*Exclusive*
The new year has ushered in a big cup of cheer for one of Scotland’s leading independent coffee roasters after being granted coveted B Corp status – consolidating its position as one of the country’s most ethical enterprises, while raising hopes for its inclusion in catering at COP26 next year.
Dear Green, founded in Glasgow’s East End nine years ago by local entrepreneur Lisa Lawson, is one of the first Scottish companies and UK coffee roasters to gain B Corp recognition, and now sits alongside internationally renowned UK brands such as Toast Ale, Innocent and The Body Shop, and Scottish brands Bruichladdich, Brewgooder and Beauty Kitchen as a certified B Corp.
The B Corp organisation operates across the UK, Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, East Africa, and the USA and Canada. It aims to create a global economy that uses business as a force for good. Certified B Corps businesses must meet verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community and the environment in a bid to reduce inequality, lower poverty, protect the environment and create more high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose.
“I’m absolutely thrilled and proud to be starting 2021 with certified B Corp listing for Dear Green,” Lisa Lawson The Herald. “The audit process was extremely rigorous and I was delighted to find we were already meeting, if not surpassing, the required criteria when we began it.
“My staff at Dear Green are never underpaid, undervalued or discriminated against and I’m committed to paying the real living wage. We got a very high score for our work practices, and well our environmental awareness, ethical supply chain, recycling, low carbon footprint, and use of biodegradable packaging.
“We hope we can serve as an example to businesses in Glasgow, Scotland and beyond by producing quality coffee, without sacrificing ethical practices.”
Ms Lawson and her small Dear Green team regularly visit coffee growing communities from Brazil and Columbia to Ethiopia and Burundi, ensuring a rigid sourcing process that is fair, traceable and sustainable.
Going forward she hopes to start sourcing raw coffee from emerging markets in Malawi and Yemen, importing it to Glasgow via ethical coffee traders with rigid social responsibility practices.
“I’m looking at opportunities to buy from places that meet our high standards,” she said. “The first coffee plants to be grown in Malawi came from the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. It would be so lovely to complete the circle, as it were.”
In the shorter term, and somewhat closer to home, she is hopeful of being listed as a supplier to caterers during COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November 2021. As such Dear Green coffee would be served to the thousands of delegates from around the globe including heads of state, climate experts and campaigners – and could also be consumed by the teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
Ms Lawson is an ambassador for Circular Glasgow, the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce-led movement that aims to inspire businesses of all sizes to minimise waste and maximise resources through repair, re-use, recycling and up-cycling.
“If this new B Corp accreditation doesn’t put Dear Green on the radar for COP26, nothing will,” she added.
[This story was first published in The Herald on January 5, 2021.]