With those bitter cold days making their appearance more frequently in Rochester, few things can beat the feeling of warming up to a nice hot cup of coffee. But what’s even better is knowing that many of the coffee vendors on campus are sustainable options. One example is Ecoverde, which is available at the Danforth and Douglass dining halls. Some departmental offices also order the coffee for their employees, including Facilities & Services and Campus Planning Design & Construction Management. Here are some facts about the company for your information:
- Ecoverde is roasted in WNY by McCullagh Coffee, a business that has been roasting coffees and distributing teas, coffee, and other allied products since 1867.
- In 2010 Warren Emblidge Jr., owner of McCullagh Coffee set an ambitious agenda for the company to achieve best in class sustainability by its 150th anniversary in 2017. McCullagh was recognized for its efforts by Buffalo Business First at the 2013 Manufacturing Awards ceremony with the Sustainability Award (Small Company Division).
- McCullagh remains firmly committed to sustainability, and was a founder and serves on the Steering Committee of the WNY Sustainable Business Roundtable, where along with other WNY companies, Erie County, and SUNY University of Buffalo they are developing core metrics for sustainability that will be transparent and drive further improvements
- The Ecoverde product line uses only premium grade coffees that carry either Rainforest Alliance and/or Organic/Fairtrade certification. Sustainable coffees, in general, tend to be much higher quality, and are almost exclusively roasted from Arabica beans, the preferred coffee species/variety for gourmet coffees.
- McCullagh has partnered with Aramark at Danforth and Douglas Dining Halls to provide the most sustainable options to their student cafeteria operations. In addition we have gotten great feedback from the cafeteria managers and students regarding the flavor of the Guatemalan and Sumatra Mandheling blends.
- Ecoverde coffees are packaged in certified compostable packaging, either in fractional pacs or 1 and 5 lb. bags for ground and bean. Packaging compostability is certified using the ASTM 6400 standards
- After several years of experimentation McCullagh has perfected a compostable coffee packaging film for frac pacs that is robust, maintains excellent barrier properties, and can be printed with graphics. We were among the first in the coffee industry to launch a line featuring these eco-friendly materials.
- The company has just redesigned the packaging, and now features a bold and colorful Ecoverde frac pac, taking the product to the next level
- There are currently plans in place to launch a new line of organic teas with the same environmental premise, sometime in the fall of 2014
Enjoy!
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