At Level Ground, we work hard to reduce our impact, near and far.
For those familiar with Level Ground’s products and practices, it is our green focus which is evident in two of our Core Values: Love the Planet and Always Improve.
This started in our sourcing of sustainably produced coffee and continually shows up in our company DNA as we are always improving how we love the planet through various projects.
First, a few of our ongoing initiatives and then our BIG MOVE that has most radically demonstrated our commitment as environmental stewards and sustainability leaders.
How is Level Ground 'Greening' the Workplace?
1. 18 years with a ‘landfill-free’ policy
We strive every day to send NOTHING to Hartland Landfill. To accomplish this, we steward 13 streams of recycling in our facility so that EVERYTHING can be diverted from landfill. To top that, we provide access for all of our staff to use all of LG’s recycling services (at no charge). In this way, everyone’s household can also be landfill-free!
2. By-products from coffee roasting enhance local food production.
We have two main waste products from coffee roasting which have fantastic merits.
- Thousands of coffee sacks (made of organic fibres) are distributed locally without charge annually. They make great ground cover for local farms and gardens. (Shown in image below).
- Coffee chaff (a byproduct from roasting) is rich in carbon and joins composting efforts at local farms for organic food production. (Shown in image at the top of this page).
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3. Staff are provided cash incentives for Green Commuting.
Whether staff choose to carpool, take transit or ride their bikes – there are financial perks for every commute that avoids one person per vehicle.
4. Every product we source is grown organically – free of ALL chemicals.
Whether it’s our specialty coffee, tropical dried fruit, tea or cane sugar – if the package says ‘Level Ground’ it’s ORGANIC. This ensures clean working environments for farmers and pristine habitats which is stewarded respectfully.
5. THE BIG MOVE!
It’s likely no surprise that our greatest opportunity to show environmental leadership is in our roasting process. Aside from outbound transit of products from our facility to customers, there’s no other activity that comes close in its environmental impact.
Our facility has three small-batch roasters using natural gas. They were thoughtfully chosen for their ability to roast coffee beautifully with minimal natural gas usage. We’ve compared our roasting process with others’ and confirmed that they do indeed use significantly less energy to roast the same volume of coffee.
All three small-batch roasters are connected via exhaust ducts to a central oxidizing unit (aka afterburner) designed to manage all emissions. The afterburner ensures VOCs (Volatile organic compounds) generated in roasting do NOT leave the building. This is where we’ve got some patented ‘magic’ going on. Our custom made afterburner improves the whole process.
Since moving to our new facility in winter 2018, we’ve closely monitored our new afterburner and concluded that it has met our expectations! It has consistently reduced natural gas consumption by 43 percent.