Our philosophy: Coffee ToStay

What's the use in rushing? Enjoy your coffee in peace! In our canteens and coffee bars.

Take your time!

In recent years, the studierendenWERK BERLIN has significantly invested in making the canteens and coffee bars attractive for their guests. Their modern design, cosy ambience, and stylishly decorated guest areas invite you to linger. They are not only gastronomic facilities, but also meeting places, as well as places of learning for Berlin's students.

We know that daily student life is hectic and time pressure is often enormous. Nevertheless, we invite you to take a break and enjoy your coffee in peace and quiet. This is healthier for you and — by doing away with the paper cups —better for the environment.

Our facilities offer a wide variety of hot drinks in porcelain cups at unbeatable prices. And if, for once, it has to be to-go: bring a reusable cup with you! Guests who fill their hot drink into a cup of their own or into a CampusCup receive a discount of 20 cents on the beverage.

Figures, data, facts

The conservation of natural resources and environmental friendliness are important principles that drive our actions. As early as 2012, the studierendenWERK BERLIN began to counteract the trend of disposable to-go cups. At that time, the proportion of hot drinks sold in environmentally harmful to-go cups was around 70% of all hot drinks.

In 2012, we launched the "Porcelain Instead of Cardboard" campaign. Since then, we have been able to sell the CampusCup, a reusable porcelain cup.

In 2015, the studierendenWERK BERLIN introduced a surcharge for hot drinks sold in disposable cups, which at the time amounted to an extra 10 cents per cup. As a counterinitiative, a five-cent discount per drink was granted when reusable to-go cup was used.

In April 2017, we standardized the surcharge and discount to 20 cents per single-use cup and per reusable cup, respectively.

In 2018, we increased the surcharge for disposable to-go cups to 40 cents per cup. By the end of the year, we were able to reduce paper cup waste to less than 9%.

Since 2019, we have completely dispensed with paper cups.

Ideally, we would like to cease with single-use altogether, but due to organisational reasons, this is not yet possible. However, we consciously attempt to act as sustainably as possible — for instance, when using disposable tableware.

Our single-use bowls are PLA cups. These are made from lactic acid, which is an intermediate product in the process of sugar or starch fermentation (e.g., corn), subsequently polymerised.

With numerous campaigns and projects running, the studierendenWERK BERLIN invests in sustainability in its use of natural resources. We operate solar plants on the roofs of various canteens — and even a wind turbine on the rooftop of our Hardenbergstraße site. Our napkins are made of recycled materials.

You can find out more about other sustainability projects of the studierendenWERK BERLIN on this page.

What we have achieved so far

As recently as April 2015, paper cup consumption was 64%. Since then, we have been able to continuously reduce it: In August 2018, only 9% of hot drinks were sold in disposable cups. In January 2019, we stopped issuing paper cups altogether.