OUR ROASTERY AND WAREHOUSE
As the hub of our day-to-day operations, we place great importance on sustainability at our Sheffield roastery and warehouse.
BREEAM ROASTERY
We named our signature coffee Cooling Towers because our roastery and warehouse is on the former Blackburn Meadows Power Station site where Sheffield’s iconic Tinsley Towers once stood.
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Aligning with our environmental commitments, our solar powered roastery, warehouse and training centre has been built to BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) Very Good specifications.
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BREEAM is used to specify and measure the sustainability performance of buildings, ensuring that projects meet sustainability goals and continue to perform optimally over time.
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We’ve made the most of our space since we moved in in 2018, installing shipping container office and quality control labs; a coffee roasting facility starring our Diedrich CR-35 automated and Diedrich DR-25 roasters; a Speciality Coffee Association accredited barista training facility; a purpose-built engineers’ workshop; office spaces; a meeting room; and warehousing operations.
COFFEE CHAFF
Coffee chaff - the husk of the coffee bean that comes off during the roasting process - is a byproduct of coffee production.
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We’ve implemented some simple methods to reuse and recycle our nutrient-rich chaff, including donating it to local allotments for composting and to Sheffield’s Heeley City Farm for animal bedding.
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We also use it in our own compost bins alongside any coffee grounds and food waste we produce. The resulting compost goes into our pollinator-friendly planters, which live outside the roastery next to our beehives.
SOLAR POWER
Our premises boast a roof full of solar panels, which power everything from our roasters to the warehouse lights and our three electric vehicle charging points.
ELECTRIC VEHICLE FLEET
Our current vehicle fleet is 60% electric.
We undertake local deliveries in our electric vehicles and work with national distribution companies to utilise their own electric fleets for deliveries that are further away.
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Our electric vehicle audits assist clients, such as the University of Leeds, with emissions data for their own auditing purposes.
We’re eagerly awaiting developments in battery life and charging capabilities to expand our electric fleet further.
CARDBOARD RECYCLING
Waste cardboard is either reused as outer packaging or repurposed by shredding into webbing for internal packaging.
This reduces the need for virgin cardboard and completely eliminates packing peanuts.
COFFEE SACKS
We innovatively repurpose the hessian coffee sacks that are used to transport raw coffee.
These include hanging basket liners, chair covers, artworks, bags for life and bread bags for Sheffield College. We additionally partner with a jute recycling company where sacks are turned back into raw jute (>3.5 tonnes, or >5000 sacks, recycled to date).
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Find out more about our sustainable business practices in our ESG report.