Social Responsibility
In 1996 Office Coffee Solutions began with the drive to become a leader in the coffee service industry by providing professional full kitchen solutions with superior customer service. This innate leadership has continued through to Home Coffee Solutions as well. We want to do more than just change how you enjoy coffee, but go beyond by impacting the social responsibility behind the coffee industry and providing awareness for our consumers. From sustainable suppliers, local charity & community initiatives, carbon offsetting, pod waste management, and even within our own team, our practices remain transparent and responsible from top to bottom.
How Do We Create Change Through Social Responsibility?
By Enabling Low Carbon Emissions & Protecting the Environment:
A key piece to any sustainable business practice is managing the carbon footprint. We partnered with The Carbon Farmer because of their local Canadian roots (no pun intended). This family-owned business works in a transparent, friendly, and authentic way to help us become a completely Carbon Balanced company.
- From our work with the Carbon Farmer, Home Coffee Solutions is now officially Carbon Balanced as we offset our carbon emissions by planting trees in their Canadian Boreal Forests.
- We are also taking a step further by planting a tree in the Carbon Farmer’s boreal Alberta forest for each of our new Office Coffee Solutions clients as a thank you and reminder of our green initiatives! Check out our Virtual Forest here.
- All of our facilities are bullfrogpowered® with 100% green electricity! Find out what this means by visiting the Bullfrog Power website.
By Proper Waste Management Solutions:
There are endless ways to get coffee from a bean into a mug and each of them leaves a different type of waste. While many companies struggle to find a sustainable compromise, we offer industry leading programs to responsibly manage every form of coffee and kitchen waste. Not only this, but we are proud to say that our company is successfully diverting 95% of our waste from landfill through a unique waste to energy program, making us almost Zero Waste to Landfill!
- The TerraCycle Recycling Program is available for all your single serve pods and capsule waste. This program is for customers who bring in their pods/capsules into one of our retail locations. We also offer this service to our Office Coffee Solutions client base. We do not offer this through a shipping method, as the footprint created by transporting the materials offsets the benefits.
- Our company uses a local Waste to Energy program that diverts 95% of our waste from landfills!
- Best option? Choose no waste at all. Shop from our line of fully compostable pods (some supplied in 100% compostable packaging) and whole/ground coffee bean selections.
By Supporting Local & International Communities:
Sustainable practice means more than our ecological footprint, it means focusing on the people and communities who’s work goes into the products we sell. With that in mind, we endorse multiple community based causes both in Toronto and abroad.
Here are just a few highlights of our partnerships that are setting the standard:
- Doi Chaang Coffee Roasters supports a Beyond Fair Trade movement, whereby the company is 50% grower-owned. Shop their selection of coffee here.- Pluck Tea offers locally sourced and hand-crafted loose leaf teas. Shop their selections here.
- Planet Bean Coffee provides coffee beans that are organic and ethically sourced, roasted locally in small batches in Ontario. Café Femenino is a unique bean of theirs that supports a rare and forward-thinking coffee co-op in Peru that is run exclusively by women. Shop their selections here.
- ......... With any products, we do our best to offer many carefully sourced, quality product options that provide our customers with Local and/or certified Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, and Organic selections.
- We proudly encourage our in-house Volunteer Policy, which provides all of our employees with paid volunteering time for local community charity work.
- We collectively volunteer annually for initiatives such as the Ronald McDonald House (Toronto) Home For Dinner volunteer program, as well as running food drives to benefit the Daily Bread Foundation, aiding those locally in need.
By Always Keeping Our Team In Mind:
We may sell coffee pods, but we certainly don’t hire them. Employee engagement is the lifeblood of how we function and grow as a company. This process begins with a standard of clear communication and goals that strengthen the ambition and abilities of our team. We open every door for development opportunities so each and every employee can become a leader.
- We take advantage of any conference, vendor training, or program that further the skills of our team members. We’ve also initiated specially developed internal and external training sessions to serve that purpose. Ted Talks are not rarity in our weekly meetings.
- We’ve mentioned our internal procedures such as our Environmental Policy and Waste Management & Recycling Policy, but these are more than pieces of paper. These policies are full of active participants to give them life.
- We ensure a real livable wage is provided for each and every one of our employees. Gender equality, non-discrimination, and equal opportunity for all, is at the core of our values and hiring.
- We recently gave ourselves a face life with custom upcycled furniture made from Ontario reclaimed barn wood, creating an open and creative work space. By using a Toronto artisan (Forever Interiors), we were able to support our local small-business workforce and make the leading-edge, environmentally sound choice. Plus, it looks really cool.
- And of course, on each of those lovely new desks you’ll find a great cup of coffee, tea, or one of our healthy snack options provided by our partner, Mindful Snacks.