Environmental Responsibility Policy

Climate change and environmental sustainability present challenges and opportunities for Bear Market Coffee and our suppliers. To address these, Bear Market is committed to incorporating leading environmental practices into its business strategy and operations by

fostering environmental awareness and responsibility among our employees, customers, suppliers and other interested parties within the context of our business. We are committed to the prevention and reduction of carbon emissions, waste and pollution. Our journey to environmental sustainability is one of honest analysis, transparency, effective change and ongoing commitment.

As a company that is involved in the transportation of goods, we are fully aware of our own potential impact on the environment and as such, we have set out a number of aims.

1. We will comply with all relevant and current environmental legislation and industry codes of practice.
2. We will take steps to prevent pollution, waste and harm during the sourcing of our products, our own operations, consumer waste and the transport and distribution of said goods.
3. We will continuously set objectives and targets relating to our environmental impact that will be reviewed on a regular basis. This process will ensure that we constantly succeed.

Our Environmental Responsibility Policy extends to our:

Coffee Suppliers 

1. Primary objective is to source and roast the highest quality and sustainably sourced coffee in the world. This included only sourcing Grade-A speciality arabica beans and paying prices that reflect the quality of the coffee and the environmental output involved to harvest it. 
2. Direct trade with all the farms and reduce any intermediaries to achieve total transparency. Consider environmental factors when sourcing new coffee and only work with farms that are transparent and dedicated to environmentally friendly practices. Only work with farmers that can provide us with transparent reports on each farm.
3. Engage with all our coffee suppliers and farms to consider the environmental impact of sourcing our coffee beans and support each farm in addressing their own environmental impacts. Work exclusively with farms that are committed to environmental and economic sustainability. 
4. Assess the environmental performance of our key suppliers, expecting improvement in their environmental performance as well as our own.
5. Strive to advance environmental sustainability by serving as a collaborator, convener and thought leader.

​​Employees

1. Encourage environmental awareness among our employees and provide environmental learning through total transparency surrounding Bear Market’s supply chain, coffee sourcing and journey to zero carbon emissions.
2. Encourage the use of keep-cups for each employee. Facilitate employees with reducing and removing the use of single-use plastic cutlery and compostable coffee cups to harness employee enthusiasm and offer opportunities for employees to collaborate on our journey to improve environmental performance and reduce waste.

Customers

1. Encourage environmental awareness among our customers and provide environmental learning through total transparency surrounding Bear Market’s supply chain, coffee sourcing and journey to zero carbon emissions.
2. Encourage the use of keep-cups for customers through a 15c instore incentive. Facilitate customers with reducing and removing the use of single-use plastic cutlery and compostable coffee cups to harness customer and community enthusiasm and offer opportunities for customers to collaborate on our journey to improve environmental performance and reduce waste. Examples include: Since 2014 we have sourced compostable packaging and made all our single use products 100% compostable. The adoption of reusable keep cups early on has allowed us to majorly reduce waste with an uptake in keep-cup usage of 45%. In order to minimise customer waste, we do not stock any single use plastic water bottles and will be encouraging reusable water bottles usage by installing complimentary filtered still water stations in each store. About to launch a community based reusable cup exchange program.

Key areas of focus for our business include:

Energy and Emissions 

1. Pledge to become carbon neutral by 2025 from “Green bean to Cup”, which will include our entire supply chain. 
2. Tracking carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the entire supply chain. Areas being  monitored include company’s energy usage in coffee  shops, the roastery, delivery services and coffee supply chain through implementing a continual improvement program to reduce these emissions until our final target is achieved. 
3. Our carbon management program includes energy efficiency equipment, renewable energy procurement and through collaboration with our suppliers. 
4. Examples of energy efficient equipment and renewable energy procurement includes: managing our own Roastery in order to reduce energy emission. Roast all of our coffee on Loring Smart Roast machine, the most environmentally-friendly commercial roaster available. Loring roasters use 80% less energy and emit 80% less emissions than a comparable standard roaster, and the recycling of hot air from the roaster drum eliminates the need for an afterburner. All coffee is delivered by our 100% electric van to each store.

Waste Management

1. Seeking to minimize our consumption of natural resources through reusable product and operational conservation. 
2. Compostable Packing: One of our key objectives was the removal of single use plastic takeaway cups and packaging, which was achieved in 2014. The reduction of our compostable coffee cups is an ongoing commitment through our 15c incentive.
3. Reduce container and bag waste by roasting our own coffee and using reusable containers. By roasting our own beans and using reusable buckets, we cut this waste down to zero.