This Episode of Bottomless Coffee is about sustainability AND coffee! That’s so perfect for us! This conversation is with Josh Holt from Coffee Story, a London based specialty coffee roaster that’s woven sustainable practices and sustainable thinking into their business model. For more information on Coffee Story you should absolutely check out their website at CoffeeStory.uk.
Insights
Building a business that embraces sustainable thinking throughout the organization is tough, but it’s much easier when you incorporate sustainability into your initial business plan rather than try to shoehorn sustainable practices into an existing business model. Our guest, Josh Holt of Coffee Story, has done exactly that. From its inception, Coffee Story has prioritized sustainable practices throughout its supply chain in order to ensure that the company acts in an ethical and responsible manner at every point in which it conducts business.
Sustainable and Responsible Coffee Production
As we talked about in Episode 7 with Alice Tang, thinking about sustainability is a complex affair of competing priorities and interwoven systems. As a specialty coffee roaster with a focus on sustainability, Coffee Story works directly with farmers whenever possible to ensure that their practices meet Coffee Story’s standard for social and environmental practices. This practice is intentional and slow because – as Josh notes in the conversation – many farmers are already engaged in organic practices but they cannot afford to pay someone to certify that their practices are organic. Navigating an international system of coffee brokers and farmers to return as much money as possible directly to the farmers that produce the coffee in a sustainable way is major focus of Coffee Story’s business model.
Sustainable Coffee Distribution
As noted in the conversation, Josh from Coffee Story goes to great lengths to ensure that Coffee Story is as sustainable as possible. That practice extends to its business to business and direct to consumer practices.
As supplier of coffee to local coffee shops, Coffee Story makes the simple step of delivering refills in reusable tubs rather than in single use containers. Customers of those coffee shops may not know it, but their carbon footprint is greatly reduced when they frequent coffee shops that are supplied by Coffee Story!
That same care goes into Coffee Story’s consumer practice. They are always thinking about how to make the business more responsible and more ethical. Their consumer packaging tells the story of the farmer’s that they work with as a way of amplifying the voice of the farmer. That same packaging is also subject to rigorous scrutiny as Josh may spend months looking for the most sustainable packaging for Coffee Story’s product.
