Coffee, a beloved daily ritual for many, often hides a complex story of environmental and social impact behind its rich aroma and flavor. Recognizing the importance of ethical sourcing and sustainability in the coffee industry, AI has curated the top 8 coffee brands for 2024 that excel in these areas. These brands are not only passionate about delivering exceptional coffee experiences but are also leaders in implementing practices that reduce the ecological footprint of coffee production. This selection highlights how every cup of coffee can be a step towards a more sustainable and just world, transforming our coffee habits into a powerful force for positive change.
The Problems in the Coffee Industry
What Consumers Can Do
Choosing Certified Coffee: Opting for coffee that is certified organic, Fair Trade, or Rainforest Alliance ensures support for environmentally sustainable and ethical farming practices.
Supporting Shade-Grown Coffee: Purchasing shade-grown coffee promotes biodiversity, as these farming methods typically preserve natural habitats and require fewer chemical inputs.
Minimizing Coffee Waste: Only brewing the amount of coffee needed, or repurposing coffee grounds as compost or for other uses, decreases waste production.
AII choose brands based on the essential sustainability certifications and standards, specifically for the coffee industry.
DOMA Coffee
DOMA Coffee is a brand that exemplifies a passion for crafting high-quality, ethical, small-batch coffee. Based in Post Falls, Idaho, the company has built a reputation for its commitment to sustainability, fair trade, and organic practices. Their dedication to eco-friendly practices and packaging, combined with community engagement and partnerships with various organizations, makes DOMA a standout in the coffee industry. Their approach to coffee roasting and community involvement reflects their motto to “use our business for good and not for evil.”
Price Range: prices range from $16.00 for instant coffee varieties to $99.95 for premium selections like their Gesha 2023 coffee
Key Sustainable Features:
- Roasts and crafts high-quality, ethical, small-batch coffee
- Certified organic through the state of Idaho, ensuring environmentally responsible practices
- Fairly traded through direct relationships, supporting ethical procurement
- Uses an eco-friendly roaster that conserves 80% natural gas compared to traditional roasters, reducing environmental impact
- Engages in community involvement and forms partnerships with non-profits and community organizations
Conscious Coffees
Conscious Coffees, founded in the early 1990s in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, is a family-owned coffee roaster known for its dedication to ethically sourced and exquisitely roasted coffee. The brand stands out for its commitment to organic farming and direct, fair trade practices. Since its inception, Conscious Coffees has focused on creating strong, direct relationships with farmer cooperatives, ensuring better livelihoods for farmers and superior quality coffee for consumers.
Price Range: $20 – $24
Key Sustainable Features:
- Sources coffee directly from producing cooperatives, eliminating middlemen and ensuring fair prices for farmers
- Maintains long-term relationships with individual farmer cooperatives for consistent quality and reliable sourcing
- Practices 100% organic farming, using natural materials for compost and avoiding chemicals.
- Pays beyond fair trade prices, ensuring better livelihoods for farmers
- Certified as a B Corporation, reflecting high standards in treating customers, suppliers, employees, and the environment
Higher Ground Roasters
Higher Ground Roasters, an Alabama-based coffee brand, excels in ethical and sustainable practices. They offer 100% Certified Organic, Fair Trade, and Shade Grown Coffee, focusing on quality, environmental care, and community support.
Price Range: $15 – $17
Key Sustainable Features:
- Roasts exclusively 100% Certified Organic and Fair Trade beans, ensuring ethical sourcing and environmental responsibility
- Invests in wind power credits, subsidizing wind farms and offsetting carbon use, highlighting their commitment to renewable energy
- Supports environmental preservation and conservation initiatives, reflecting their dedication to sustainable practices
- Engages in community development and charitable efforts, including partnerships with nonprofits like the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the Cahaba River Society
- Demonstrates a deep commitment to improving the act of doing business in today’s world, focusing on both high-quality coffee production and social responsibility.
La Colombe Coffee Roasters
La Colombe Coffee Roasters, established by Todd Carmichael and J.P. Iberti, is a Philadelphia-based brand renowned for its commitment to sustainability and ethical practices. Pioneers in direct trade coffee sourcing, the brand focuses on enhancing the quality of life for coffee producers around the world while ensuring environmental sustainability. La Colombe’s approach to coffee goes beyond mere trading, involving itself in community-building initiatives and ensuring fair compensation and practices in the coffee-growing regions.
Price Range: starting around $16
Key Sustainable Features:
- Practices Direct Trade to ensure fair compensation and build long-term relationships with coffee producers
- Composts 23,000 to 50,000 lbs. of coffee grounds per week at their Philadelphia roastery, contributing to local agriculture
- Uses 100% recyclable packaging with plant-based ink
- Focuses on purchasing certified organic coffee, with an annual increase in purchase volume
- Invests in coffee-growing communities, including initiatives like the Haiti Coffee Academy and supporting ECHOES for children’s education
- Committed to paying above Fairtrade prices for coffee, ensuring fair compensation for producers
- Aspires to achieve 98% biodegradable packaging for their coffee products by 2024
- Supports various community initiatives such as Food 4 Farmers and Grounds for Health, addressing health and food security at coffee origins
Wandering Bear Coffee
Wandering Bear Coffee is a brand that stands out for its commitment to environmental sustainability and ethical practices. It focuses on sourcing organic coffee beans from small farms and co-ops in countries renowned for their high-quality coffee. The brand is particularly recognized for introducing cold brew coffee in box-on-tap format and offering single-serve items while adhering to its sustainability ethos. Their packaging, including K-Cups and resealable boxes, is 100% recyclable, and the box lids are made from sugarcane.
Price Range: starting at around $10.79 for a 32oz carton and go up to $34.99 for a 1 gallon box of coffee
Key Sustainable Features:
- Sources organic coffee beans from co-ops and small farms in Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Colombia
- Offers recyclable and innovative packaging formats
- Utilizes lightweight materials for packaging, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the supply chain
- Replaced plastic caps on cartons with sugar-cane caps to minimize the use of fossil-fuel based resources
- Developed capability for shelf-stable products, reducing energy consumption in the supply chain
Stumptown Coffee Roasters
Stumptown Coffee Roasters, originating from Portland, Oregon, is renowned for its premium coffee and strong commitment to sustainability. The brand is notable for its direct trade practices, which ensure a transparent and ethical sourcing process. Stumptown is recognized for its varied coffee products and its dedication to environmental stewardship in coffee roasting and sourcing.
Price Range: $16 – $23
Key Sustainable Features:
- Implements Direct Trade practices for transparent and ethical sourcing
- Maintains close relationships with coffee farmers and pays quality premiums for high-quality coffee
- Concentrates on smallholder producer supply chains, primarily focusing on family farms under 5 hectares
- Collaborates with non-profits like Enveritas to assess and improve the economic and community well-being of coffee producers
- Formed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee to foster an inclusive community
- Aims for zero landfill-bound waste in manufacturing operations by 2025 and actively reduces waste through recycling initiatives
- Committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, aligning with the Science Based Target Initiative and using solar energy in Portland operations
- Offers a selection of certified organic coffee choices
- Achieved B Corp certification, emphasizing social and environmental accountability and transparency
Café Mam
Café Mam, based in Eugene, Oregon, is deeply rooted in organic agriculture and ethical sourcing. Its coffee, cultivated by fair trade cooperatives of native Maya farmers in Chiapas, Mexico, reflects a strong commitment to sustainability, environmentalism, and social justice. The brand is distinctive for its support of community, planet, and people, with an emphasis on high-quality, freshly roasted, organic, and fair trade coffee.
Price Range: starting around $15 for a 1 lb bag of whole bean coffee and up to $65 for a 5 lb bulk bag
Key Sustainable Features:
- Donates 2% of sales to nonprofits focused on organic agriculture, social justice, and environmental reform
- Operates a Climate Change Mitigation Fund, contributing an additional 10¢ per pound of coffee to combat climate change challenges in indigenous communities
- Proudly the first U.S. company to be SPP certified, supporting the small-producer cooperative movement
- Produces shade-grown and bird-friendly coffee, preserving the jungle canopy and encouraging biodiversity
- Uses compostable packaging made from paper Kraft bags with a biodegradable liner
- Operates a delivery fleet on renewable fuels and energy sources, including electric vehicles
- Partners with a local composting program to convert coffee grounds into compost for community use
BLK + Bold
BLK + Bold, founded in 2018, focuses on offering high-quality coffee while also giving back to the community. It stands out for its commitment to supporting disadvantaged youth, with a significant portion of its profits donated to various youth organizations. This Black-owned coffee brand blends a passion for excellent coffee with a mission for social impact, making each cup a means to contribute positively to society.
Price Range: starting from around $11.49
Key Sustainable Features:
- Donates 5% of profits to support youth-in-need across America
- Offers a range of Fair Trade certified products
- Emphasizes community impact through its product offerings
- Actively involved in social causes, contributing to organizations that focus on youth development and empowerment
Explore Sustainability Certifications and Standards for the Coffee Industry
- Fairtrade: Ensures fair prices and conditions for farmers, fostering community development and improving coffee quality.
- Rainforest Alliance: Promotes sustainable agriculture focusing on ecological and social standards, including worker treatment and environmental protection.
- USDA Organic: Certifies coffee grown without synthetic pesticides and GMOs, emphasizing natural farming methods.
- Bird-Friendly: Requires organic certification and robust shade/habitat standards, focusing on biodiversity and bird conservation.
- UTZ Certified: (Now part of Rainforest Alliance) Focuses on sustainable farming practices, enhancing livelihoods of farmers and their communities.
- 4C Association: Encourages sustainable coffee industry practices based on community, conservation, climate change, and coffee quality principles.
- Direct Trade: Promotes a direct relationship between coffee roasters and farmers, ensuring quality, transparency, and fair pricing.
