A pioneer of speciality coffee in London which helped popularise the flat white, Caravan is unsurprisingly well ahead of curve when it comes being progressive about coffee.
The company’s efforts to be more sustainable across its diverse business means the coffee business is going well beyond what has now become the Fairtrade industry standard.
It’s indicative of a wider approach at the business, underlined by one of its four company goals to ‘Make It Better’, that it is not merely seeking to be carbon neutral, but to be a net positive.
It’s a work in progress, CEO Laura Harper Hinton admits, but feeds into the values-led approach at the company.
“Fairtrade is a really interesting one for coffee,” she tells MCA. “We don’t source in the Fairtrade world, we source well beyond it.”
This means paying well above the actual production price of coffee, giving premiums back to farmers, and sourcing from suppliers who are carbon neutral, biodynamic or organic.
Recognizing that certification can be a financial barrier for farmers, Caravan will source from farmers who nonetheless operate under organic principles.
Yet while sourcing offers a chance to make a difference, the biggest carbon footprint with coffee is the brewing process.
As a result, Caravan has invested in technology which reduces water and milk waste as well as makes for more efficient energy usage, such as the Black Eagle Maverick and the 3Temp brewer, a circular economy machine.
“We’re basically looking at where the highest impact is and trying to reduce that down as much as possible,” Harper-Hinton explains.
Another key area for coffee is using more recyclable and compostable packaging. Caravan also has a long-term project to eliminate virgin plastics from its entire supply chain.
Pre-Covid it boasted a high percentage of customers who were bringing in their own cups – something that is set to be revived.
In fact, Harper-Hinton says “literally every scrap” of Caravan’s packaging is compostable or recyclable
The brand offsets from this as well, and for every kilogramme of packaging produced, the company remove one kilogramme of plastics from the ocean.
“It’s a great double-edged thing where packaging itself is obviously completely fully compostable can go straight into your food caddy, but then also we’re doing an offsetting initiative as part of that as well,” she says.
In the round, Harper-Hinton maintains a healthy scepticism over the concept of off-setting, and prefers to be more positive about reducing the company’s impact.
“There’s a lot of different information out there. There’s a lot of different consultants. There’s so many different ways you can decide as a business you want to have a positive impact.
“Carbon neutral is great and it is something that we will probably get certified on in the near future. But essentially it involves offsetting, and to me that feels quite passive.
“We’ve decided to take it further and set ourselves the task of becoming climate positive. We’re not there yet, it’s a work in progress.”
Caravan’s Make it Better company goal is something the business began formalising 12 months ago, but the brand’s sustainable ethos goes back to the beginning, with a focus on plant-based menus and frugal fit-outs.
In fact, beef was removed from the menu altogether in 2016, owing to its proportionately high carbon impact.
“From day one, we created a menu around championing vegetables and making a really tasty plant-based meal,” she says.
Data around initiatives can in turn be used to inspire team members and bring the values to life.
Caravan calculated that since ditching beef, it has served around 3 million covers, saving an estimated 3,500 tonnes of CO2.
“That was something that got the team very excited, because it actually does show that you can have a really positive impact by structuring your menu in a way that encourages people to get stuck into vegetables.”
Meanwhile early days fit-outs, such as Caravan’s debut in Exmouth Market, saw an upcycling approach which might have been more to do with frugal necessity rather than values at the time, but it’s a principle that has endured.
To communicate progress on its goals, Caravan introduced an OKR tool (objective & key results), used to develop strategy and process objectives that connect the team and the organization.
This enables a more structured approach, and makes it part of an everyday routine – particularly when there are other pressures on the business.
“Of course, it’s difficult and certainly over the course of COVID, when we’re in literal survival mode, these things become quite challenging. It’s like, why are we sitting here talking about sustainability initiatives when we’re just trying to keep our head above water?
“But if you lose sight of your values and your goals, it’s not a business I want to run.”
To keep its people connected to the goals, Caravan also has uses internal comms platform Workplace.
As well as helping teams remain engaged, this work can be a strong recruitment tool, with several recruits joining because of the efforts going on with packaging and for charity.
Caravan supports 1% for the planet, a responsible business network from Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard; Project Waterfall, a coffee industry water charity; as well as its own own female producer programme, recognising the role women play in coffee production.
Alongside internal comms, Harper-Hinton says there is potential to be more vocal externally about what the company is doing in the space.
“As a business we haven’t been brilliant at communicating to the world all the stuff we do,” she says.
“That’s probably a bit of a Kiwi attitude of, just get on with it and don’t blow your own trumpet. I can’t bear the idea of coming across as too worthy.
“But if you don’t talk about what you’re doing, it doesn’t open that dialogue to other people.”
Next on agenda, Caravan has a live application to become B Corp certified.
Like its endeavours in other areas, the company is aiming to overshoot accreditation rather than go in at entry level.
With a submitted score of 98.6, this would put the company in the top third tier for B Corp status.
“Applying that climate positive principle, we wanted to make sure we had some genuinely great stuff that we were doing before we submit it,” she adds.
- The Sustainability category at MCA’s Retailers’ Retailer Awards in sponsored by Pernod Ricard
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