Gourmet Gold’s mission for a sustainable future
Gourmet Gold plays a central role in the coffee supply chain, being primarily a roasting operation for wholesale and private label customers. With an average of 17 Tonnes of coffee processed each month, maximising efficiency in production and operations will increase value for our customers and community.
In mid-2019 we pledged to take a sustainable approach to our business which we wanted to coincide with our rebranding for mid 2020. The stylised coffee flower logo is a hint at our new direction. The style and enviro-friendly status of the packaging where possible will extend to all printed materials. Our sustainability plan involves reducing our footprint through the following areas: waste reduction at the production, packaging and operational levels; supporting and building communities; guiding our customers and friends to make and share sustainable choices; and future planning for improved operations and customer outcomes.
Click here to skip straight to our Coffee descriptors.
Waste Reduction
Packaging
One of our biggest battles is shifting consumer preferences towards products that contribute to a sustainable future but also keeping a balance between the costs of these products and the expectations of our consumers. As more and more consumers adopt and get behind these initiatives and the demand of eco friendly / compostable packaging increases, the cost of supply will decrease. Our goal is to completely phase out conventional packaging in the near future. Only through your help and support will this be possible.
Compostable Packaging
Coffee Bags
From the 4th of December 2020 we will offer the option to purchase our Gourmet Gold branded Coffee packaged in Eco-friendly compostable 1kg and 250g coffee bags. Every component of the bag is compostable excluding the little plastic degassing valve which is easily peeled off; being a high barrier compostable packaging made out of three films which are derived from sustainably-produced wood pulp and GM-free corn sources certified under the European and American compostability standards (EN 13432 and ASTM6400), can be disposed of in a home or industrial composting environment containing heat, water, oxygen, soil and micro-organisms. Please remember to remove the batch number / roast on date sticker and valve and place in recycling before composting the bag.
Supporting our Communities
Furthermore adding to our compostable packaging we have partnered up with One Tree Planted.
One Tree Planted is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on a mission to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees. Their projects span the globe and are done in partnership with local communities and knowledgeable experts to create an impact for nature, people, and wildlife. Reforestation helps to rebuild forests after fires and floods, provide jobs for social impact, and restore biodiversity. Many projects have overlapping objectives, creating a combination of benefits that contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. To learn more, visit “One Tree Planted“.
For every Gourmet Gold coffee product that you purchase with compostable packaging you will be actively contributing to the reforestation of the areas devastated by the bushfires and logging practices here in Australia.
“One for One” Initiative dedicated to planting trees around the world. Support the cause and look for the stamp below when making your purchase and we will donate the equivalent of one tree to be planted for every purchase made. Available from our online store from the 4th of December 2020.
If you are a café or restaurant owner/manager and share the same sustainable values as us and would like to make the shift to compostable packaging please send an email through to alexander@gourmetgold.com.au
Inclusion of QR Codes
We will be opting to use a QR Code on our future bags and packaging linking our community to our sustainability page to further encourage sustainable practices like the responsible disposal of our packaging; the second reason being for our coffee descriptors and tasting notes. Due to seasonal changes it is inevitable that from time to time the tasting notes of a blend may change slightly making a print run obsolete. With the inclusion of the QR code directing consumers to our website we can change our coffee descriptions as many times as we deem necessary. This approach minimises unnecessary waste as well as reducing the necessity to produce more labels. Click here for more info on our coffee such as coffee descriptors and recommended recipes and brewing methods.
Single-use Disposable Cups Vs Reusable Cups
Ultimately moving away from single-use disposable cups is our goal. Unfortunately, we cannot enforce this standard on our wholesale clients or on their paying customers. However we can endeavour to guide our community to make and share sustainable choices. Similarly to our packaging and labels, to further reduce landfill, we have aligned ourselves with suppliers such as “Biopak” so that in the absence of a reusable cup, the single-use disposable cups we provide to wholesale customers are compostable. Biopak also offer a “Compost Club” service which will be promoted to our wholesale clients to encourage the responsible disposal of these single-use cups and hopefully closing the loop.
Byproduct – Silverskin (Chaff)
Our high output of roasted coffee results in a substantial amount of silverskin (chaff). To divert from landfill we send it to local nurseries for use in compost. We also have locals who come and pick up bags from time to time.
Hessian Coffee Bags
Just like the silverskin (chaff) mentioned above we also have a large volume of hessian coffee bags left over from production each week. These bags are picked up by locals who re-purpose them for different projects. We get quite a few locals from a particular group on Facebook – Crop Swap Sydney who come and collect a lot of bags around spring time. They are worth while checking out.
Please feel free to contact us if you would also like to arrange to collect either some silverskin or the hessian bags for a project you may be involved in.
We re-use and eventually re-use all the our cartons from inbound goods and other materials we use in operations.
Proud of Our Future
We’ve been roasting coffee since 1975, we are proud of our tradition. Our third-generation family business is looking ahead, building a work environment and relationships with customers, suppliers and our community, so we can be equally proud of the sustainable future we are shaping.
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