SUSTAINABILITY

We strongly believe in the benefits of setting up business models that follow circular economy principles. Our current lineal model produces too much waste, and the producers of goods are not taking the responsibility to deal with it.

A truly circular model requires collaboration between industries and consumers. To make this happen, we have been a driving force in the creation of Circular Coffee Scotland (www.circularcoffee.org), a community of producers and consumers working together to make Scotland the first Circular Coffee country in the world.

It’s hasn’t been long since almost all coffee packaging was made of non-recyclable material, but thankfully things have moved on in recent years. Now we are able to use recyclable material that keeps our specialty coffee super fresh. All our bags have a #4 symbol printed on them to show they are fully recyclable wherever you live. You can even recycle the little cut line at the top of the bag too! The #4 logo means the easiest place to recycle your used Artisan Roast bags and tabs is to pop them in the carrier bag recycling bin at larger supermarkets. Alternatively, you are welcome to bring them to any of our cafes, and we will take care of the recycling for you.

Our commitment to sustainability goes beyond selecting recyclable material that can be repurposed into new products because the bag manufacturer we work with offsets the carbon used to make them. Recent projects have focused on projects in coffee- producing countries like India, Vietnam and most recently Brazil.

Reducing packaging while maintaining design quality and beauty is not always an easy task. Our wholesale customers in Edinburgh receive their coffee in reusable containers that we collect and then use again in the next delivery. Our shops sell some of our most popular blends in bulk, and we put the coffee in the container the customer brought with them. Even though we love our beautiful white bags (that are recyclable, by the way), we are constantly looking for ways to stop using them.

It has been estimated that more than 500,000 tons of spent coffee are produced every year in the UK. Every ton of spent coffee not processed properly will produce 1.7 tons of CO2. Spent coffee is an incredibly rich substance that still has lots of potential to be uncovered.

Most we have done in the last few years has been to find ways to upcycle it into other products with commercial value. Part of our spent coffee is used by local entrepreneurs to create a number of products: candles, coasters, hand scrub and dog soap. We dry some and give it to local customers to be used as fertiliser for their plants. We also supply a local mushroom farm. We still have more to give away. If you have a use for it, please give us a call.

Sustainability all the way to your doorstep. We are always looking for the best ways to deliver our coffee. We deliver directly to our wholesale customers, avoiding all the extra miles added by shipping companies in distribution centres and warehouses. We also offer them the option to pick up directly from our shops.

For our online customers, we provide CLICK&;COLLECT from any of our shops too. For the rest of our online customers, we use the Royal Mail because they have the lowest reported carbon emissions per parcel of any other UK delivery company (over 90,000 posties in the UK on foot walking to deliver)

We represent several coffee equipment companies. Each of them has been selected for the quality of their equipment as well as their sustainability credentials BREWED BY HAND sources materials from sustainable suppliers, ensuring that their equipment is made from ethically and responsibly obtained resources.

By prioritising sustainable materials, they minimise the environmental impact associated with their production which aligns perfectly with our ethos. VICTORIA ARDUINO is another supplier we work with and stands as a prime example of sustainability in coffee machine manufacturing. They prioritise eco-conscious practices, utilising recyclable materials and energy-efficient technologies. By creating durable machines, they promote sustainable consumption and minimise waste generation.

We efficiently deal with the two main by-products from our roasting operation: coffee sacks and chaff. The sacks are given to a local company that uses them to make building insulation and the chaff is used for mushroom growing in a local farm.

Coffee is a very rich substance, full of components that, if extracted properly, can be used in many ways for commercial and home purposes. Over the last 6 years, we have actively participated in several projects, collaborating with some of the best universities in Scotland and Chile, including Strathclyde, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Chile University.

We have also worked with Zero Waste Scotland and IBioiC. Currently, we are involved in two exciting projects: one with the University of Chile to produce 100% organic biomaterials using spent coffee and the second exploring the best use of spent coffee for mushroom farms.

Staying true to our goal of fostering a collaborative circular economy in the coffee world, we constantly visit and maintain contact with our farmers. When we visit farms, it's paramount to us that we discuss the welfare, social and environmental conditions in place.

We reward exceptional quality with prices well above the Fairtrade minimum pricing and the NY market. Third-party accreditation is an important part of the coffee world and involves certification schemes such as Organic, Fairtrade, or Rainforest Alliance. We work with both certified coffee growers and additional coffee farmers who meet our own high ethical standards.