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Environmental Policy

 

Last reviewed:  19/08/21

Next reviewed: 19/08/22

Environmental Policy 2021

MISSION STATEMENT

As a B Corp Certified organisation, Origin Coffee recognises that it has a responsibility to the environment beyond legal and regulatory requirements. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods.

RESPONSIBILITY

Nicola Tremayne, Sustainability Officer, is responsible for ensuring that this environmental policy is implemented, however, all employees have a responsibility in the area to ensure that the aims and objectives of this policy are met.

POLICY AIMS

  • Comply with all relevant regulatory requirements
  • Continually improve and monitor environmental performance
  • Continually improve and reduce environmental impacts
  • Increase employee awareness

THE COFFEE ROASTING PROCESS

We use a natural carbonated water decaf process. The C02 process involves submerging the coffee in pressurised water and then adding C02 to draw the caffeine from the bean. It’s 100% organic and enables the coffee to retain its individual characteristics and flavour. The caffeine is treated as a waste product and resold for commercial use. The filtered organic matter from the water is used as a cow feed. This makes the process waste neutral and highly sustainable. The process is handled by CR3 in Germany.

The alternative is the Swiss Water Decaf process (SWD) whereby water is stripped of its caffeine through charcoal as opposed to C02. This process is handled in Canada. Not only does the new process with C02 make better use of waste products there is a significant reduction in our coffees carbon footprint by reducing its travel distance so dramatically.

We roast using The Loring Smart Roast patented technology which eliminates the need for an afterburner reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 80% compared to previous roasting methods.

CUPS

We are committed to lowering our reliance on single-use cups and plastic by offering compostable and recyclable products. In our cafés we sell reusable cups and customers who bring a reusable cup receive a discount on takeaway coffee.

Since introducing this discount in 2018, sales of reusable cups have increased by 200% and we have reduced the number of take away cups used compared to the kg of coffee sold by, on average, 40% in our London Cafés.

WASTE AND RECYCLING

Origin is zero waste to landfill across all our sites. Where possible we reuse and recycle packaging materials.

  • Coffee chaff – available to the public to collect from the roastery to use as compost, chicken bedding, or for mulching. Excess are sent to an Anaerobic Digester.
  • Coffee grounds – available for customers to pick up, grounds can be used as a fertiliser or slug repellent, excess are sent to an Anaerobic Digester.
  • Coffee sacks – we sell these in our cafés with proceeds going to charity, any surplus being sent to a specialist recycling facility who reprocess them into carpet underlay.
  • Coffee bags – used coffee bags from our shops are collected and sent to a specialist recycling facility, we are working towards launching a new coffee bag that can be recycled more easily.

ENERGY USE

We encourage energy efficient practices in the office, all computers and machinery are switched off overnight and when not in use.

We purchase our gas used to power our coffee roasters from Ecotricity who invest in green gas mills and are against fracking. 14% of the gas they supply is green. In 2019 we installed state of the art energy monitoring technology at the Roastery, this gives us real time information on how we are using electricity which will allow us to make savings.

PAPER

All paper and envelopes that we use in the office are recycled. We encourage customers to choose email invoices over paper, and default printing settings are set to double sided to reduce consumption.

TARGETS

  • Aim to reduce tCO2e per Full Time Employee (FTE) by 10% by 2021, so that we move from 3.8 tCO2e to 3.4 tCO2e per FTE
  • Aim to reduce tCO2e per £1 million turnover by 10% from 11 tCO2e to 9.9 tCO2e per £1 million turnover

POLLUTION PREVENTION

Origin Coffee do not handle hazardous materials. We have in place strict waste and recycling procedures to ensure all waste is correctly disposed of to avoid pollution. WEEE is collected by licenced waste carriers when required.  The coffee roasters are fitted with cyclones (from Loring) and Electrostatic filtration systems, which combined are designed to remove all chaff and all particulate from the roasting process. We have also invested in carbon filtration which is designed to remove odour.

MONITORING AND IMPROVEMENT

An annual environmental audit is carried out at The Roastery with the results written up in our Sustainability Report, which compares progress to the baseline year and sets targets for the coming year.