Our different approach
We’re committed to designing a better coffee system. For over a decade, we’ve refined our sourcing, operations, and retail experience to ensure every pound of coffee we sell drives a positive social and environmental impact. Our ambition is to make our responsible business standards not just an available option, but the status quo. Scroll down to learn how we’re building a more equitable, sustainable future for coffee.

Supporting Smallscale Farmers
Smallholder farmers sustain the industry but remain the most economically marginalized and least rewarded in coffee’s retail price. We prioritize sourcing from countries where smallholder farms are the majority and stand to gain the most economically from international market access. We champion agricultural models that promote biodiversity and support indigenous and rural communities, helping protect their land and livelihoods.

Paying More For Coffee
Conversations about coffee prices can be complex, but ethical pricing is simple to us: farmers deserve to earn above their cost of production and have a say in the profits they keep. That’s not the status quo in our industry, and despite great strides in ethical certifications lifting the bar for prices to growers, a cetification is not a replacement for price transparency, or a guarantee of a profit for a farmer. We pay 60%-100% more than Fair Trade Minimum prices and we are committed to paying prices that surpass the regional cost of production. Commercial coffee prices ("C Price"), and sometimes Fair Trade minimums, fall below the well researched cost to produce coffee sustainably. We make our prices, and the latest industry research on farm profitability transparent to our customers in an annual transparency report, the latest version is at the top of this page.

Reducing Our Environmental Impact
Coffee is a high intensity carbon impact food. Most GHG emissions and landfill waste occur in the final phases of coffee's lifecycle (roasting, distributing, retailing, brewing and consuming). We are committed to delivering a lower carbon impact cup. Today some commitments towards this include using 100% biodegradable packaging for our coffee bags, composting in 2 on 4 of our cafés, incentivising the use of reusable cups in our cafés by offering $0.25c rebate on drinks.
FAQ
In short, no, because we do not believe Organic Certification to be the highest impact way to improve farm-level and coffees carbon footprint (to read the nitty gritty that forms this opinion, scroll down below). We consider the environmental impact of coffee production and our entire supply chain, and stand committed to reduction of our businesses carbon footprint in the following ways:
- We donate $0.01c (USD) per pound of coffee to World Coffee Research whose mission is to create a toolbox of coffee varieties, genetic resources and accompanying technologies and to disseminate them strategically and collaboratively in producing countries to alleviate constraints to the supply chain of high quality coffee. In 2022, this contribution was $888USD. - We invest in biodegradable packaging for our coffee bags, in 2022 that was 52,483 coffee bags redirected from long term landfill. - In 2022, we composted over 7000 LBS of ground coffee from 3 on 4 of our cafes. - 46% of our e-commerce deliveries in 2022 were effected by carbon neutral shipping methods (bike courier, picked up in store or our zero-net ground ship partners Boxknight) The Nitty Gritty: To earn organic certification, coffee farmers must use an agriculture system that produces food-supporting biodiversity and enhances soil health. They can only use approved substances and organic farming methods. Many of the coffees that we buy adhere to all the principles of organic farming, but the farmer or cooperative simply has not paid to have the organization certified, or has failed to meet the criteria due to small matters that would not otherwise contradict the principles behind the certification. Achieving certification is a costly and long-term process that many farmers struggling in cyclical poverty cannot access. For this reason, we support and encourage smallholder farmers who practice ecologically sustainable farming practices, whether or not they are third-party certified, on their pathway to obtaining organic certification, or already certified.
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