Sustainability

Sustainability has always been foundational to the way we go about our business.  And long before issues of climate change became mainstream.  Coffee is grown in forests, rich in plant and animal species. We consciously choose our coffees, tea and drinking chocolate with respect to how the product is grown and harvested.  Preferably under Organic and Shade Grown conditions.  

We are committed to a sustainable environment being the first roaster in Australia to offer organic coffee in 1989.  Our Roastery is Australian Certified Organic and all coffees and other product marked Organic are truly certified.  This means they are certified Organic throughout the entire process, including roasting and packing here in Australia.

In 2006 we completed a sustainability audit from Sustainability Victoria, Victoria's peak government body on environmental sustainability.  This audit helped us streamline our packaging and reduce waste and water use in roasting.  The audit extended to our retail operations, down to detail such as the type of detergent used in dishwashing. 

Our company cars carbon emissions have been offset through the 'Greenfleet' program.  Chaff from roasted green coffee is taken home by staff to be used as a natural fertiliser.

Social Impact on Sustainability
Sustainability also means looking at who is nurturing the coffee trees.  Coffee is depended on by many farmers and their families.  If they cannot make a decent livelihood from their product, then they will be forced to change their environment.  Sometimes through use of pesticides and herbicides.  Often it means cutting down native forests and replacing them with plantations of cash crops such as maize.  This loss of natural habitat is truly unsustainable in environmental terms.  It can also be economically unsustainable in the long term due to wildly fluctuating commodity prices.   

We continually strive to better partner with our coffee growers through initiatives such as Fairtrade and the Cafe Femenino project.  We are founding members of the Fairtrade Association of Australia & New Zealand and are Victoria's first Licensed Coffee Roaster in 2003.  To us it means re-humanising the coffee supply chain to achieve sustainability for all people, growers and consumers of fine coffee, tea and drinking chocolate!

Green Leadership

In 2009 Jasper Coffee was awarded a Certificate of Green Leadership established by Green Pages for businesses who are within the most environmentally sustainable 10% of the market sector.