Corporate Social Responsibility

We believed that the environment and the day to day running of the business would be better served by building the world’s first carbon neutral coffee roastery. 

Our objective was to achieve carbon neutral status for the operation of the site.  The philosophy to achieve this was follows:

• Reduce energy consumption requirements through specification of high efficiency plant and good practice design
• Introduce a workplace energy management policy and a motivational programme for employees to ensure costs and emissions are minimized in the longer term.
• Provide space heating and hot water requirements via a wood pellet system with a gas fired boiler as a peak load / backup system.
• Off-set any remaining carbon emissions, namely the gas fired coffee roasters, using good quality verified carbon off-set credits from the voluntary regulated markets.
• Give consideration in the future to site based options that may become technically and financially attractive to further displace carbon off-sets

Building:

The new Java Republic Roastery was built to U-values specification and in accordance with the European regulations.

Manufacturing:

Our plan to increase production capacity by 250% created a challenge for us in the manufacturing side of our business with regard to efficiency and good practice.  All practical measures have been taken in installation of the new equipment to ensure maximum efficiency in terms of our carbon foot print. It would be fair to say that it is easier and more cost effective in a new building from the point of view of site based carbon neutral options. Its always more straight forward when starting from scratch especially in terms of minimising energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Energy:

Our energy programme encompasses the areas of:

Wood Energy

Our commitment to the environment is to become carbon neutral and part of this programme has been to install a 100kW Emax M Energy Cabin which provides heat for the building. The cabin contains a 100kW boiler complete with a pellet store for over 13 tonnes of pellets.  The waste ash from this facility (potash) will be used in the Java Republic grounds for the flowers and shrubbery.

Electricity

Our electricity provider is Airtricity and this is electrical energy provided via wind farms, which are the most economical and technologically advanced means to produce electricity that is 100% green and does not impact negatively on the environment.

Gas

Our roasters are powered by gas. The mains gas is not carbon neutral but would represent a fossil fuel with one of lowest rates of carbon emissions on a like for like basis with other fossil fuels, e.g. oil. As there would seem to be no alternative to using gas for the coffee roasters the emissions will need to be off-set by purchasing carbon credits.

Solar (passive)

We believed in building our new building that we have actively sought through the design of the building to maximize the passive solar gains through insulation, attempting to make the building as air-tight as possible by using ventilation correctly thus avoiding heat loss.  In addition, we have good site position in terms of geographic placement or orientation to take advantage of daylighting.  We have a huge expanse of glass and we concentrated on the layout to maximize the passive solar gains.  We believe that through this we have reduced our heating costs.

Recycling:

Java Republic where possible currently recycles all materials:

Paper Recycling

Greenstar provides Java Republic with a paper recycling service for white office paper, mixed paper, newspapers, magazines, brochures, cardboard and a wide range of fiberboards. Recycling bins are provided for this segregation and are collected weekly from Java Republic. Bins are all with secured lids to eliminate pollution.

Plastic Recycling

Greenstar has a specialised plastics recycling facility where a wide range of plastics can be processed, on receipt of all plastics from Java Republic, Greenstar recycle all on their own site, and this is currently collected weekly.  Bins are all with secured lids to eliminate pollution.

Cardboard Recycling

Java Republic currently has a 70kg capacity compactor which palletizes all cardboard waste, which in turn is recycled by Greenstar.

Food Biowaste / Composting

Java Republic has a specialist composting service for food and biowaste.  A bin for all food particles will be used by Java Republic in the grounds.  Bins all have secured lids to eliminate pollution.   In addition we are members of REPAK.

Paper Policy:

Java Republic where possible are going as paperless as possible.  We are implementing our paperless system in terms of sending out all information via electronic means and plan to complete this by the end of the first quarter 2009 ensuring that we cut back considerably on paper usage.

Purchase Policy:

Java Republic are purchasing as close to home as possible to ensure a smaller carbon foot print on our products and to encourage local economic growth.  All packaging products will be sourced from suppliers who use recyclable packaging materials and we are plan to change all our coffee packaging materials with a view to replacing this with recyclable tins which we can collect and re-use. This policy is ongoing and we plan to be completely recyclable and reusable by 2011.