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06 August 2009
Posted in
Winter Guide '09 - Featured Companies
“Just Us! Coffee Roasters is Canada’s first Fair Trade coffee roaster. We also supply Fair Trade, organic coffee, tea, chocolate and sugar to customers across Canada and operate four Fair Trade cafés in Atlantic Canada. At Just Us! we have an environmental screen for everything from the energy efficient passive solar building, to vehicles which run on recycled veggie oil. We have become and early adopter of the Natural Step program in Nova Scotia and all employees attended a retreat to learn more about this initiative in April of 2008. Each department has been working towards being more environmentally innovative and responsible.
In the roastery, chocolate factory and cafés, all organics get composted. We have a demonstration vermi-composting unit in Grand Pré. The coffee sacks all get recycled to be used in handicrafts or in gardens for mulch and to protect plants. This amounts to hundreds of pounds (dozens of bushels) every day. In our wholesale business all of our shipping boxes are made from 100% recycled material here in Nova Scotia. Even our tea bags have recently become fully compostable by the removal of a staple.
All of our products, coffee, tea, chocolate and sugar, are certified Fair Trade which has strict environmental protection standards in developing countries and are Certified Organic which adds preservation and enrichment of the environment. No harmful chemicals are used.
Our cafés were quite bold in 2008, changing our policy of buying 9 drinks and getting the next one free. It now applies only when enviro-mugs are used, making environmental consideration more challenging and democratic. We have also stopped selling bottled water and instead offer people good, old fashioned tap water. We have replaced our large dinner size napkins with smaller 80% post consumer napkins and introduced sustainable/renewable/biodegradable take out containers for our coffee, salads and sandwiches. During our recent renovations at the Spring Garden Café we purchase Windhorse farms sustainable lumber and or/ reused materials.
In our offices we have reduced paper usage as we attempt to have paperless meetings and share files electronically and communally. Employees receive their paystubs electronically. We are looking at teleconferencing for meetings to reduce fuel emissions used in commuting. We have completed a switch to low energy use halogen or compact fluorescent bulbs. We recently purchased a more environmentally friendly photocopier and use primarily recycled paper.
Environmental education is provided on all of our demonstration projects: veggie oil vehicles, organic herb and vegetable gardens, active solar power for our Fair Trade museum and small scale, organic farming. We have a regular newsletter that explores social and environmental issues and produced a video with our coffee producers in Mexico explaining the social and environmental benefits of Fair Trade.
We have been a long time supporter of the Ecology Action Centre and have contributed significantly to the Demand-Side Management campaign.
Sustainability is an ongoing concern with Just Us! as we look towards expansion and creating an environmentally sustainable and innovative building . At Just Us! we strive to be environmentally responsible on a global level, purchasing organic and sustainably grown coffee, tea, sugar and cocoa from producers world-wide. Our goal is to move towards sustainability by integrating environmental and social considerations into all our strategic decisions and daily operations. We have only just begun and we know there is much more we can do. “
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