Don Maslow Coffee

I am currently working on Don Maslow Coffee. A coffee retailer seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of the coffee industry and protect the rainforest. To further prove my commitment to finding a more sustainable and efficient way to conduct business I am about to start my Post Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Business at the University of Cambridge 

One thing I care about?

Tropical deforestation is the third biggest carbon emitter in the world. Deforestation is a significant contributor of climate change-causing greenhouse gases. Studies indicate that tropical deforestation accounts for up to 15% of net global carbon emissions each year.

Throughout Central America, approximately 6,500 hectares of forest is consumed each year to supply the firewood for drying the coffee. Which means, cloud forests are deforested to make way for coffee farms. 

To this date, the societal understanding of the environmental impact of coffee growing is relatively low.

Traditional coffee processing is powered by burning wood cut from tropical forests to dry the coffee. This technique has resulted in mass deforestation and CO2 emissions. Roughly 3cm2 of tropical forest is destroyed for every cup of coffee consumed. Our goal is to replace this traditional method of coffee processing by using solar powered driers to produce coffee and promote this coffee production model around the world.

The specific problem that you are working to solve

Traditional coffee processing is powered by burning wood cut from tropical forests to dry the coffee. This technique has resulted in mass deforestation and CO2 emissions. Roughly 3cm2 of tropical forest is destroyed for every cup of coffee consumed. Our goal is to replace this traditional method of coffee processing by using solar powered driers to produce coffee and promote this coffee production model around the world.

What is the scale of the problem in the communities you are working in, and globally?  

Throughout Central America, approximately 6,500 hectares of forest is consumed each year to supply the firewood for drying the coffee and studies indicate that tropical deforestation accounts for up to 15% of net global carbon emissions each year.

How many people are affected? 

There are more than 120 million people whose livelihoods depend on coffee and the projected demand for coffee suggests that an additional 4 - 14 million tons will need to be produced annually to meet this demand. This will result in further deforestation, at a time when climate change is approaching a tipping point for humanity.

Scope:

Our coffee is grown in the Honduran highlands through a program that protects thousands of hectares of tropical forest.

Our supplier is supported by the Mesoamerican Development Institute (MDI, an NGO located at the University of Massachusetts Lowell), who have introduced sustainable technologies for rural industry, including the high-efficiency drying chamber used in solar drying systems, hermetic storage systems for coffee, and Integrated Open Canopy™ production (IOC). This means that our coffee is grown and dried in a way that prevents deforestation, and promotes biodiversity.

All purchases of Don Maslow Coffee directly lend support in proving the IOC coffee business model, which will propagate the use of this environment saving technology across the world.

Scale:

Our activities are currently focused in developing markets in the USA, UAE and UK, but as the demand grows, we plan to sell globally, and partner with farmers to invest in more solar drying systems.

Benefits:

- Preservation of the rainforest.

- Promotion of solar dried coffee and sustainable coffee agriculture methods.

- Support a better livelihood to independent Honduran coffee farmers.

- Our packaging is certified 100% compostable, meeting ASTM D6868 and          EN13434 standards.

Describe the community whose lives you are working to directly and meaningfully improve. Who are they? 

One of our goals is to buy coffee from independent, women run coffee plantations in Honduras, and partner with a local Honduran coffee roaster.

What we wish to see is that once the business model for sustainably grown coffee is proven, this will influence other farmers in coffee growing regions to invest in similar technology.

How is your project addressing their needs?

Forever, farmers have only sold their coffee as raw material, we would like to create more brand awareness, so we can increase our revenue and sales of coffee bags which with our direct trade buying method will mean that coffee farmers will be able to earn a comfortable wage. Our final  goal is to decrease the cycle of poverty, crime, and forced migration in Honduras. 

We only chose one option however we relate to the Elevate Prize in all its (3) dimensions.

Does your work have the potential to elevate humanity and inspire others to act as engines for social good?

Our vision is that coffee production will integrate with the rainforest, not be part of its destruction, our solution is creating awareness of climate change issues, but it is allowing customers to make a difference without changing their habits.

I am a Honduran national, when I was 19 years old I had the opportunity to go and study in Taiwan. While living in Taiwan I was influenced by the way of life, which is driven by a strong work ethic and a relentless pursuit of prosperity. Since then, I have lived and work for international corporations in China, Peru, Chile and now the United Arab Emirates. However, I always dreamt of using my international working experience on alleviating some of Honduras endemic social problems and this is why I co-founded Don Maslow Coffee.

But I always wanted to start a business around my passions, helping my country, protecting the environment and I wanted to create a brand as sustainable as possible

This is my attend to reduce the degradation of the natural habitats and halt the loss of biodiversity in my country but more importantly, I would like to address the reduction of poverty which perpetuates some of our greatest social problems such as crime and violence. 

I guess What I wrote above will apply to this again as for me, it is basically what  motivates me to pursue this project. 

I once read a quote that says. 

"When you have more than you need; build a longer table, not a bigger fence."

I am a Honduran national, when I was 19 years old I had the opportunity to go and study in Taiwan. While living in Taiwan I was influenced by the way of life, which is driven by a strong work ethic and a relentless pursuit of prosperity. Since then, I have lived and work for international corporations in China, Peru, Chile and now the United Arab Emirates. However,  I always dreamt of using my international working experience on alleviating some of Honduras endemic social problems and this is why I co-founded Don Maslow Coffee. This is my attend to reduce the degradation of the natural habitats and halt the loss of biodiversity in my country but more importantly, I would like to address the reduction of poverty which perpetuates some of our greatest social problems such as  crime and violence. 

I have a background in international business development having worked in the Middle East, China and Latin American markets furthermore I will be starting my Post Graduate Certificate at the University of Cambridge which will allow me to use their networks and expertise to move my project forward. 

Being an entrepreneur is the strongest proof I can present to you as my desire to overcome adversity. While most people glamorise it, the life of an entrepreneur is at most times lonely. 

However, a strong sense of purpose is what drives me to continue on this path. 

While large parts of society agree on climate change, I also find that consumers are still not willing to make the lifestyle changes needed to increase our ability to protect our environment. 

I have also found that consumers still are for the most part sceptical about business and organizations with sustainability as their mission statements. 

One more challenge we face is the fact that sustainable products and businesses lack the "cool "and "hip" factor to be widely adopted by society, therefore, I am proud to announce that Don Maslow Coffee will be featured in the upcoming GQ and WIRED magazine summer issues. This is probably the first time a sustainable coffee brand is featured in those magazines. 

Sustainability focused businesses face the broader challenge of being able to create products that compete with less sustainable products promoted by large international conglomerates at low prices.

At Don Maslow Coffee, we wanted to create a product as sustainable as possible and did not want to compromise and cut corners in order to increase our profit margin we were aware that the packaging industry has been slow to respond to developing sustainable materials that are compostable or biodegradable. Coffee packaging, including coffee pods, are designed to appeal to customer aesthetic rather than with the environment in mind. As a result, much of the packaging used for coffee end up in land-fill. 

Don Maslow Coffee has been developed with the circular economy in mind and uses only 100% compostable packaging certified according to ASTM D6400, ASTM D6868 and EN13432 according to Vincotte OK Compost. Every individual component, including the films, valves, and zipper of the bag has been tested to these standards. However, to date, there is not currently a cost effective, high quality bag on the market that has been certified as 100% compostable, inclusive of all components together.

  Simply put we work on: 

- Preservation of the rainforest.

- Promotion of solar dried coffee and sustainable coffee agriculture methods.

- Support a better livelihood to independent Honduran coffee farmers.

- Our packaging is certified 100% compostable, meeting ASTM D6868 and           EN13434 standards

Don Maslow Coffee Theory of Change

Currently, we are two directors who are also the co-founders and we have a General Manager based in Honduras. 

Our Key Partners are 

- Honduran Coffee Farmers (Coffee pickers around 200) 

- Honduran Coffee Roaster ( 5) 

We expected to triple our impact in 5 years. 

As we have mentioned before. 
What we wish to see is that once the business model for sustainably grown coffee is proven, this will influence other farmers in coffee growing regions to invest in similar technology.

Our vision is that coffee production will integrate with the rainforest, not be part of its destruction. To do, so we need to increase our sales and revenue in order to increase our brand awareness to the mass market and reduce the impact coffee production has on the rainforest. 

Our solution is creating awareness of climate change issues, but it is allowing customers to make a difference without changing their habits. 

Our most ambitious goal is to get sustainable coffee production on the Climate Change and Reduce Poverty agendas at United Nation Conferences.

Consumer receptiveness to the sustainability message, the mass markets do not currently possess a well-developed awareness of the damage caused coffee production. As a result, there is little impetus to change consumer behaviour.

Lack of support networks to promote sustainability, there are not enough support networks such as distributors, e-commerce platforms or government assistance to promote businesses attempting to bring sustainable products to market. Governments, for example, do not appear to be rewarding farmers or businesses for acting sustainably and sustainability standards are largely voluntary.

How we plan to address the lack of awareness about the impact of coffee in the rainforest is that at a fundamental level, Don Maslow Coffee has been created to promote this environment saving coffee on a global scale, to play its part in a long-term solution to climate change. The brand has been developed as a luxury Honduran coffee brand in order to commercialize and market the coffee to the mass markets and develop awareness across the world.
We are all aware that sustainable products lack the " cool " or " hip" to be successful and widely accepted in the mass market that is why we have decided to be featured in GQ and WIRED magazine. 

Since our solution is creating awareness of climate change issues, but it is allowing customers to make a difference without changing their habits. We hope that once we are able to increase our sale and the business model for sustainably grown coffee is proven this will influence farmers and governments in coffee growing regions to invest in similar technology.

Currently, we have been bootstrapping only. Without the prize money or external funding, we have in place enough funding to invest in PR, advertising and business development efforts to moderately scaling the business at a slow pace.

Nevertheless, we can no longer ignore that climate Change is the geopolitical topic of our generation. The majority of nations agree with climate change scientists on the fact that global warming will impact human civilization in the coming years and it is this sense of urgency that has driven us to no longer wait until we break even and increase our sales by our efforts alone.

Brand awareness is our biggest challenge, we wish to have the support and platform of organisations that share our mission and vision and help us to be able to be in front of as many people as possible in our to communicate the fact that we can all enjoy good quality coffee that preserves the earth. 
With that in mind, I also welcome the opportunities to develop these ideas more and any feedback or mentorship would be appreciated.

Bottom line is, we are a business, and we want more people to buy our product. We welcome any of the following business and organisations to contact us. 

- SMEs

- Eco-lodges

- Bread & Breakfasts

- Airports

- Airlines

- Hotel chains

- Roasters

- Green publications

- Gyms

- Wineries

- Supermarkets

We would also appreciate any kind of media exposure.