Oughtred Coffee & Tea Wins Ecostar Award for Climate Change

VICTORIA

Oughtred Coffee and Tea (Oughtred) is exemplifying the business case for sustainability. Recent recipient of the 2012 EcoStar Award in the category of Climate Action, Oughtred is not only making internal changes to reduce its carbon footprint, but encouraging other organizations to jump on the sustainability bandwagon. Oughtred won this renowned award because of its comprehensive Carbon Reduction Program (CRP) that measures emissions, targets effective reduction strategies and offsets what it cannot reduce. As JP Oughtred (Owner) explains, “Our company shifted gears in 2009 when we set the goal of becoming carbon neutral. What seemed like a lofty target has now become core to how we operate.”

The impact of the coffee industry is emissions intensive by nature. Oughtred decided to tighten its environmental practices and develop an in-house Carbon Reduction Program (CRP). After a series of environmental audits and green strategy planning with a local environmental consulting firm, Oughtred initiated various programs to reduce its impact. Amoung these green actions included developing a heat recapture technology at the roastery, drastically shortening green bean shipping routes, and a fuel efficient delivery fleet. The results of Oughtred’s Carbon Reduction Program speak for themselves: a 26% reduction in carbon emissions, 15% decrease in electricity consumption, 66% reduction in propane, 55% reduction in paper use, and a waste diversion rate of 90%. Furthermore, Oughtred was one of the first companies in BC to go carbon neutral, investing in BC based clean energy projects such as ground source heat pumps for elementary schools and a biomass boiler for a greenhouse company.

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