Meet the B Corps: James Gurr, Ozone Coffee Roasters & Hasbean Coffee

James Gurr, Creative Director of Ozone and Hasbean Coffee, which are currently preparing three separate B Corp applications 

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Ozone, Hasbean Coffee

Specialty roaster & coffee shop: New Zealand, UK
First B Corp certified: Making application early 2021
Current B Corp score: Targeting 90

We are currently in the process of preparing three separate B Corp applications for the Ozone roastery and eatery businesses in New Zealand and the UK, and our UK-based Hasbean roastery.
 
We are always working across our retail and roastery operations to increase transparency across the coffee sourcing and roasting process. But we want to become a more responsible business, especially when it comes to our people and the planet. B Corp accreditation provides a framework to achieve on-going, meaningful change.
 
The intensive and comprehensive nature of the audit gives B Corp certification its value. It revolves around the simple yet powerful idea that you can only manage what you can measure. Much of the process initially involved understanding and quantifying our impact across numerous areas, setting goals to reduce those impacts, and exploring how to achieve them. Working with our B Corp consultant, we have been advised that each of our businesses should aim for around 90 points.
 

"B Corp accreditation provides a framework to achieve on-going, meaningful change"

 
The group of businesses conducts on-the-ground audits to better measure the environmental, social and economic impact of the coffees we source and it has been really encouraging to see that acknowledged in the B Corp assessment process so far.
 
One of our key areas for improvement is environmental impact tracking across our operations. This includes better monitoring of energy and water use, waste, and implementing a system to track the use of other internal resources, such as office supplies.
 
Implementing all the recommendations from B Corp is going to require a lot of effort over the next few months, but the positive feedback we’ve received from our team is really encouraging. We are aiming to submit our full application in 2021 and I am excited about how B Corp can become a positive force within our organisation.
 

This article was first published in Issue 5 of 5THWAVE magazine
 
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