Dotsie Bausch is Changing the World – Or At Least the Price of Your Oat Milk Latte

Plant-powered Olympian Dotsie Bausch has been fiercely advocating for coffee companies to remove the non-dairy milk surcharge – now, Tim Hortons and Dunkin’ have become the latest chains to drop the levy.

It was a one-on-one meeting that eventually convinced Restaurant Brands International (RBI) to scrap the extra charge it placed on plant-based milk at Tim Hortons.

After several conversations over email, RBI sustainability chief Paul Yang took an in-person meeting with Dotsie Bausch, executive director of the dairy-free non-profit Switch4Good. During the meeting, Yang outlined the four “new branding” priorities at RBI: food, planet, people, and community.

Shortly after, Yang confirmed RBI’s decision to drop the non-dairy levy, suggesting that the move was aligned with these four pillars. He noted that Tim Horton’s had stopped charging extra for these milks in its home country of Canada starting January 2 of this year, and that it would follow through in the US in mid-February. The chain operates over 4,000 locations in Canada and around 700 in the latter.

“Paul was responsive from the beginning of our outreach to Restaurant Brands International and Tim Hortons, which immediately signalled to me a willingness to cooperate on something impactful for consumers,” Bausch, a silver medallist at the 2012 Olympics and star of The Game Changers, tells Green Queen.

“His agreement to drop the non-dairy surcharge in US stores reaffirms the faith we had in him, RBI, and Tim Hortons, and in turn makes good on the faith that consumers have in their brand.”

Shortly after, another coffee giant, Dunkin’, confirmed to Bausch that it was dropping the surcharge, starting next month.

Why the non-dairy surcharge needs to go

Calls to remove the plant-based milk levy in North America have become louder in recent years, with most chains still charging dairy-free consumers extra in the US, even if their international operations don’t.

Coffee companies are uniquely affected by climate change: their main commodity has more than doubled in price last year, and will continue to increase as extreme weather patterns ravage coffee crops. At the same time, dairy is arguably the second-most important food ingredient in their cafés – but it is a highly polluting food group that takes too much land and consumes too much water.

As these businesses work to lower their climate impact and deliver on their ESG goals, there’s a growing recognition that charging consumers more for choosing lower-impact foods makes little sense.

For example, RBI’s emissions related to dairy may have reduced from a 12% share in 2019 to 4% in 2022, but this was due to a change in how it measures this impact, switching from spend-based analysis to volume-based assessments. The company has also set a net-zero goal for 2050 – so encouraging customers to swap dairy for plant-based milk will only help its case.

Meanwhile, lactose intolerance and milk allergies are considered disabilities in the US – and at least 12% of Americans are intolerant to lactose, while over 5% (15 million) have a milk or dairy allergy. According to one estimate, 80-90% of African Americans, Native Americans and Asian Americans are lactose-intolerant.

Additionally, Gen Zers have said they’re ashamed to order conventional dairy in public, and Gen Alpha – identified as the largest and most climate-conscious generation in history – will be the first majority-minority demographic in the US.

Switch4Good to target Costa Coffee and other chains

“Prior to Dotsie’s meeting with Paul in January, we ran multiple tests on Tim Hortons’s ordering platform: in the US, the prices for different non-dairy milks ranged in prices, upwards of almost a dollar (USD), while in Canadian stores, it was usually free-of-charge,” Switch4Good spokesperson Jamie Evan Bichelman tells Green Queen.

According to Bausch, the meeting with Yang didn’t touch upon why some coffee chains promote the false premise that plant-based milk costs are exorbitant since they’re purchased in bulk. However, she pointed out that multiple global coffee chains have recently dropped the non-dairy surcharge, while many others have offered these milks as default or free of charge. So the argument that the cost be passed on to the consumer no longer flies.

It’s why some companies have faced class-action lawsuits against the surcharge, a list that includes Tim Hortons, Dunkin’, and Starbucks, which dropped the levy in October, as part of several measures responding to growing discontent and falling sales. Starbucks’s decision came after years of campaigning by groups including Switch4Good, which also helped convince another major coffee chain, Dutch Bros, to scrap the extra cost a few weeks ago.

Several other large coffee chains continue to uphold the surcharge. Bichelman confirms that Switch4Good is now targeting these companies, which include Costa Coffee.

It comes at a time when milk is making a comeback in the US, with whole milk sales up by 3% and plant-based milk sales declining by 5% in 2024, according to Circana, a somewhat surprising trend. Still, nearly half (49%) of households purchase non-dairy alternatives, retaining strong interest among Americans.

For Bausch, activism campaigns can make a difference, especially when industry giants are receptive. “[Paul] thanked me personally for our advocacy, which really meant something to me,” she says. “That a brand this massive has taken notice of our work advocating for the cessation of policies rooted in dietary racism is nothing short of remarkable.”

This story was updated to reflect that Dunkin’ has also decided to drop the non-dairy surcharge.