Buying green coffee in an ethical and sustainable way
We believe all businesses, coffee related or not, should strive to be as ethical and sustainable as possible, as standard. We want to be part of making the world a better place, filled with a community that cares for one another and the beautiful world in which we live.
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Our people
First and foremost, we want to be building a business that promotes and encourages it’s staff. Our global impact starts at home with every person involved, so we want to make sure that everyone at Seven Districts is cared for, empowered and given the opportunity to grow.
From our kitchen staff to our production roasters, we want everybody to be able to share thoughts, ideas and suggestions about how we can make Seven Districts a great place to work and a continue to be a brilliant coffee company for our customers to put their trust in.
Our coffee
Coffee supply chains are deeply complex, covering difficult terrain over vast geographies and political differences. We are committed to working solely with the most respected, authoritative alliances to source our coffee beans, who are responsible for maintaining ethical practises, fair wages and direct sourcing from every coffee farmer or producer.
Every function and process in a supply chain carries an operating cost and is required to be profitable for the supply chain to remain viable. To achieve this our suppliers work to replace hidden costs with economic transparency. Everything needs to be accounted for. This means everyone from the farmer to the delivery person is paid fairly. Every time.
Every single origin, speciality coffee is really scrutinised, checking the supply chains and qualities via the SCA (speciality Coffee Assoc.) to bring you some of the best coffee in the world.
Direct trade and certification
We completely remove ourselves from the commodity coffee industry by ensuring the prices we negotiate are at levels that benefit all involved throughout the supply chain. The costs agreed cover the production of coffee and at a level that represents the incredible quality that we’re being supplied.
The price we pay can often be four times above the price the producer would get from the global market, which in itself often fails to cover the costs of production.
Certificates are important to us, especially when we’re using larger estates that may have more people involved in the production process. Certificates such as Rainforest Alliance and Utz have principles embedded in International Labour Law (ILO), which simply means coffee worker’s rights are respected.
Such certificates also demonstrate a level of respect and responsibility for the sustainability of agricultural land and its natural ecosystems.
If the quality is high enough we will buy Fair Trade coffees. This organisation contributes a social premium to a smallholder cooperative which can be used towards projects which are beneficial to the whole community such as primary schools or medical dispensaries.
If a farm is not certified, we are able to visit and carry out our own audits to make sure that it is working in line with our social and environmental principles.
Planting trees and lowering our carbon footprint
Forests all around the globe (which are already shrinking at an alarming rate) are slowly reaching their maximum carbon storage capacity – they won’t be able to absorb much more carbon for the decades to come. At the very least, we need new sources of carbon capture to take up the burden of human industry.
There are lots of different approaches to this problem. But it’s only by planting trees that we can increase carbon capture, revitalise species and provide social and economic benefits to local communities.
We’ve partnered with the brilliant team at TreeApp, to help us plant a tree for every purchase of a coffee bundle or subscription. Besides lowering our carbon footprint, it just makes sense for loads of reasons that should be ‘as standard’ for any business today.
Fighting food waste
Around 1/3 of all food produced goes to waste. The impact that is having on the planet is nothing short of massive, damaging our lands and seas, ramping up our energy consumption and critically effecting our future generations.
The collective impact of human activities has drastically and significantly altered the conditions of life on Planet Earth, and this is now becoming truly visible across our environment and yet we are still pushing beyond our planetary boundaries.
We partnered with the brilliant Too Good To Go, to make sure that our coffee houses don’t waste any food at the end of each day. They have a brilliant knowledge hub underlining why stopping food waste is simply another ‘no-brainer’ for us.
