"We promise to be a great partner to our vendors, clients, communities, and the Earth."
We love working with our vendors to create meaningful partnerships. Many of whom share our values and philosophies. This helps us fulfill our promise through: the ethical sourcing of the roasted beans, our bags for the beans we sell, the pouches that hold our Ready to Drink Brews and the packaging we use when “Bringing the Brew to You”. We make every decision with our promise in the forefront of our minds. Through partnering with Climate Neutral, 1% For The Planet and the pursuit of becoming B Corp certified (currently we have Pending B Corp status) we are constantly looking to improve our processes.
From the time that we purchased our location at 644 N Broad Street in Fairborn, OH (aka The Innovation Lab), we’ve focused on renovating it in the most efficient and environmentally friendly way possible. All of the fluorescent lights throughout were converted to LEDs, we opted for a water filtration system that does not include reverse osmosis to decrease the amount of water waste and installed a high efficiency walk in refrigerator. We did purchase a used merchandising refrigerator (we are small business and budgets matter) and plan to upgrade it within the next two years to an energy efficient merchandising refrigerator. We also plan to replace one of our cooling units with a more energy efficient model. The long term goal is to supplement the energy consumed by our refrigeration units with solar power.
How our commitment to our values and in turn the environment has shaped how we brought our products to market:
Our delivery packaging is environmentally friendly. The bag is yours to reuse as much as you'd like. Our freezer gel packs are unique. They are also reusable, if you decide to dispose of the freezer pack. The gel contains an all-natural drain cleaner which, when poured down the drain, generates zero clogs. Also the gel is Nitrogen rich and can be used as plant food.
Our packaging for our coffee beans are environmentally friendly. We source ourcompostable bag and valve which is certified 100% compostable according to industrial standard EN13432 from North Atlantic Bags. As of November of 2010 North Atlantic Specialty Bag’s Reading Facility has gone solar, enabling them to create eco-friendly product packaging. This new system has been designed and installed to produce enough electricity to run their whole Reading, PA. facility. This in conjunction with opening their Midwest regional facility in Beloit, WI in 2009 has helped them significantly reduce their impact on the environment as a company.
Our compostable labels and adhesive comes from Elevate Packaging.Elevate Packaging has been a pioneer and leader in sustainable packaging since 2000. They have been exclusively dedicated to sustainable packaging solutions since the day their doors opened for business. Elevate Packaging has been entirely focused on sustainable packaging since the company was started 19 years ago. Their line of eco-friendly adhesive labels, PURE Labels™ was launched in 2007, and their PURE Labels product line has the widest range of certified compostable adhesive labels (in fact, they are the only certified compostable labels available!).
Our coffee bean blends Connection 102 and Introspection 180 are air roasted by Seven Hills Coffee Roasters. They are pioneers in the sustainable coffee and support for coffee farmers movement. They were one of the very first Fair Trade Licensees in the country. According to Andy Timmerman (CoFounder): “Becoming a licensee is a pretty involved process, some roasters will have you believe that just buying a bag of Fair Trade coffee and roasting and selling it make them part of the Fair Trade movement, only partially. Much of the money that goes back to the farmer through Fair Trade comes from the quarterly dues, based on pounds of coffee purchased, and carefully documented with multi page reports, that only Licensees participate in. Another aspect unique to our business is the fact that we roast with Sivetz roasters. This is a hot air roaster, that roasts coffee on a column of hot air that is exhausted throughout the roast process, also known as RFB, rotating fluid bed.This process yields a cleaner flavor profile and a better developed bean. “
And last but certainly not least, our entrepreneurial leadership program. The pandemic has significantly delayed our development of the program. However, we promise to apply 50% to 20% of earnings from sales to build our entrepreneurial leadership program for young adults (teens). Why the range of percentage? In the beginning we will be funding the program directly and as we grow the business we will reinvest to push the program development further. In the beginning of our growth we will be investing more in the program and as our profits increase we will be able to sustain that development at a lower percentage.
Our coffee bean blends Connection 102 and Introspection 180 are air roasted by Seven Hills Coffee Roasters. They are pioneers in the sustainable coffee and support for coffee farmers movement. They were one of the very first Fair Trade Licensees in the country. According to Andy Timmerman (CoFounder): “Becoming a licensee is a pretty involved process, some roasters will have you believe that just buying a bag of Fair Trade coffee and roasting and selling it make them part of the Fair Trade movement, only partially. Much of the money that goes back to the farmer through Fair Trade comes from the quarterly dues, based on pounds of coffee purchased, and carefully documented with multi page reports, that only Licensees participate in. Another aspect unique to our business is the fact that we roast with Sivetz roasters. This is a hot air roaster, that roasts coffee on a column of hot air that is exhausted throughout the roast process, also known as RFB, rotating fluid bed.This process yields a cleaner flavor profile and a better developed bean. “
