Ethical and Organic coffee: why it's important

Coffee is hands down the item that we always have on our homestead that travels the most miles to get to us. Since I’m not quite ready to give up coffee (even though there are some great herbal alternatives), it’s important to me that the coffee I purchase is as eco-friendly as possible.

For me, it’s essential to find coffee that isn’t just organic, but that is beyond organic. This means I also look for eco-friendly roasting and manufacturing processes, regenerative farming practices, and fair-trade relationships.

But there are alternatives, and many coffee farmers are applying organic practices that are better for the environment when growing their crop. As consumers, we can support the farms and distributors who make an effort to grow and roast coffee sustainably.

Here are our qualifications for ethical and sustainable coffee:

1. An organic certification:
   Whether it’s USDA certified or certified by another entity, coffee that is grown organically should be the first thing you look for. No synthetic chemicals were applied to the crop.
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2. Shade-grown:
   Shade-grown coffee is better for the environment. There is a shade grown certification, or the bag will share that the coffee was shade grown.
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3. Rainforest Alliance Certified:
   This certification shows that the company supports the rainforest environment and the workers who tend to the crops grown there.
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4. Regenerative Organic Certification:
   This label was established. Some coffee farms hold this label at the bronze level to speak for their eco-friendly practices. These farms interplant their coffee within a diverse ecosystem, and use no synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers.
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5. Fair-trade:
   This certification tells you that the farmers are well paid and have good working conditions while they are tending to the coffee.

Top choices for ethical, organic, regenerative coffee:

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1. Groundwork Cooperativa Sacacli Regenerative Organic Certified Coffee

Groundwork Coffee is one of the handful of companies sourcing their beans from the Regenerative Organic Certified Cooperativa Sacacli in Nicaragua.

This coffee farm:

• tends to the soil beyond organic farming
• improves the land
• sequesters carbon with their farming practices
• has fair working conditions
• saves water
• agroforestry shade-grown system
• USDA Organic Certified

As for Groundwork themselves, they are a Certified B Corp, and offer only organically grown coffees in their shop.

Their bags are made from compostable plant materials, and they run on solar power at one of their roasteries.

They also use a roaster with a very small carbon footprint.

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2. Heirloom Cooperative Sacacli ROC Coffee

The next company to offer coffee grown from Regenerative Organic Certified Cooperativa Sacacli is Heirloom Coffee Roasters.

The details for the coffee itself are all the same as mentioned above.

What we love about Heirloom is that they are the first brand with 100% regenerative sourced coffee beans in all of their products. The varieties of coffee from the other farms they source from are in the process of receiving their ROC label.

All of Heirloom’s coffees are organic and fair-trade certified. They are working on having their coffee bags be 100% compostable for 2024.

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3.GoodSam Regenerative Organic Coffees

I first learned about GoodSam when looking for coffee on Thrive Market. I was delighted to see that there was a Regenerative Organic Certified Coffee on the platform, and it tastes delicious to boot.

I usually alternate between GoodSam and Groundwork Coffee, since I can easily find them both where I shop. I especially like that they offer a 32oz size on their medium roast.

I was even more intrigued by GoodSame when I learned that they not only carry coffee, but other ROC products as well. On their site you can find chocolate bars, chocolate chips, and nuts.

GoodSam is a B-Corp Retailer and participate in a Direct Trade relationship with their farmers.

GoodSam offers a "Connected Day" Dark Roast and two medium roasts: "Everyday" and "Brave Day."

Brave Day is especially unique in that its from a woman-run farm.

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3. Erewhon ROC Certified Espresso Roast

Next up is something for the dark roast fans: a ROC Certified Espresso roast!

This espresso was grown in Nicaragua, but it is unclear if it is sourced from the same Cooperativa Sacacli as the medium roast highlighted above.

This coffee is USDA Certified Organic,

Erewhon is small chain of markets in the Los Angeles California area. They are a Certified Organic Retailer and B Corp, and have been prioritizing the environment in what they sell since the 60’s.

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4. Salt Spring Coffee Village Trade Dark Roast

This Regenerative Organic Certified Dark Roast Coffee is from the BC based Salt Spring Coffee.

It is also certified fair for life, and Salt Spring pays above the fair price to farmers and only source from farms with ethical and fair working practices.

Salt Spring is a B Corp, and only offers 100% organic fair trade, fair to farmer, shade grown coffee. They are transitioning to offering only regenerative organic certified coffee!

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Other eco-friendly coffee options:

While these options aren’t certified regenerative, I felt like they were worth including on this list due to their other sustainable growing practices.

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Biodynamic coffee from Holistic Roasters

• single estate regenerative farms (not currently ROC Certified)
• lab tested for mycotoxins and heavy metals
• 100% compostable packaging
• ecocert
• usda organic
• demeter certification

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Peace coffee tree hugger blend

All of the coffees from Peace Coffee Company are organic, shade grown and fair trade, but the Tree Hugger blend is my favorite.

It’s a tasty dark roast, and when you order you can have it ground to match your brewing method.

Peace Coffee is a B-Corp and strive for sustainability in their operations.

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Tiny Footprint Coffee

Tiny footprint offers the world’s first carbon negative coffee. Their business model helps to fund reforestation in Honduras.

All of their coffee is shade grown, organic, and purchased from small family-owned farms.

Their bags are fully biodegradable, and they are a partner of the amazing Mindo Cloudforest Foundation.

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DOMA’s organic coffee choices

DOMA is working towards sustainability in their coffee practices, and source only organic beans.

They also work with local organic farms to repurpose waste, such as coffee grounds!

They also support climate activists, Zion National Park, Spokane River Keeper, and the Kootenai Environmental Alliance in Idaho.

They charge .25 extra for disposable cups in their cafe, and the funds go towards environmental organizations.

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Grounds for Change carbon free coffee

Grounds for Change roasts Fair Trade Coffee and Organic Coffee that is Carbon-Free Certified.

They offer special bags of coffee that partner with the Rainforest Trust, Save Our Wild Salmon, and Earth Ministry initiatives.

Grounds for Change is a Certified B-Corp, and a member of 1% for the Planet.

They are certified Carbon-free due to submitting their sustainable actions to carbonfund.org in order to offset 100% of their GHG emissions, a goal they have achieved each year since 2008!

This offset includes the farming, growing, harvesting, drying, and transportation of the green beans, and the storage, roasting, operations, packaging, energy, and shipping of the coffee product in the States.

Organic, ethical, regenerative coffee

Now you can enjoy your daily cup or two of coffee, and support farmers, companies, and organizations who are supporting the environment, regenerating the land, capturing carbon, and who uphold ethical practices.

Why is organic coffee important?

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, coffee is grown on over 27 million acres, and globally 2.25 billion cups of coffee are enjoyed daily.

In fact, CNBC shares that since 1990, the demand for coffee has caused 60% more coffee to be grown in present day.

With this crop being such a part of many people’s daily lives, as a collective we can vote for sustainability with our dollars when selecting which brand of coffee to buy.

Conventional coffee growing operations have negative consequences for the environment. ‍

The BBC reports that when coffee is grown in a conventional system, high volumes of water, fertilizer, and pesticides are applied to the crop, which ripples out in a damaging way to the surrounding ecosystem.

Additionally, with the increased demand for coffee, Sustainable Business Lab details how farmers were encouraged to turn away from the traditional ways of growing coffee in the shade, and instead started to clear precious rainforest land in order to grow coffee in rows in the sunlight.

While sun-grown coffee provides a higher yield in less space, the destruction of the surrounding ecosystem and monocrop system causes less diversity to be supported, and less beneficial insects mean more pests and more pesticide application.

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Before you go...

Want to know what to do with all of your coffee grounds after brewing? Learn how to use them in the garden, and why you shouldn't toss this precious resource.

Learn more about the Regenerative Organic Certification here

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