If you’ve followed us for a while, you might have spied a few of our tasty collaborative coffees like our Green City and Social Bite blends on our online store. Here in Glasgow, there are tonnes of inspiring individuals, organisations and community groups out there who are all doing their bit to make the world a better place, and we’re super honoured to be able to support some of these incredible causes whilst roasting delicious beans for you to enjoy! You can find out more about these incredible groups and charities right here.
In addition to these local groups, we’re also committed to backing a whole host of inspiring charities and projects further afield, like Girls Gotta Run - a group that invests in girls who use running and education to empower themselves and their communities in Ethiopia.
One of our longest standing charity partners? World Coffee Research. Why? Because the future of coffee is so important to us, we want to support the ongoing work in science and agricultural studies to keep our favourite bean around for as long as possible. A world without coffee is a world we don’t wanna know about - and we’re almost certain that you’ll feel the same way!
With this in mind, we’re super excited to share that this year, we’ve decided to team up with so many others like Cata Exports, Caravela Coffee and Algrano to join World Coffee Research’s incredible Checkoff Program. This means that every kilo of coffee we purchase will also receive a donation from participating sourcing partners - resulting in even more funds raised along the supply chain in support of great coffee and sustainability. This also means that every time you purchase a bag of our tasty, ethically sourced coffee, you’re helping to support the future of the bean we love the most! Way to go!
A little bit more about World Coffee Research
World Coffee Research (WCR) is a non-profit, collaborative research and development program that aims to help grow, protect, and enhance supplies of quality coffee while improving the livelihood of the families who produce it. So, why is WCR so important? Well, the long-term supply and availability of high quality coffee is seriously threatened and there is a lack of research to identify appropriate and innovative ways of increasing cup quality and volumes of quality coffee. In response, World Coffee Research conducts quality-focused research that is shared industry wide for the benefit of all. Therefore, the more we can all support this fantastic program, the longer we’ll be able to preserve the good stuff and keep that caffeine flowing!
On ground level, World Coffee Research supports countries to modernise their variety improvement systems, align their research with market demand, and bring tools and proven approaches from other crops to accelerate progress in coffee. When it comes to coffee roasting WCR highlights the coffee industry’s shared priorities for agricultural innovation, driving value for everyone from farmers to consumers.
So what’s World Coffee Research’s Checkoff Program, and why is it so important?
WCR’s Checkoff Program is a way for coffee suppliers and roasters/retailers across the world to invest pennies per pound to ensure the future of coffee. It's a worldwide collaborative effort. The contribution is calibrated to roasters’ and retailers’ purchase volume and built into the cost of green coffee. This means that the more coffee we purchase - the more we can contribute to this fantastic program.
So how exactly do we track our donations? Well, we’ll do so by taking note of applicable green coffee purchases, adding the fee to invoices, and passing contributions directly through to WCR. Oh, and coffee suppliers can also double their impact and become a WCR member company by matching roaster and retailer contributions.
Lisa, founder of Dear Green on joining World Coffee Research’s Checkoff Program;
‘At Dear Green we’re always looking for ways to support our industry and our community whilst also learning as much as we can about coffee. We’ve always been inspired by the work of World Coffee Research and we’re delighted that we have now formalised our contribution to the great projects that they are advancing for the benefit of coffee sustainability.’
Interested in finding out more about our Checkoff Program journey? Don’t worry, we’ll be keeping you updated right here on our blog. In the meantime, why not stock up on some of the good stuff- and support World Coffee Research’s Checkoff Program today!
Pics taken by Dear Green at Cocatrel and Rancho Grande, Belo Horizonte, Brazil 2018