Earth Day Feature: Sumatra OrangUtan Coffee

As you all might know, this is Earth Week! The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, and is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event. There are many ways each of us can participate.

At Cafés Richard, every day is Earth Day.  Cafés Richard was among the first coffee roasters in the world to place focus on saving the Orangutan habitat via the Orang Utan Coffee Project. This project works to prevent the gradual destruction of tropical rainforests, which were cut down due to intensive farming of palm oil. The rainforests need to stay intact so the orangutans have a place to live. This project encourages the planting of organic and sustainable coffee.

~$1.75 of every kilogram you purchase of Cafés Richard Sumatra coffee is given directly to the Orang Utan Coffee Project.

Today, there are now ~40 other roasters around the globe participating in this captivating project.

Always aware of the ecological footprint that we leave on our planet, Cafés Richard studies the environmental impact of its actions, taking it into account in all the company’s investment decisions. They took a voluntary approach back in 2006, by carrying out a carbon footprint assessment.

This bold act came on top of our policy of raising awareness among our employees, on a daily basis. The aim of the carbon footprint assessment was to calculate our greenhouse gas emissions. According to the given area, we included all measurable, available items: importing coffee, packaging, natural gas from the roasting process, delivery to customers...

This was a long job that mobilized all our energies and raised awareness of how far we still have to go to reduce this ecological footprint.

The results of the carbon balance led to an action plan to reduce CO2 emissions: reducing the amount of packing films used, recycling cartons, equipping delivery vehicles with “ecological tires”...

Not only is 100% of Cafés Richard Origin packaging sourced from sustainably managed forests, but their roaster in Brittany, France is the oldest in Europe fully dedicated to Organic & Fair Trade practices and geared toward

Today, Cafés Richard is the leader in fair trade coffee on the Food Service market and fully intend to continue with our commitment. Cafés Richard is very aware of the need to respect people and the earth, and have been serving fair trade coffee for over 10 years, through the Max Havelaar label.

With a great range of fair trade products under the Lobodis brand, Cafés Richard has helped offer a decent life to small producers, contributing to the fight against illegal cultivation.

More and more establishments and communities are subscribing to these values by offering fair trade to their customers.