In Nicaragua,
Our partners, Expocamo, are committed to growing the grassroots of Nueva Segovia’s specialty coffee industry through sustainable agriculture and long-term thinking. They work closely with small farmers to make practical changes. Teams of local agronomists and crop specialists help farmers increase quality as well as be more resilient as Nicaraguan rainy seasons become increasingly volatile.
In 2018, Expocamo announced a new certification “Certified Organic Specialty Coffee”:
- The goal: allow small farmers to sell their organically-produced specialty beans as “certified organic”. This means they no longer need to pay for a costly “official” certification from the national cooperative.
- The result: smallholder farmers are now rewarded for their efforts, while still maintaining traceability, quality control, and price autonomy.
In Rwanda,
Twongerekawa Coko, our partner cooperative, has made several pragmatic decisions to increase the sustainability of their production, fueled in part by the premiums we’ve paid for their past two harvests.
- They invested in an efficient Colombian machine washer to fuel the fermentation process at their washing station. Despite their location high in a rural, mountainous area, they are able to rely fully on naturally collected mountain runoff water to process all of their crop yields.
- In 2016, the cooperative’s members decided to spend the premium they received from buyers like us on five community cows. Cow manure is perfect fertilizer for coffee trees in the region, and keeps our farmers’ soil healthy and regenerative.
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In recent offseasons, they have committed to increasing the biodiversity of their member farms, mainly by investing in shade tree planting. Shade trees protect coffee plants from excessive sunlight and wind, and provide sources of food and firewood for the community, reducing the need for cooking gas.
- They’ve recently joined forces with their neighbor cooperative, Abakundakawa, to start a nursery for fruit and shade trees and introduce agroforestry practices to their members.
In Transit,
Transporting green coffee beans across continents creates a fucking massive carbon footprint.
Our ethical import partner, This Side Up, works closely with their carefully selected export partners to ensure that shipments are sent in the most efficient ways. Our first ever mass-purchase of green beans from Rwanda, for example, was sent in a container slated to leave port half-empty. Think of it as “piggy-backing” or “hitch-hiking.”
In Amsterdam,
We commit to removing plastic and using cans instead for our main packaging. Read more about why here.
We released our funky reusable cups to encourage our customers to ditch paper or plastic to-go cups and look good doing it.
We partner with Moma to make sure the fresh milk in all our creamy drinks comes from a local dairy farm by bike cooler.
Finally, we basically deliver all of our Amsterdam-based orders by bike using recycled packaging.