Source are doing something very special with coffee. The carbon footprint is being managed by working with the coffee producers themselves to protect exceptionally diverse Cloud Forests in the areas the coffee comes from. If you love coffee you will love this approach.
Mount Elgon Cloud Forest coffee is an exceptional single origin organic coffee grown by farmers on the slope of Mount Elgon.
Source works with small holder farmers to plant trees on their own land, protecting forests and dealing with the carbon footprint of their coffees.
The Cloud Forests around Mount Elgon are under pressure, and planting trees within small holder farms helps take the pressure off. The coffee farmers receive income for their reforestation work.
Great tasting organic coffee, connecting the drinker to small scale farmers on the slopes of Mount Elgon. An african Cloud Forest ecosystem that needs protection.
Coffee is an essential part of everyday life. In fact, it is the second most traded commodity in the world. And no wonder, everyday around 1.52 billion cups are being drunk around the world, but to go from bean to cup is a journey that mainly happens far away from our kitchens or coffee shops and rarely considers the planet or the growers.
Cristina Talens, from Source, has made it her mission to produce coffee that not only taste great, but also helps the farmers and our planet's ecosystems.
"I wanted to develop a product that would address climate change. We're on a bit of a role, we started first with the Mexico La Sierra Cloud Forests and now we have moved to Uganda to protect the Mount Elgon Cloud Forests."
Source works with the farmers to plant trees on their own land, protecting forests and dealing with the carbon footprint the coffees.
"It's a much more empowering coffee than anything else. It's about really cutting edge smallholder farmers who want to protect the environment; they taking action."
Forests around Mount Elgon, one of the most diverse ecosystems in Africa, are under pressure and planting trees around farms helps to protect it. Tree nurseries are set up to provide indigenous trees.
"The trees provide the shade to the coffee plants. They provide fuel wood for cooking food. They provide the timber and other building materials, and some of the trees are fruit trees."
Small-scale farmers are organized into community cooperatives. They get paid for the reforestation work and create carbon benefits verified under Plan Vivo.
"So this is Source; this is about single origin gourmet quality coffees and John Thompson has been helping us to find the very best coffee that's coming from that area in Mount Elgon."
"What really fires me up about managing the carbon footprint of coffee within this project is that it deals with coffee as a product though its whole life cycle. The climate, the way the wind blows, the amount of rainfall we have. All these things makes that particular coffee very unique.”
"Sometimes if people don't focus on the quality then you have lost the sustainability of it as well"
"I wish I drank coffee"
"We all benefit from positive action on the climate change impact of growing, processing and transporting the coffee we drink. When you buy a bag of this coffee or a tin of this coffee you're in fact reconnecting back to very small part of the earth and a small farmer on the slopes Mount Elgon. It is the first of its kind."
