Last year we set out on trying to write chapter two of our story. A narrative which takes us away from artisan coffee company and into a coffee brand. During this process, my personal interest surrounding recycling and carbon emissions grew and I felt it important to integrate the two. We decided that as an SME, we would try to become carbon neutral by the end of 2022. There is a lot more to this story, but the short version is…‘we are learning a lot!’

When I first started roasting coffee, I never thought it would become a business. The business began as a bi-product of the hobby getting too expensive. Fast forward 10 years and I am proud of what we have created but I don’t want to stop here. I want to create a brand that not only is representing Cheshire and the North West but also to become synonymous with adventure sports; cycling, rock climbing, mountaineering, etc. Essentially, all the sports which enjoy the incredible outdoors.

Over the last 9-months we have made investments to help reduce our carbon footprint but also to grow as a company. I recently did a presentation at Manchester library through Manchester Growth Hub, about the importance of sustainability for SMEs. One of the questions that I addressed was, can growth and sustainability go hand-in-hand. The honest answer is yes, but it does come at a cost, an opportunity cost. I believe that whilst making large capital investments to reduce carbon footprint is difficult, there are many smaller less expensive options that you definitely can accomplish.

Our goal for 2022 is to understand the true cost of claiming to be a Carbon Neutral company. There are too many easy opportunities for companies to ‘green wash’ their way to a certificate. What I mean by this is, you can run a basic calculation regarding your carbon footprint and then pay a ‘carbon tax’ to buy trees in some other part of the world. I’m not saying that this is completely negative, but companies choosing to pay a tax and not change a single element of their own process, doesn’t sit well with me. I want tangible results, ones that I can actually say “We reduced this amount of carbon.”

If we get to the end of 2022 and we’ve only succeeded 75% of the goal but I can actually stand there with a list of real changes we’ve made, then I will be ok with that. I hope that someone reading this takes some inspiration and finds one small part to make a change.

I will leave you with one final story...the 'Theory of 45 Folds'

If you take a single piece of paper and fold it in half, it may not look like much. However, if you keep repeating this just 44 more times, you will have a stack as high as the distance to the moon.

One simple change may not look like much, but if we can all do something, maybe we'll create something pretty spectacular.

Enjoy,

Alex