WHAT IS CLIMATE NEUTRAL COFFEE?
Given the choice, most people would prefer a cup of coffee that comes with no negative footprint on the planet. Our two founders give a view of what it actually takes to change an industry.
Casper Willer (CW): Let’s first talk about what really tricked our sustainability mission. Why we decided to challenge the heavy systems and old habits that surround the coffee industry.
Lasse Grosen (LG): You’re right there were some defining experiences that shaped us. The starting point was all the waste we saw coming from coffee consumption. All the packaging. The aluminum pods and capsules. All the plastic bags. All the endless waste. Nobody had taken a zero-waste approach, and it quickly became our focus.
CW: Yes, and we found good inspiration in the famous Danish “bottle return system”. Everyone we collaborated with instantly saw the potential. From clients, roasters, and our distribution partners. The point was just that we had to invent our own zero-waste containers. So we could store the beans as effectively as with bags. Integrating a one-way valve as part of the solution.
LG: From here on the ambition grew to take on every part of the journey one step at the time. Initially focusing on everything we could affect from the green beans lands locally in Denmark.
CW: That’s where we made our “local roasting only” as a guiding principle. So we could avoid unnecessary transportation, and have the shortest possible route from bean to cup freshness. Both quality and sustainable measure.
LG: Yes, and this gave way to the next principle of basing our logistics on carbon emission-free delivery only. We got our system going with the great folks at By-Expressen with delivery on bicycles, and then for longer rides and bigger quantities have our electrical van in place.
CW: A huge part of the carbon footprint from coffee consumption is after the supply chain ends at the consumer. Which machines do you use? What kinds of coffee do you brew? So we let our customers know the impact of their consumption, by sharing facts near the coffee machines. As an example, we made people aware that they reduce 70% of their carbon footprint by drinking coffee black or changing from cow to oat milk. So we have experimented a lot to configure our machines to run as smoothly on plant-based milk as on regular.
LG: Which brings us to what happens after your cup of coffee is consumed. This way our recycling program became all about taking coffee ground from useless waste to green energy. We now have an end product which is fertilizer and biogas. The latter as a green substitute for fossil fuels.
CW: And it's pretty inspiring for us to sum up the impact in easily digestible numbers. Like the 44.000 plastic bags that we have saved. The 6.000 kilometers of fossil fuel saved from transportation. Just this last year.
LG: But even though we have created these initiatives lowering the carbon emission, we still need to use carbon offsets for other parts of the supply chain, like transportation from origin to the roasting destination, to be able to have climate-neutral coffee at scale. We are partnering with CHOOOSE for our carbon offset program.
CW: From all of this, we are launching the Damn Good Calculator. So companies can see how much CO2, they can save partnering with us. Let’s say you are 250 employees, yearly we’ll save you for the equivalent of 204 return flights from Copenhagen to London. Making it easy to see how coffee can be part of the green transformation.
