It’s B Corp Month!

Published 14 Mar 2023

If you’ve seen our recent socials, you’ll know that March is B Corp Month – and we’re extremely excited to be celebrating it for the first time since becoming certified! This year’s theme, We Go Beyond, provides a great opportunity to share greater insights into why we decided to pursue certification, how we aspire to use our business to achieve positive change and the steps we’ve taken to go beyond business as usual – for good!

As an independently owned and run business, we’ve always had the freedom to base our decisions on our values and principles, often choosing the path of action that simply felt right. Achieving this certification enables us to affirm our practises beyond what feels right, and to investigate, identify and prioritise where we can do better. The rigorous certification process holds us accountable to our own high standards and objectives, and the ongoing cycle of assessment, goal setting and recertification ensures the continued development and improvement of our business.

A rewarding outcome of the long and detailed certification process was the recognition that many of B Corp’s core values and goals were already baked into our business model. From our very early days as a business, we made a commitment to source coffee with deliberate and responsible practices, with the goal of establishing an open and equitable supply chain. Our focus has always been on developing and maintaining long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with our supply partners, paying profitable prices for coffee – regardless of fluctuations in the market – and celebrating the expertise, skill and dedication of the producing communities we are privileged to work with.

When it comes to purchasing coffee, our philosophy is simple: to maximise what a grower is paid for their coffee crop. As a buyer, it is our responsibility to pay fair and profitable prices that account not only for a coffee’s quality, suitability and marketability, but are contextualised by region-specific factors, such as cost of production, access to resources, infrastructure or financing, and other unique complexities that may affect a producing community. Additionally, identifying the motivations and needs of each of our supply partners is critical, as these can vary greatly from one to another. For some, growing our total order size is their priority; while for others, pre-committing to our volumes in advance is invaluable, helping to minimise their risk or get pre-harvest financing.

Beyond how we pay for coffee, we are actively seeking new and meaningful ways to contribute to positive change across the coffee industry. To this end, in 2022 we fulfilled our third year running as both data and financial donors to the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide, and our fourth year as an active supporter of World Coffee Research. Additionally, we have operated as a Carbon Neutral business since July 2020, offsetting 100% of all carbon produced in our supply chain – including the growing, milling and shipping of our coffees from origin, and through to delivery at your roasting site.

Ultimately, we have made these decisions because we want to use our business as a vehicle that celebrates the inspiring people in our coffee community. We truly respect and care about the many talented and dedicated individuals we are connected to through coffee – both here and abroad. We adore working with our roasting customers, whose trust, support, curiosity and enthusiasm has continuously motivated and inspired us to do better. It’s a privilege and responsibility to work with both sides of the supply chain, and we are passionate about creating meaningful connection between producers and roasters. 

For each coffee lot that we sell, we offer full traceability; detailing where and how the coffee was grown and processed, and focusing attention on the individuals and communities that produced that particular offering. It’s also the reason we love getting together with our Australian coffee community at the various Origin Spotlight and Let’s Cup! events we hold (especially those hosted by one of our roasting partners!), which give us an opportunity to share stories and context from our treasured suppliers. 

Achieving B Corp certification is just one more way to engage meaningfully with our industry, and to work towards a more sustainable future for specialty coffee production. Join us this month, as we continue to talk about what it means to go beyond business as usual—and reach out if you’d like to learn more about the B Corp process and how you can become certified!