans that are grown organically make them feel good about the products they represent.
The walls at Common Grounds are painted with an eco-friendly paint that has no volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are chemicals that can affect indoor air quality, and their floor is stained with a soy-based stain. They also have low-flow toilets and low-flow automatic faucets in the restrooms – to reduce water consumption. And they use an on-demand clean-burning propane-fired instant hot-water system to reduce the amount of energy used to heat water.
While there was much “green” thought that went into the building and the products that they sell, Townsend said what the people behind Common Grounds were really looking for was a space that fit the “third-place concept” – that third place where people are comfortable, besides at home and at work. The added comforts of a clean environment and fair-trade items could just be seen as icing on the cake.
“We wanted a place for the community, where everybody knows your name,” said Townsend, “where you can take your shoes off and kick back.”
The store has jumped on the social networking wave, as well, with a strong presence on Facebook (Common Grounds: A Fair Trade Coffee House) where they share coming events at the store, and Twitter (@SCommonGrounds) for news on menu changes and specials. They have proven to be an environmentally-sensitive coffee shop that features a creative menu and live entertainment.
That’s quite a journey from what started as a search for a new church building.
For more information or to see what Common Grounds is all about, including a menu, environmental and purpose statements, visit http://sbycommongrounds.com. They can also be reached by phone at (443) 736-4598.
