We are Carbon Neutral

Sustainability is one of our company’s core values. Since we opened our doors in 2009, we have constantly pursued ways to reduce our impact on the environment through better business practices. Since July 2020, we have been proudly carbon neutral.

Being carbon neutral means we’re committed to calculating the amount of carbon we emit from all our activities, reducing our carbon footprint wherever we can, and then purchasing carbon offsets to bring our emissions down to zero.

We take responsibility for all of our emissions, across our entire supply chain

We are committed to measuring, reducing and offsetting our emissions, not just at an organisation level but also at a product level – meaning we account for our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

With the help of carbon and energy management consultants, Pangolin Associates, we meticulously measure and offset the carbon emissions associated with every aspect of sourcing, roasting and delivering our coffee to you.

This includes taking responsibility for our:

• Scope 1 emissions: these are emissions we have direct control over, like the fuel used for our delivery vans and gas used for our roaster
• Scope 2 emissions: these are the indirect emissions from purchased energy used to run our shops and roastery
• Scope 3 emissions: these are literally all the other indirect emissions from our entire value chain. This encompasses everything, including the emissions from cultivating and transporting coffee beans, the production and transportation of the milk we use, carbon emitted from the packaging materials we use, the delivery of our coffee to our cafes, wholesale partners and online customers, all the waste generated, and even our team members’ commutes. 

We reduce our carbon footprint wherever we can

As a business, we are constantly looking for ways to eliminate or reduce our emissions. We're well aware that, on its own, carbon offsetting does not provide the answer to climate change. It's just one step in our sustainability journey, and it doesn’t stop there!

Each year, as part of our commitment to being a carbon neutral business, we undertake a carbon assessment, which provides a clear picture how every aspect of what we do impacts our overall carbon footprint. We use this information to inform our sustainability strategy, define and prioritise our reduction goals, and measure the impact of these

Some initiatives we have taken to reduce our emissions include:

• Installing solar panels at our roastery and head office in Brunswick East
• Diverting coffee grounds and organic waste from landfill to organic recycling
• Opting for coffee bags that are made with recycled post consumer waste
• Reducing single-use packaging by teaming up with Returnr
• Partnering with carbon neutral suppliers
• Transferring our electricity to renewable sources, where possible
• Purchasing an electric van for deliveries

We offset what we can't eliminate

As a business, we purchase carbon credits to offset the carbon we can't eliminate. These credits are invested in climate positive projects, like reforestation or renewable power projects.

In recent years, we purchased offsets for the following projects:

Karlantijpa North Savanna Burning project, Aboriginal Carbon Fund
Controlled burns in the early part of northern Australia’s dry season prevent bushfires that release enormous quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. The Savanna Burning project uses controlled burns to prevent greenhouse gas emissions while providing significant income to First Nations groups.

Native Forest Restoration, GreenFleet
Greenfleet is an Australian not-for-profit organisation that plants biodiverse native forests that are legally protected for 100 years. These forests capture carbon emissions to help protect our climate, improve soil and water quality, and provide habitat for native wildlife.

Energy Efficient Stoves, Ethiopia
This project, managed by World Vision, involves the distribution of energy efficient cooking stoves to households in Ethiopia. The majority of households in rural areas Ethiopia cook over open fires, and this leads to significant consumption of wood, as well as a major health risk. To combat this problem, this project distributes low cost, high efficiency stove designs that use considerably less wood than conventional open fires, reducing greenhouse gas emissions stemming from the use of non-renewable biomass.

Protecting Native Forests, Brazil
The Pacajai REDD+ project aims to avoid and prevent unplanned deforestation in native forests in the State of Para, Brazil and allow forest regeneration by reducing the cultivation of high intensity crops. The project trains and employs local riverine people to create a private reserve and monitor biodiversity in the region while also reducing cassava production by focusing on smaller footprint crops as alternatives.

To date we have run full audits for the financial years of 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23. Financial year 2023/24 is currently being assessed. You can learn more about our carbon reduction efforts, see a breakdown of our emissions by scope and view our retired credits here.