We Started a First Nations Book Club
In mid-2020, we made a commitment to being more actively anti-racist as a company. One of our commitments was to learn more together, and so at the beginning of last year, we started a First Nations-centred book club for the Market Lane team. The club is an opportunity for us to enjoy and discuss some great literature, and to learn more about, and platform, the voices of some of Australia’s First Peoples. The books we read this year include Stan Grant’s Australia Day and Tyson Yunkaporta’s Sand Talk. We’re looking forward to discovering and discussing more books (as well as podcasts and films) together in 2022.
We continued our partnership with Children's Ground and our support for other important local organisations
In 2021 we continued our support for and partnership with Children's Ground, an organisation that works with First Nations children, families and communities to create meaningful and lasting change and reform. In NAIDOC Week in July, we donated one dollar for every bag of beans sold to Children’s Ground, with bag stickers, shop signage and online communications used to increase awareness of the wonderful work Children's Ground do, and to celebrate the week. In December, we offered a special by-donation gift-wrapping service with beautiful paper designed by talented artist Rachael Sarra, a First Nations artist from Goreng Goreng Country who believes in the power of art and design to connect communities and cultures. All proceeds from this service were donated to Children’s Ground. Through these initiatives combined, we were able to raise over $5000 for Children’s Ground.
In addition to our partnership with Children's Ground, we were also proud to support other wonderful and important local organisations, including Cafe Smart, SCARF and Food Bank. Financial donations to these organisations totalled about $5000; we also donated a large amount of roasted coffee to Food Bank.
We Established a Mental Health Scheme
Throughout the pandemic we have been consistently amazed by and in awe of our team members, who have showed incredible resilience and fortitude. This is especially true of our front-of-house team, who have dealt with lockdowns and regulation changes, mask mandates and vaccination checks, and have still showed up for work with friendliness, kindness and care for our customers and for each other.
We’re so grateful for our team and we don’t take their grace under pressure for granted. In July last year we introduced a Mental Health Fund for every Market Lane team member – office, roastery and shop staff included – in order to encourage a conversation around mental health, and to offer our team support if they want it. This fund provides each employee $400 per calendar year to spend on appointments with a professional mental health service provider of their choosing. We’re really proud of this initiative, and it is something we will offer our team on an ongoing basis
We Became Supporters of the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide
In 2021, we became data donors to the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide (SCTG). This is a collaborative initiative that uses submitted coffee contract information to create a new benchmarking tool for coffee pricing. We’re proud to join around 100 other coffee companies and organisations worldwide (including our Australian friends Seven Seeds, Rumble Coffee and 5 Senses) to help SCTG shift coffee pricing away from the highly volatile C-market to a more relevant, equitable, transparent and sustainable model.
We Became Carbon Neutral!
Sustainability has been one of our core values at Market Lane from the beginning. This year, we engaged climate and sustainability consultants Pangolin Associates to support us in becoming carbon neutral. This was a fascinating and involved process, which included an analysis of our entire business and review of our environmental impact across the board, and the purchasing of carbon offsets. We’ll be talking more about this initiative in the coming months, and we encourage all businesses, of all sizes and in all industries, to engage in the essential (and achievable!) process of becoming carbon neutral.
