When Dark Woods was founded back in 2015 we knew that we wanted to be about more than great coffee. The opportunity to create a business that reflected the personal values of its directors means taking decisions that don’t always seem obvious. Conventional wisdom dictates that people care more about cost than quality when it comes to coffee and this created an industry that is often grossly unfair, and in many cases leverages First World profits against Third World lives.
The Specialty coffee industry offers a different way of doing things; rightly paying more for better coffee, respecting the skills of farmers striving for quality and developing long term relationships that go beyond the transactional.
We want to do this whilst being first and foremost a local producer; serving the cafes, bars and restaurants where we live. Good values are important close to home, being a supportive and integrated part of the local community, working ecologically, and looking after our Dark Woods team.
Values like these should just be how you do things, not a marketing gimmick splashed all over social media at every opportunity. We want people to buy Dark Woods coffee because it tastes great, not because its worthy. But people still want to know the company they support truly have the principles they expect.
To this end we sought out B Corp, a platform that can assess and measure a business across a range of metrics that align strongly with our aspirations at Dark Woods – “Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.’
Certified BCorp business must score over 80 points over rigorously assessed categories and we are delighted to say that in June we passed with a score of 99.6, becoming one of the first coffee roasters to be certified.
This shows us where we did well but more importantly how we can improve for the future
https://bcorporation.uk/directory/dark-woods-coffee-ltd
- Workers – Engaged and satisfied workforce
- Environment – Use of electric vehicles, recyclable and compostable packaging, solar panels and recycling polices at the roastery
- Governance – Ethical and transparent
- Community – Giving to the local community, managing a transparent and ethical supply chain, poverty alleviation at origin
- Customers – Looking after our customers with training and support
