U.K. Based Horsham Coffee Roaster Plants a Tree in
Rwanda for Every Bag Sold
July 2 - 2021
Coffee Geography Magazine
Horsham Coffee Roaster based in the U.K. is working with OneTreePlanted,
promising that for every 1kg of their Rwandan coffee roasted
and sold, they will donate $1 directly to the Gishwati-Mukura forest replanting
project.
Since
the initiative started in May 2019, Horsham Coffee Roaster has donated enough
to plant 5,651 trees.
A
spokesman for the company said: “We’ve worked very hard over the last few years
to reduce our CO2 impact.
“Some
of our recent efforts including the purchase of a Loring S35 low emissions
roaster, LED lighting in our roastery, an electric Nissan Leaf zero emissions
business car, reusing packaging when we can and several other efforts to reduce
the negative impact on the planet.
“For
this approach, the reduction wasn’t enough, and we wanted to find a way to
offset our CO2 emissions and to make a positive contribution to the planet.
While trying to find the best way to do this we came across OneTreePlanted.
“We
noticed that they work with a women’s co-operative in Rwanda located about one
hours’ drive north of Bwishaza co-operative. The logical step for us was to
come up with a way that we could contribute via the sale of our Rwandan
relationship coffee.”
The
Gishwati-Mukura forests of Rwanda once spanned 253,000 hectares, covering the
land with over 60 species of trees.
Due
to illegal mining and the resettlement of households after the genocide in 1994,
overgrazing and tree cutting reduced the forests to a mere 3,558 hectares.
Horsham
Coffee Roaster’s Rwandan blend comes after they first visited Rwanda in 2014,
since developing some very close relationships within the coffee community
there in Bwishaza.
The
washing station there is co-operative owned and works with around 500
small-hold farmers. This naturally processed coffee is the best Rwanda has to
offer.