From helping farmers to cutting emissions, this company is more than a cup of coffee
A longtime company known for providing locals a morning pick-me-up is attempting to not only become carbon neutral, but is planning to offset its emissions from the past 50 years.
Tony’s Coffee recently announced that it is working with a consultant to offset five years’ worth of emissions every year for the next decade, with the goal of offsetting its entire historic carbon footprint by 2030. Earlier this year it converted its roastery and its delivery fleet to be 100% carbon neutral.
It’s another step for the company known for staying focused as a local, independent business that wants to help farmers in other parts of the world. Founded in 1971, Tony’s Coffee now has 40 employees, producing about 1.1 million pounds of coffee to its customers, the vast majority living in Whatcom County and the Puget Sound region, said David Yake, director of sales and sustainability for the company.
“We’ve always been independently owned, so we’ve never had ambitions to become a huge company,” Yake said in an email. “For us, roasting coffees we love, and having good, long term relationships with our farming partners and customers have always been more important than growth.”
The moves toward being carbon neutral are getting national notice. Tony’s was recently named by Roast Magazine the 2021 Macro Roaster of the Year. According to the magazine, Tony’s earned the top spot “for its vibrant company culture, community involvement and commitment to ethical sourcing practices and social responsibility.”
A long history of roasting
Tony’s Coffee was founded in 1971, which happens to be the same year Starbucks got its start. By the mid-1980s Tony’s was purchased by the Elliot family and has had Todd Elliot as its CEO since 2000.
While Starbucks took off and became the global giant in the industry, Tony’s stayed in Bellingham, focusing on building decades-long relationships with local restaurants and stores, Yake said. Along with the roasting operations in the Irongate business park, the company also has a cafe in Fairhaven. Camber, which opened in 2017 in downtown Bellingham, is a sister company of Tony’s. The two companies operate separately in terms of sourcing and roasting coffees.
“We love it here. Our team is full of nature lovers and we get a lot of energy from spending time outside,” Yake said. “We love having Seattle close by, but there are few places where you can go adventure as easily as Bellingham.”
In sourced coffee beans, Tony’s got into the Fair Trade market early on. That opened their eyes to the challenges that coffee farming communities face, Yake said.
That eventually led to the company taking part in social premiums, which mean paying above the base price for coffee beans and putting that extra money into a community development fund. The company is also a founding member of the World Coffee Research organization, which helps small-scale farmers adapt to climate change.
Since 2002 Tony’s has purchased more than six million pounds of fair trade coffee and contributed more than $1.3 million in social premiums.
Concern about those farmers dealing with climate change has led to its current projects for becoming carbon neutral, which included a new roasting system that cut its natural gas usage by more than 40%, Yake said.
Tony’s works with a nonprofit called Gold Standard that funds green projects that help local communities around the world. The first project Tony’s funded was a clean water project in Rwanda, which reduced the need to burn wood to boil water.
What’s up with the elephant?
Since nearly the beginning the logo has involved an elephant, reaching up to get some coffee beans.
“The story goes that a regular customer sketched the original elephant at the coffeehouse and gave the sketch to a barista,” Yake said. “Over time, that sketch became incorporated into our branding. It’s also fitting, since elephants are said to have very discerning tastes — they can apparently differentiate ripe fruit from under-ripe fruit with their trunks.”
Like everyone else, Tony’s is adapting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yake said that while the business has had to adapt, it’s the restaurants and cafes that have been hit the hardest, he is trying to figure out how to best support them. They’ve appreciated the support by customers as well with the online ordering: Online sales are up 300% this year, and which has prompted them to create a new director of marketing position.
“We’ve also been fortunate to have a healthy crew, who have remained incredibly positive and adaptable,” Yake said.
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
