The coffee industry is fundamentally rooted in agriculture. Beyond our basic ethical obligation towards sustaining the environment, there’s also the reciprocal relationship our work bears with the environment. The work we do as roasters is deeply contingent upon a flourishing environment, not to mention the labor of those who work most closely with it. And those who labor most closely with our environment are our growing partners at origin.
The coffee industry is fundamentally rooted in agriculture. Beyond our basic ethical obligation towards sustaining the environment, there’s also the reciprocal relationship our work bears with the environment. The work we do as roasters is deeply contingent upon a flourishing environment, not to mention the labor of those who work most closely with it. And those who labor most closely with our environment are our growing partners at origin.
Thoroughly supporting our growing partners is one of our foremost priorities, and we strive to go above and beyond standard payment practices. At Native Sons, we always exceed the standard Fair Trade rate of $1.80/lb, oftentimes paying our growing partners at least twice that rate (for particulars, check the Info section at the bottom of each individual coffee page). We don’t call attention to that fact to brag—instead, we call attention to it because it is the least our partners deserve, and we know that you’ll agree as you get to know the partners we’re honored to work with.
The language of “partner” isn’t used lightly here at Native Sons. From top to bottom, we earnestly strive to put into practice our belief that coffee is about people, and any business practice which fails to holistically treat its workers, customers, and partners as people first misses the mark.
This is one of the reasons we aim to prioritize traceability in our coffee selection process. It’s no accident that our coffees are often named after our producers, nor is it a mere nicety that we offer expansive profiles of our growing partners on each single origin’s page. We couldn’t do what we do without them, and we would be remiss not to showcase the farmers who pour their heart and soul into the meticulous, hands-on work that makes your morning cup possible. Ultimately, we’re one link in a long supply chain, consisting of importers, exporters, processing stations and more—but that chain is always traceable back to an individual (and usually family-owned) farm.
To that end, we strive to supply our customers with insight into pricing at various stages throughout the supply chain, only partnering with others who are like-minded in their efforts to maintain transparent practices throughout. We’ve made great strides towards sustainability in recent years, but our work isn’t done yet; we’re always seeking to improve our sourcing and strengthen existing farmer relationships, and we hope to move the greater part of our menu towards direct trade in the future.
Thoroughly supporting our growing partners is one of our foremost priorities, and we strive to go above and beyond standard payment practices. At Native Sons, we always exceed the standard Fair Trade rate of $1.80/lb, oftentimes paying our growing partners at least twice that rate (for particulars, check the Info section at the bottom of each individual coffee page). We don’t call attention to that fact to brag—instead, we call attention to it because it is the least our partners deserve, and we know that you’ll agree as you get to know the partners we’re honored to work with.
The language of “partner” isn’t used lightly here at Native Sons. From top to bottom, we earnestly strive to put into practice our belief that coffee is about people, and any business practice which fails to holistically treat its workers, customers, and partners as people first misses the mark.
This is one of the reasons we aim to prioritize traceability in our coffee selection process. It’s no accident that our coffees are often named after our producers, nor is it a mere nicety that we offer expansive profiles of our growing partners on each single origin’s page. We couldn’t do what we do without them, and we would be remiss not to showcase the farmers who pour their heart and soul into the meticulous, hands-on work that makes your morning cup possible. Ultimately, we’re one link in a long supply chain, consisting of importers, exporters, processing stations and more—but that chain is always traceable back to an individual (and usually family-owned) farm.
To that end, we strive to supply our customers with insight into pricing at various stages throughout the supply chain, only partnering with others who are like-minded in their efforts to maintain transparent practices throughout. We’ve made great strides towards sustainability in recent years, but our work isn’t done yet; we’re always seeking to improve our sourcing and strengthen existing farmer relationships, and we hope to move the greater part of our menu towards direct trade in the future.
On this side of the Brazos, we’re aiming to mitigate waste at every step of the process. That begins with our recycling practices. Our disposal bags are reused green coffee bags, which are composed of post-consumer recycled material so we can avoid single-use plastic as much as possible. Locally, we’ve partnered with Prestige Recycling to recycle all plastic, glass, tin, cardboard, and paper. All non-animal organic material is composted with our friends at the World Hunger Relief’s Spring Lake farm, and all of our burlap coffee bags are redistributed to WHR or the local zoo for animal enrichment activities.
Beyond that, we’re also proud to say that we’ve made it possible for our customers to partner with us in our recycling efforts. We’ve opted for green packaging wherever possible to enable you to mitigate waste at home, using Biotrē™ 1.0 for our retail bags (60% compostable and 60% plant-based renewable). Even the labels on these are biodegradable! Once the degassing valve and zip-seal have been removed, these bags are compostable within a home-compost environment for a period of 12 months. In the future, we hope to implement fully compostable bags; in the meantime, our shipping bags are compostable and printed with algae ink, and our boxes—also compostable—are curbside recyclable anywhere cardboard is accepted.
On this side of the Brazos, we’re aiming to mitigate waste at every step of the process. That begins with our recycling practices. Our disposal bags are reused green coffee bags, which are composed of post-consumer recycled material so we can avoid single-use plastic as much as possible. Locally, we’ve partnered with Prestige Recycling to recycle all plastic, glass, tin, cardboard, and paper. All non-animal organic material is composted with our friends at the World Hunger Relief’s Spring Lake farm, and all of our burlap coffee bags are redistributed to WHR or the local zoo for animal enrichment activities.
Beyond that, we’re also proud to say that we’ve made it possible for our customers to partner with us in our recycling efforts. We’ve opted for green packaging wherever possible to enable you to mitigate waste at home, using Biotrē™ 1.0 for our retail bags (60% compostable and 60% plant-based renewable). Even the labels on these are biodegradable! Once the degassing valve and zip-seal have been removed, these bags are compostable within a home-compost environment for a period of 12 months. In the future, we hope to implement fully compostable bags; in the meantime, our shipping bags are compostable and printed with algae ink, and our boxes—also compostable—are curbside recyclable anywhere cardboard is accepted.
Lastly, as a measure of accountability, we’ve gone through the process of becoming a Gold member with the Waco Green Business Alliance. You can view the results of our inspection here. While this is a great start, we’re not stopping here—we hope to improve and meet the Platinum standard in the years to come.
While we’ve made leaps and bounds over the years towards supporting a more sustainable future for farmers, customers and the earth at large, we know there’s still a lot of work to be done. With that in mind, we readily invite feedback, and would love to hear of any creative solutions our customers might have for us to support sustainability all around.
Lastly, as a measure of accountability, we’ve gone through the process of becoming a Gold member with the Waco Green Business Alliance. You can view the results of our inspection here. While this is a great start, we’re not stopping here—we hope to improve and meet the Platinum standard in the years to come.
While we’ve made leaps and bounds over the years towards supporting a more sustainable future for farmers, customers and the earth at large, we know there’s still a lot of work to be done. With that in mind, we readily invite feedback, and would love to hear of any creative solutions our customers might have for us to support sustainability all around.