2020: what a year. BUT, in amongst it, there were also some glimmers of hope and big ol' chunks of positivity. More people shopping local, supporting independent businesses and generally being pretty decent to one another.
Most of you know by now that Bad Hand Coffee was built with a commitment to helping the environment in any way possible. Here are some of the ways we do that.
So, to keep you in the loop with what we've been up to behind the scenes (as well as holding ourselves accountable), we've gathered the numbers together.
It enables us see how far we've come, while also celebrating what you have helped us achieve.
Grab a coffee, have a look…
20,000 single-use coffee bags saved from landfill
In 2020, we saved over 20,000 coffee bags heading to landfill. 20,000! This figure includes wholesale single-use kilo bags saved from landfill (due to our reusable buckets), online sales of our omnidegradable bags, walk-in and event purchases, plus the coffee we've been roasting for LUSH UK.
Compared to the year before: 16,000 single use coffee bags saved from going to landfill in 2019.
A bit more about the bags we use
We'll let you in on a little secret: sourcing decent, eco-friendly coffee bags is really difficult. Wading through information, checking supplier credentials and watching out for greenwashing – all while making sure the bags come within budget – is no easy task.
While some big-name coffee roasters are happy to stop at commercially compostable bags, we weren't. We wanted to do better.
Bad Hand Coffee bags are omnidegradable, which means they will break down in landfill, commercial or home compost to biomass, water and CO2 when in contact with naturally occurring enzymes in soil and water.
12,000 miles of zero-emission deliveries
We made over 12,000 miles of zero-emission deliveries in 2020. This figure combines mileage from local bike deliveries with trips made in the new Bad Hand electric van.
To get a better idea of the distance, that’s like going from Bournemouth to Peru and back, or a one-way trip to New Zealand!
Compared to the year before: We cycled 1,500 miles for local deliveries in 2019.
618 trees planted
Carbon-offsetting company Ecologi handles this for us. For every customer’s tenth order, we plant a tree. We now have a total of 895 trees in our forest, reducing carbon by 64 tons over the course of the year.
Compared to the year before: We planted 180 trees with Offset Earth in 2019.
4 ways we have reduced waste in 2020
1: Selling green beans
We often have a kilo or so left when we finish batches of coffees, which is unfortunately too little for us to properly roast in our 12kg Probat (the smallest batch sizes we can do without compromising consistency is 6kg). So, in an effort to cut down waste, we launched our ‘roast it yourself’ Green Coffee Beans in 2020.
2: Giving away coffee sacks
The coffee sacks we get often have really cool designs and can be especially useful for craft, gardening, fancy dress or interior projects. We regularly give these away to local customers throughout the year. Interested in using a few? Give us a shout.
3: We never use coffee cup lids
We use ceramic cups whenever possible. If we do have to use takeaway cups, we buy them from Decent Packaging and never use lids. These takeaway cups are currently only commercially compostable, but it’s the best there is at the moment.
4: We reuse packaging
Any non-local coffee orders are posted out using reused boxes or packaging. This includes Amazon boxes, paper wrapping, supplier’s packaging – even packaging we have received from personal purchases. The only packaging we buy is our ‘reuse + recycle’ branded paper tape and the paper envelopes we send coffee out in.
Other positive changes we've made in 2020
We switched from oat milk to pea milk
We switched from Oatly to Sproud pea milk as our dairy milk alternative. We talk a little more about why we did this here.
We've improved our apparel's eco credentials
The new Bad Hand Coffee t-shirts and sweatshirts are made from 100% organic cotton, climate neutral and PeTA vegan approved. We now get them locally printed, using water-based inks at Back Fourth.
Our Planet-Saving Coffee raised £2,486 for charity in 2020!
Bad Hand’s Planet-Saving Coffee is an initiative where we donate a flat rate of £2 from every bag sold to our chosen charity. We select a different non-profit grassroots organisation to support every three months. 2020's charities included WWF Wildfire Relief Fund, Dorset Mind and the Grounded Community in Boscombe.
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