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Impact Report 2022

Bellwether is leading the movement to electrify and decarbonize the coffee industry while permanently transforming the lives of coffee producers through living incomes.
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2022 Highlights

Responsible Sourcing

Our values

We buy every coffee in accordance with our responsible buying principles ‑ farmer‑centric pricing, gender equity, transparency, ongoing relationships and investing in farm communities. These core values inform every aspect of our coffee buying and are the pillars on which we bring this coffee to you.
Read all our responsible buying principles

Our buying principles

Farmer-centric Pricing

We are committed to raising the industry standard by paying farmers equitable prices that enable them to earn a living income.

Our buying principles

Ongoing relationships

We develop direct relationships with our farm partners and work to sign year-after-year contracts, providing long-term stability to help farm communities thrive.

Our buying principles

Gender Equity

We buy coffee from women producers whenever possible, providing financial empowerment to women across our supply chain.

Our buying principles

Invest in farm communities

We provide financial resources directly to our farm partners, enabling them to fund projects that support their local communities.

Our buying principles

Transparency

We foster 2-way transparency with our farm and retail partners to create more accountability and trust across the coffee supply chain.
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Farmer Equity

100% of coffees on track to be Living Income certified by 2024

 
Supporting Farmers’ Livelihoods

Living Income Pricing

80% of the world’s coffee farmers live below the poverty line and current prices paid to farmers do not meet farmers’ livelihood needs. Living Income Pricing interrupts farmer poverty by paying prices that close the living income gap for coffee producers.
Living Income Pricing
 
Investing in Farm Communities

Farmer Impact Fund

Investments in coffee communities above and beyond the price of coffee, further enables coffee producers to break out of the cycle of poverty plaguing the world’s coffee farmers.
Farmer Impact Fund
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Invest in farm communities

$8,000 distributed through Farmer Impact Fund

2022 coffee buying audit

77%

77% of our coffees are relationship coffees

100%

100% of coffees on track to be Living Income certified by 2024

50%

50% of our coffees were produced by women

Environmental Sustainability

Coffee roasting currently accounts for 15% of the carbon footprint of the coffee industry and with the U.S. producing over 8 billion pounds of coffee every year, the harmful impact of carbon intensive, traditional gas‑powered roasting is not sustainable for our planet or for coffee farmers’ future. At Bellwether, we believe that we must advocate for the widespread adoption of electric and distributed roasting to reduce our carbon footprint.
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Reducing the carbon footprint of coffee

A sustainable future for the coffee industry

Gas roasting contributes large amounts of CO₂ and Methane into the atmosphere, creating climate impacts that affect both farmers and coffee roasting communities

Keeping a car off the road for 0 miles

0 tons of waste recycled instead of landfilled

0 lbs of carbon reduced is equal to:

Turning off electricty in 0 homes for an entire year

2.2M pounds

of carbon saved

the future is electric - roasting on a bellwether reduces 87% of the carbon footprint from roasting

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Understanding your impact

Carbon calculator for retailers

We built this calculator for measuring potential carbon savings from switching to electric roasting to empower retailers to make sustainable choices for their business. The calculator measures the greenhouse gas emissions avoided from roasting on a Bellwether Roaster compared to a traditional natural gas‑powered roaster.
Any coffee retailer can significantly reduce their carbon footprint by roasting electric, reducing delivery miles, reducing packaging, and making business decisions to support the environment. We support the electrification and decentralization of the coffee industry to reduce our carbon footprint and preserve a healthy planet for future generations.

Measure Your Impact

Roasting 0 

pounds of coffee each year on a Bellwether Roaster saves

(compared to roasting on a traditional natural gas powered roaster)

 0 

Pounds of CO₂ emissions
which is equivalent to:
keeping a car off the road for  0  miles
turning off electricity for  0  homes
recycling  0  tons of waste

2022 kept us marching forward into the sustainble future of coffee.

In 2022, the Bellwether community of roasters kept millions of pounds of carbon from entering their communities, supported dozens of farmers through our flagship impact programs, and donated thousands of pounds of coffee to our local food bank.
We believe sustainable micro‑roasting is the future of coffee for retailers, farmers, and the planet and hope you'll join us in 2023.
Thank you for joining us in creating a better, more sustainable future for coffee.
Team Bellwether
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