For this weekly assignment, I choose to use my coffee import and roasting business called Moonraker Coffee Roasters (moonrakercoffee.co)— I make most of the daily business decisions, and from the start, my partners and I were very concerned about our social responsibility—this purpose was two-fold: so we could feel like we were staying true to our personal values, and because this is good business this day and age among Gen Z and millennial customer base! Consumers are truly paying attention and directing their hard-earned money to brands they feel embody upright values and who examine their social impact.
From the very start, when we were brainstorming and fleshing out our strategy and differentiating factors and features in the coffee, we began forming up our business plan which encompassed our corporate vision and mission statement. In this process, we realized that by partnering with coffee farmers directly we could not only obtain access to some very high-grade coffee that customers would probably enjoy more over other beans, but furthermore, we could actually ensure more money went to the farmers instead of big corporate coffee brokers who act as middle-men in the supply chain. This is pretty rad! Basically, it means thousands of dollars more per hectarea of coffee planted for the farmers, all of whom are what are known as “small holder” farmers meaning they own about 10 acres of land or less. So this is a major improvement for the farmer and family, and several farmers have now circled back to us showing us some of the new drying and de-pulping machinery they have been able to purchase thanks for receiving a small premium in the coffee price!
We are working on trademarking the term “Beyond Fair Trade” right now as we work to partner with farmers, as we are now working to determine how each farm partner is actually paying the coffee harvesting staff. Typically the coffee harvesters are seasonal workers who come from economically marginalized communities. For instance, in Panama, the coffee is almost exclusively harvested by an indigenous group known as the Ngobe-Bugle, and what our farm partners there told us was that instead of paying the workers more per pound of coffee harvested, what the workers actually really needed was some adequate housing with child care so that men and women could work during the day and have a safe and dry place to sleep during the “cosecha” or harvest season. This was very interesting to hear and we are now working with one farm to create a fund to create child care options for the workers!
All in all, there is so much need in the world, both at home and aboard, and I think businesses are waking up to the impact they can have for good—and as consumers, if we demand and reward those who examine social impact, we can create better outcomes for communities. In Pennsylvania, where we incorporated Moonraker, there is even a default option with the PA Secretary of State to form a “B Corp,” which states that in addition to making a profit, the purpose of the business to is to create a positive benefit to the community! We are actually working on our first annual social impact report for Pennsylvania’s legal requirement, but it was so wonderful to see the state making it one of several default choices to incorporate as a B Corp. Our next goal is to work towards B Corp certification from B Lab (https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/), but this is an expensive and time-consuming process and a goal we have set for the next year and a half. Overall, going forward, in addition to paying fair wages here in the US for our employees, Moonraker has set a goal to partner with farmers who “get it” in terms of long term social impact and using business as a force for good. This “conscious capitalism” approach is entirely mutually beneficial, as it helps differentiate our coffee brand from other cut-rate, commodity grade coffee roasters out there, and I am going to recommend that we double down on really interrogating our farm partners on how we can ensure the marginalized workers can receive education, training, or increased wages so that the premiums paid for coffee do in fact have positive social impact.
