L'Arbre à Café has taken another step in its commitment and become a Mission-Centered Company, joining the 40 or so organizations with the two most demanding corporate certifications: B Corp and Mission-driven Enterprise!
Here are the reasons why we can display the deepest commitments of the coffee world, and what it means to be a Mission Company.
Because true commitment is not something that can be decreed late in life, but is at the heart of an organization, L'Arbre à Café has been, since its origins in 2009, one of the most committed and transparent roasters about its actions. We give everyone the opportunity to know, to share, to verify the reality of our sustainability, to ensure that the daily and strategic commitments of L'Arbre à Café are true, authentic and sincere.
The status of Mission Company is framed by the State and governed by laws(LOI n°2019-486 of May 22, 2019 - art. 176) of the Commercial Code, registered at the Commercial Court by the clerk's department and thus expressly mentioned on the Kbis.
The company has several obligations in this regard:
- Write down its purpose in its statutes,
- List its priority objectives, the axes of the mission,
- Explicitly state the metrics for measuring mission success,
- Create a Mission Committee,
- Be monitored by an approved third party,
- Publish an annual Mission Report to publicize the reality of our progress.
Thus the purpose of L'Arbre à Café - Terres et Hommes SA is to :
"Participate in changing the world by changing the way we produce and consume an everyday landmark product that is a "witness to an era": coffee."
The Company intends to generate a positive and significant social, societal and environmental impact in the course of its activities. In particular, the following social, societal and environmental objectives are to be pursued by Terres et Hommes SAS in the course of its activities
- Measuring and offsetting CO2 emissions
- Promoting regenerative agriculture
- Obtaining renewal of B Corp status
- To label our agricultural subsidiaries AB and Demeter
- Participate in industry innovation and research to make coffee better.
Our Corporate Mission Committee is responsible for evaluating the monitoring of these objectives using the B Corp framework and internal tools.
Within the framework of this approach, the President undertakes to take into consideration the social, societal and environmental consequences of his decisions on all the stakeholders of Terres et Hommes.
And more generally, all operations, of any nature whatsoever, legal, economic and financial, civil and commercial, related to the above-mentioned purpose or to any other similar or related purpose, likely to promote, directly or indirectly, the purpose pursued by the company, its extension or its development.
To this end, L'Arbre à Café has created a Mission and Ethics Committee with its own rules of procedure.
Its main missions are
- Follow-up of the company's mission,
- The elaboration of the Mission report
- Reception and information for OTI auditors
Because we are B Corp, the monitoring of the Mission is carried out thanks to the B Corp benchmark, the famous BIA that several thousand companies, B Corp or not, use to conduct their CSR, we cross-reference it with our company's SEM.
A mission report is established annually and made public. You will be able to follow our progress regularly.
Our 5 axes of the Mission and the indicators we have chosen
1) Measure and offset our CO2 emissions by :
- Carrying out a tri-annual carbon assessment. The first one was done in 2020, making L'Arbre à Café the pioneer in the field of artisanal coffee
- Reducing our carbon emissions by 10% over 3 years. We had already reduced them drastically between 2019 and 2020
- Reducing the share of transportation in our emissions by 20%. We travel a lot to visit the plantations, accompany the producers, go to Finca Mariposa, and visit our clients. We have already reduced our footprint by switching to all-electric and cargo bike deliveries. A new frontier awaits us with the reduction of our air footprint.
- Offsetting 100% of our residual CO2 emissions through certified or internal projects. At the moment, we do this by financing the safeguarding of the Amazonian forest in Peru every year as part of the certified Madre de Dios project.
- Communicating on the L'Arbre à Café approach. We regularly share our initiatives, our milestones, and publish an annual mission report.
- Aiming for 90% of our coffee volume to be certified organic by 2025. We have been committed to sustainable agriculture since our origins, making L'Arbre à Café the first specialty coffee roaster specializing in organic and biodynamic coffees since 2009. This goal has almost been achieved. As a reminder, all our blends and Grands Crus are certified organic and more than 80% are biodynamic! A unique model in the world.
- Aiming at 95% of the volume of coffee coming from regenerative agriculture without pesticides: certified or not. Some of our coffees are not covered by any certification, all are exceptional coffees. Our daily work is to accompany our producers towards more sustainable and certified agriculture.
- Communicating about regenerative agriculture. We do this regularly and will continue to speak out on the subject. You can count on us!
- Making our farm Finca Mariposauneagro-ecological and biodynamic farm.
4) To label our agricultural subsidiaries AB and Demeter
L'Arbre à Café is committed to certifying its Mariposa farm as AB and Demeter by 2025.
If L'Arbre à Café is certified B Corp, the other agricultural productions of Finca Mariposa must also be certified.
- Participating in research programs for coffee improvement. We will therefore deepen our collaborations.
- Offering technical and agricultural innovations, again and again
- Promoting innovations to make coffee farming and consumption more virtuous
- Marketing more efficient solutions in terms of carbon emissions and energy.
And there you have it!
So join us to give wings and taste to the coffee of tomorrow, today!
