Global Citizens

This page holds a little more detail about our commitment to being good global citizens.

Fairtrade

Ok, so we're starting with something that we don't do. But, please, read on. Restricting our sourcing Fairtrade certified coffee, we'd miss out on a large part of the speciality coffee market. Fairtrade is a certification process that is focused on a base price, working standards and the standard of production.

For certification, a farm is audited to ensure it meets these standards - this is one way in which we can have confidence that this coffee has been sourced fairly. However, for many coffee farmers, especially those that are smaller and therefore more specialised, achieving Fairtrade certification is not possible. The process is costly, requires resources and can put their business at risk.

What is interesting is that the premium that is often imposed on Fairtrade coffee doesn't always end up in the farmer's pocket as the organisation needs to be paid for the process of certification to be carried out and maintained. Another point to consider is that this certification process does not include a quality rating. This means that a farmer focusing on quality production that would then go on to produce speciality grade coffee, is able to charge much more than a farmer that is certified Fairtrade with bad quality coffee.

There is an interesting read here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/10-reasons-fair-trade-coffee-doesnt-work_b_5651663

In short - we are committed to high quality, speciality coffee, sourced sustainably and produced ethically. We do this by employing importers who trade directly with farmers and pay ABOVE the Fairtrade rate - directly to the farmers / farming community.

We also donate a proportion of every bean we sell to World Coffee Research (https://worldcoffeeresearch.org/about) who actively work with communities to bring a better life for farmers and improve the long term ecology of coffee production.

Every day, we...

• buy renewable energy
• recycle all that we can
• run a 99% paperless office
• use only biodegradable filling for packaging and reuse boxes and packaging where possible
• encourage our suppliers to cut out plastic as much as possible
• order in bulk to reduce transport footprint
• use paper tape instead of plastic tape
• do not use air conditioning but ventilate with fans and windows
• re-use coffee waste
• work with DPD and Royal Mail who are top performers in both delivery and their commitment to sustainability.

One of our biggest achievements has been the investment of our roasting machinery which uses 80% less gas compared to traditional roasters... now that is amazing!

In our office:

• low energy use with LED lighting
• Air Source Heat Pumps for heating
• Point of Sale and Marketing materials are printed on FSC certified papers