Climate-positive coffee
More pictures of our plantations with trees; we just can't get enough of it!
Carbon sequestration in the soil and trees
We do a lot to minimise and offset our emissions and we also offset all the other emissions from farm to your cup of coffee. However by far the biggest impact we have is promoting organic coffee as the trees on and around the plantations sequester some 10 times more carbon than we offset with all our schemes.
The trees, their roots, the branches, leaves and fruits that fall, the undergrowth, the mycelium in the ground all capture carbon very efficiently. They trap moisture effectively causing cooling, They sustain micro-organisms that breakdown soil replenishing the plants with trace-elements and more common elements that most soils are now lacking.
Connected tree, native trees promote biodiversity and create microclimates and if the area cover is large enough entire climates.
Promoting organic or so called regenerative agriculture is the most effective way to sequester carbon, reducing overall carbon in the atmosphere and stop climate change.
Organic coffee growing with all its trees is an extremely positive form of carbon sequestration.
We recommend to see the full documentary below on this page. We can't put it any better!
Toitu Carbonzero
We believe that any business should be sustainable in all ways and not put an unfair burden on the environment and the least powerful in the supply chain.
As part of our organic beliefs, becoming Toitū carbonzero certified in 2008 well ahead of the current growing awareness of climate change was a no-brainer. We measure and reduce our emissions from port of loading the green coffee beans until they arrive freshly roasted at your doorstep. Remaining emissions are offset with carbons credits that were used to fund reforestation projecst in NZ with native trees but lately credits are sourced from Fairtrade credits that help coffee farmers. See below.
For the last years we meet our target of less than 0.9T COe per T of coffee sold.
Trees That Count
In order to ensure Fairtrade Carbon Credits and Toitu carbon credits have 100% credibility that for example planted trees are safe from felling for eg 50 years, the projects they support have to comply with many conditions. This makes these schemes expensive and with a very limited choice of projects. We also want to do reforestation projects in NZ and do projects that seem easier to do and have equal or more impact. We know from our certified schemes how many trees we need to plant to offset CO2 emissions. Using the same calculators and making estimates as to what a household would use in terms of power to make a cup of coffee, and make conservative estimates about anything else we have not accounted for along the supply chain like methane emissions at the coffee plantation from composting, emissions in making our packaging we make a very conservative estimate of needing to plant a native tree for every 150kg of coffee we sell. Hence sponsor Trees That Count with a tree planted per 100kg of coffee we sell.
This makes the entire supply chain from farm to cup of coffee carbon positive without including the carbon we sequester on the plantations which is about 10 times more!
Trees for Survival
Yes we really like trees. And we need them and our children need to learn about them. Hence, we also decided to sponsor Trees for Survival and have committed to sponsor St Joseph School in New Plymouth who will be planting some 1500 seedlings as of 2022.