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WE present the circular COFFEE fund.
making Coffee sustainable in two steps:
1. make a change at home
Every time we order a coffee to go in a paper cup, we add to the ever-growing mountain of waste and contribute to unnecessary production pollution. Every time you bring your own reusable cup instead, you make a saving on one paper cup - or about €0,10.
2. and change the farm
We know coffee farmers who are willing to make real changes that are proven to benefit their coffee's ecological footprint, if only they had the money and tools. We simply help them invest your paper cup saving in greening their coffee farms.
"It's great that my reusable cup has such a big impact!"
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How it works.
It's really as simple as it looks. Bring your own reusable cup when you get yourself a coffee to go. Save the world unwanted pollution and the costs of a paper cup. The cafe transfers the saved expenses to the Circular Coffee Fund. We then help farmers we trust invest in simple, effective ecological changes. You can then follow the progress on social media.
Shade trees & Sustainable farming
We stand for sustainable farming, reforestation, increases in biodiversity, farming without toxic pesticides and more. However, the problems can seem overwhelming, and farmers often don't know where to start or have the means to make effective changes. We help them identify the low-hanging fruits such as investing in (the right) shade trees, or making organic fertilisers from local waste streams.
towards a coffee scene with no waste
We want to create a world that we can pass on to next generations. Products that are thrown away after just ten minutes of use, are not part of that world. In an equal and integrated coffee economy, we shouldn't just stand for sustainable coffee production, but also smart, circular coffee consumption. It's a simple change of habits to bring your own cup, but with huge impacts.
Follow progress on social media
We feel that the best accountability is through full transparency. Next to the usual impact reports, we harness the power of social media. What's more rewarding than to be in direct touch with the actual coffee farmers you support, and see them posting pictures of the shaded coffee fields you helped create? We do it together, and showing that, is our strength. Follow us, and the cooperatives themselves, on social media.
"Transparency through social media makes me believe the impact"
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Our Partners
To make sure your investment creates real ecological change at the farm, we work with coffee growers who we can vouch for and have shown great entrepreneurial results already. This allows us to let them do their own monitoring and share it on social media. Some think we're naive, but our trade partners have already demonstrated that nothing is cheaper and more sustainable than a trustful relationship between equal partners.
colombia - Argote Specialty Coffee
The Argote family serves as a prime example of how local farmers can take charge of their own destiny. In 2015, everyone in their village sold parchment coffee to the Coffee Federation for standardised prices. Four years down the road, they became one of only a handful of independent exporters in the region, have their own dry mill and a strong brand that they sell for over 50% higher prices. They have now started exporting other farmers' coffees and paying them the same prices.
The premiums they receive for their coffee are great for investing in production quality, but simply not enough to pay for their long term plans to become fully organic in 2022. We couldn't think of a better 5 year pilot investment for the Circular Coffee Fund than this concrete goal.
Plot size: 53 hectares (including partner farmers)
Sustainability goals: no more chemical fertilisers and investment in a water efficient wetmill at the Lasso Argote and Salomon Muñoz families' coffee fields.
Farmers and family members impacted: ± 60
Social media: Argote Specialty Coffee (Instagram and Facebook)
peru - cepro yanesha coffee cooperative
The Yanesha coffee cooperative was founded in 2011 by 4 native Yanesha communities from the central jungle of Peru. Their dream was to organize and help their fellow coffee farmers to improve the productivity and quality of their coffee, while preserving their natural environment. Certification and improved quality have somewhat raised the average income of the Yanesha coffee farmers, but is still much too low to invest in sustainability, let alone save up for retirement.
Have fulfilled their initial dream, the Yaneshas would like to continue to improve sustainability through reforestation. With the Circular Coffee Fund’s help in installing bamboo and a mix of native and timber trees, the Yaneshas can reduce their ecological foot print and make sure their elderly are taken care of.
Plot size: 2 hectares on average (303 hectares of coffee in total)
Sustainability goals: reduce the ecological footprint of Yanesha coffee and create a sustainable income and retirement for the Yanesha coffee producers.
Farmers and family members impacted: 150 farmers
Social media: CAC CEPRO Yanesha (Facebook)
Thailand - Doi pangkhon
Coffee farming in Thailand is under threat. The feared 'coffee rust' has become a major problem, chemicals are not giving any solice, and surrounding countries are becoming increasingly competitive in the coffee industry. Ata and his sister Pupae in Doi Pangkhon have found a way to tackle both problems: they learned how to add value to their coffee by creating direct links to specialty coffee roasters and use the power of environmental friendly agroforestry practices to fight coffee diseases.
The first results are great - the shaded coffees are uninfected with disease and joint processing experimentation with partner roasters has resulted in higher value specialty coffee. In five years, with the help of the Circular Coffee Fund, they want to transform their coffee fields into healthy, agroforestry hotspots that set an example for the entire region.
Plot size: 40 hectares managed by the Doi Pangkhon cooperative
Sustainability goals: full shade on all coffee producing mountain slopes, 20% so far. Consequently, no more chemical pesticides and therefore fully organic coffee production.
Farmers and family members impacted: ± 60
Social media: Ata farm Pangkhon (Instagram)
We'll keep on adding more partners as the Circular Coffee Fund grows. Keep checking the website!
"this idea actually makes solving waste streams very easy"
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So who are you?
We encourage the usage of reusable cups by spreading the word through social media and ambassadors. However, the end-consumer is not who we target for the Circular Coffee Fund. It's specialty coffee shops and businesses who want to do real, traceable good in an intuitive way.
1. a Specialty coffee shop
Most probably, you have a counter system connected to an iPad or tablet. If you add a button called "brought own cup", you can keep track of every customer who didn't require you to give away a paper cup. Then you can donate this total amount every month to the fund. It's a free way of doing development work. Don't you have this system but want to have a transparent impact? Make your own system and donate the obtained savings to our bank account.
2. a SMALL / Medium-sized Company
We can connect your business to local cafés in the neighborhood, or we can tackle your in-house coffee consumption. We can set-up a system for you to count the impact. Don’t want to count? No problem - we can custom-make a plan for you. Fixed number of saved cups per month connected to a fixed financial contribution. Either way, we offer a simple and tailor made CSR solution by closing waste cycles and doing development aid, solving two corporate responsibilities at once.
Are you a coffee drinker and passionate about a more sustainable coffee world? Ask your company or local café to join our mission!
"It makes no sense that we use a cup for only ten minutes"
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our goals
Together, we can fight the useless pollution of our cities and help coffee farmers towards a more sustainable future. In order to see if we're on track, and to be able to celebrate our victories, we have solid goals.
shade trees
In the first year, we want to make sure that there is a 50% shade tree increase on the participant farms, with a 100% coverage within 3 years.
reused cups
A minimum of 100,000 disposable cups saved in the first year, growing towards 200,000 in the second year.
participant award
Keeping track of which firm and which café creates the biggest impact and rewarding each of them with a big prize.
"the competition element with other firms makes it real fun!"
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join Us
Got excited and want to join? Or do you have any questions? Please let us know by filling out the information below.
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about US
The fund
The Circular Coffee Fund is a non profit fund, aimed at being 100% transparent and realizing impact in a collaborative, respectful way based on the egality of all actors.
The fund is a collaboration between the non governmental organization Progreso and the social enterprises This Side Up and the Circular Coffee Collective. With more than 18 years of experience, Progreso has assisted more than 300.000 farmers from over 100 producer organizations on the topics of crop yields, forest conservation and soil health improvements. As a coffee importer, This Side Up strives to change the way coffee is traded and focuses on full transparency, equal partnerships and broad sustainability within its 11 producing countries. The Circular Coffee Collective helps organizations with the transition towards the circular economy, starting with their cup of coffee. Having such mutual interests, it only felt natural to join forces in the Circular Coffee Fund.
the details
We're here to help. Feel free to reach out through the contact form below. Excited and motivated to just transfer your own savings? Please do!
The bank account is run by Progreso under following details:
IBAN: NL26 RABO 3466 5444 59
Name: Stichting Progreso Foundation
BIC: RABONL2U
the board
In order guarantee the transparency and accountability of the fund, the Circular Coffee Fund has founded a board of experts. These people share their expertise for free, and help to increase the impact of the fund.
Maarten van Keulen. Founder and circular economy expert.
Lennart Clerkx. Founder and expert in sustainable coffee trade.
Isabel van Bemmelen. Sustainable development and finance expert.
Linda van Veen. Sustainable development coordinator.
Johan Kuin. Hospitality manager and innovator.
Ignace Breemer ter Stege. Coffee trade and legal expert.
Iona Mulder. Social sustainability expert.
Laurens Speelman. Sustainable initiatives implementation expert.
Danielle Jiskoot. Supply chain and sustainability expert.
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Community
A large community leaves a much more lasting impact than you or us alone. Let's make a difference together.
