Sustainability
Red Squirrel Coffee is committed to producing an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to traditional coffee. We have partnered with the Green Earth Appeal who have recognised us as Sustainably Run Coffee Roasters. Click here to find out more.
We offer every customer the option of planting a tree for 99p and we encourage this for each order. We already offset our carbon footprint so your contribution is in addition to this. If you have received deliveries from other companies, such as Amazon or Tesco, you can use this option to offset your footprint from those deliveries too.
To date, Red Squirrel Coffee and their customers have planted:
Certifications
You will notice that a lot of our coffee beans carry certifications such as Rain Forest Aliance Certified. This certification is very important in choosing a coffee provider because it shows that the farm that produced your coffee was audited to meet environmental, social, and economic sustainability standards.
Deforestation in the coffee world is the permanent removal of trees to make way for a coffee bean farm. The RFA certification demonstrates that the coffee farm has not contributed to this problem.
Sourcing
We source our beans from an ethical supplier that shares much of the same ethos that we do. Our beans are received with zero plastic packaging and each delivery we receive has had it's carbon offset from it's origin.
Our Roaster
Our high tech, electric eco-friendly roaster ensures that we use much less energy than traditional gas burning roasters. Our roaster is also powered by 100% green energy.
Packaging
All of our packaging is made from recycled materials and is suitable for home recycling. Recyclable Pouches can be re-granulated and used in extruding new plastic pouches. Theoretically this can be done over and over again without losing its original properties, therefore there is no need for any new raw materials. Most traditional coffee bags fuse foil with plastic which means they cannot be recycled since it is difficult to separate the materials.
We chose recyclable pouches over compostable pouches due to the fact that the majority of people in the UK do not compost at home, meaning that these pouches get sent to landfill. Business Waste conducted a study and found that 97% of households simply do not compost at home. Due to the lack of oxygen found in landfill, it takes much longer for these pouches to decompose and can often emit greenhouse gases.
Biodegradable pouches were also considered because they claim to be able to degrade within 90 days. After further research we found that these pouches actually require industrial composting installation where light, humidity, and temperature are controlled.
We use 100% recycled material for our labels and have tried to keep the information minimal. Our QR codes can be scanned and they will take you to a dedicated page about your beans where you can learn more about brewing, the roast, flavours, and origin.
Zero Packaging Waste Solution
Our zero packaging waste solution is offered to residents in Edinburgh where we will deliver your coffee during evenings and weekends to maximise the chance of you being home. When we deliver your order we will fill your container at your door. At checkout, please put a note alongside your order stating that you would like to take advantage of our zero packaging waste solution. If you are likely to not be home and you leave your container in a safe place, please also provide us with the location of your container.
All of our orders are packaged into our eco-friendly pouches for transit so that if you are not at home when we deliver, we can post your order through your door. You can then either re-use the packaging to store your future coffee orders, or hand back the pouch to us and we will re-use the pouch for your future delivery.
We recommend storing your coffee in a container that has a one way degassing valve so that it stays fresher for longer. If you do not have a container with a valve we can deliver your first coffee purchase in our reusable and recyclable coffee pouch.
Delivery
Most residents of Edinburgh will benefit from zero emission delivery by bike and we hope to continue to expand the zero emission delivery zone.
If you do receive our coffee through the post, our eco-friendly mailing bags and postage labels are made from 100% recycled materials. We will ensure that the carbon footprint relating to these deliveries are offset and you also have the option to plant a tree for 99p.
Used Coffee Grounds
There are many uses for used coffee grounds and due to the nitrogen content you can use them to fertilise your garden. Please read up on this first and ensure to dry the grounds first otherwise they will become moldy.
Planting Certificate
