Carbon-Free Coffee

In a continuing effort to make every aspect of our business sustainable, we have partnered with Carbonfund.org to offset 100% of the global warming emissions associated with our coffee. We were the first coffee roaster in the nation to complete the rigorous third-party certification process necessary to obtain the Carbon-Free Certified product label and we have maintained it since 2008.

To get a product certified Carbon-Free, a company must submit the item for a detailed Life Cycle Analysis, a third-party process that formally scrutinizes the carbon emissions associated with every step in production. The resulting analysis accounts for all carbon dioxide emissions starting with a coffee plant and ending with an empty bag of coffee.

This comprehensive "crop to cup" analysis includes the following steps:

  1. Organic cultivation of coffee plant
  2. Non-mechanized harvest of coffee cherries
  3. Pulping and washing of cherries (to extract beans)
  4. Sun drying of coffee beans
  5. Transport of beans to dry mill for hulling
  6. Burlap bags used to contain finished green coffee
  7. Transport to port city in country of origin
  8. Ocean transport from origin to US west coast ports
  9. Warehousing in US port cities
  10. Transport to Grounds for Change roastery
  11. All energy used in roasting processes
  12. All energy used in operations and business travel
  13. Coffee packaging materials, labels and shipping boxes
  14. Transport of finished coffee to customer
  15. All energy used to heat customer's brewing water
  16. Customer's disposal of spent coffee grounds

We are committed to providing our customers with the highest quality coffee available. To us, that means organic, fair trade and now Carbon-Free Certified - caring for ecosystems, workers and the climate.

Carbonfund.org, the nation's leading non-profit carbon offset provider, is the only organization in North America to provide full Carbon-Free certification. We utilize Carbonfund.org's reforestation program to offset the complete carbon dioxide footprint of all roasted coffee.

In addition to our Carbon-Free product certification, we continue to purchase 100% renewable electricity that is generated by wind, solar and biomass. We firmly believe that using sustainable energy whenever possible and offsetting all non-renewable energy used in business operations is critical to long-term success.