Industry Influence & Advocacy

Sharing our knowledge & adding our voice where it counts matters a lot to us - this page is dedicated to this, what we are proud of, what we are involved in and what we have achieved:

Our Ability to positively influence: Knowledge is power, power is influence and we wield ours for maximum impact, supporting voices and causes and situations that need to be heard, giving a platform to those who don't have one etc.

We are proud to have been influencing the Scottish Specialty Coffee scene

Established and hosted the Scottish Aeropress Championship 2014 and 2015
Founded the Glasgow Coffee Festival in 2014 as an annual event running to 2025 (and beyond!)
Made the Glasgow Coffee Festival single-use cup free (since 2018) P.S. We were the first coffee festival in the world to do this
Hosted the UK Coffee Roasting Championship in 2016, 2017 and 2018
Created an event to bring UK coffee roasters together: 'First Craic'
Hosted the SCA UK Barista Championship Heat. In 2023, our own barista trainer competed with our Ethiopian Odaco coffee. In 2024 our former marketing coordinator competed with our Brazilian Daterra coffee and a theme of climate change in their presentation.
Hosted the SCA UK Cup UK Brewers Cup Final
Hosted the SCA UK Cup Tasters Heat
Host classes in Sensory Skills and Barista Skills
Have a Q-Grader in our team
Annual visits to Origin. Last year our Head of Roast went to the world's first B-Corporation coffee farm in Brazil.
Attend local and international coffee events, including Manchester & London Coffee Festival, SCA World of Coffee and more
In 2024, GCF hosted the first SCA Scottish roasting championships in which attendees of the festival voted for their favourite coffee. Our head roaster won 2nd place.

We are relentless advocates of

Social, environmental and ethical sourcing of coffee
We speak up about the impact of climate change on coffee growing countries. We were featured in Forbes magazine
Roasting Sustainably: Dear Green's Vision For A Climate-Resilient Coffee Industry
Climate Resilient Coffee Plant Research: We support World Coffee Research who work on climate resistant coffee varieties. We have also supported the Stumping Project
Coffee Seedling Nursery: We support by giving meaningful climate adaptation funding.
We believe in a No Offsetting Policy
And we choose our environmental partners carefully
Small Business advocacy