Green Mountain Cafe – The Green Mountain Coffee Blog

Today, we’re proud to announce our support of TransFair USA’s Fair Trade Towns movement, with a $50,000 grant from Green Mountain Coffee®, and a three-year commitment of $925,000 from the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Foundation.

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Welcome to Changemakers Wednesday, also known as Changemakers Tuesday 3.0.  We’re a day behind, but we have another episode of Coffee Break ready for your viewing pleasure  – this time coming straight from the green space – which is more snowy than green at the moment  – behind our Waterbury campus.

This week, Amanda and I are taking a behind-the-scenes approach, showing you exactly what the idea submission process looks like once you click the “Enter Your Idea” icon to submit on Changemakers.com/Revelation.

And don’t forget, this Friday is another opportunity to win some of our revelation-ary coffee through Changemaker’s on Twitter.  Follow us @GreenMtnCoffee and @Changemakers and stay tuned on Friday for more details!

If you missed previous episodes of Coffee Break, take a peek at past episodes in our Coffee Break playlist. Next week, Coffee Break is back with Noelle and Sarah from Changemakers – don’t miss out!

-Kristen

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We’re extremely proud to share that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. is included on the list of “100 Best Corporate Citizens” released today by Corporate Responsibility Magazine.  The “100 Best” list is known as the world’s top corporate responsibility ranking based on publicly-available information. 

The 100 Best Corporate Citizens List evaluates companies in seven categories: Environment, Climate Change, Human Rights, Philanthropy, Employee Relations, Financial Performance, and Governance.  The list is selected from among the large-cap Russell 1000 companies, based on data provided by leading ESG investor data firm IW Financial.  GMCR ranked 39th overall and was among the top ten food and beverage companies on the list.

The list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens was first published in 1999 in Business Ethics Magazine, and has been managed by CRO and Corporate Responsibility Magazine since 2007.  In 2008, the eligibility criteria and ranking methodology for the list was revamped, limiting the list to companies in the Russell 1000 index.  GMCR’s size at that time prevented it from being considered.  Because of GMCR’s financial growth, this is the first year of eligibility under the new criteria and methodology.

We are excited and humbled to be recognized for our efforts in corporate social and environmental responsibility, and we are honored to be included with the other companies on this prestigious list.  It reflects the passion and work of our employees and our efforts to contribute to positive change in the world.  Visit us at Brewing A Better World for more information on GMCR’s CSR initiatives.

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Rick Peyser, Director of Social Advocacy Coffee-Community Outreach is currently traveling in Guatemala. Rick works and travels around the globe, visiting coffee farms where have outreach programs. Rick’s work specifically addresses poverty and hunger in the coffee-growing regions where we source our coffee.

Here is an update from the ground in Guatemala:

San Miguel Pochutla is separated by one volcano from the communities along Guatemala’s picturesque Lake Atitlan.  Nestled in the mountains above Pochutla is a small hamlet known as Candelaria, that is home to ASOCAMPO, a Fair Trade cooperative that produces high quality coffee for GMCR.
The co-op was founded in 2002, on what was a large coffee estate known as Finca La Florida.  The owner abandoned the farm following the coffee price crisis in 2001.  Many of the farm’s workers purchased the farm with the help of the Guatemalan government. Today over 100 families produce just over one container of coffee.  This is double their production from last year, and the co-op is planning on serious growth, hoping to produce 5 containers within the coming years.

The photo shows a coffee plant nursery that currently is home to 40,000 young coffee plants that will be used to renovate and expand current coffee parcels.  In the coming months this nursery will be expanded to support 100,000 young plants.

Thanks to the support GMCR is providing through Catholic Relief Services, the farmers and their families are now diversifying the use of their land, and in addition to growing coffee are growing food to eat and to sell, as an additional source of income.
The co-op has recently built a green bean packing plant, with the assistance of the Guatemalan government.  Green beans grown by the farmers will be sorted and packed by 37 employees (new jobs!) in the community starting before Easter this year. The project is being facilitated by Cuatro Pinos, supplier of French green beans to COSTCO.
ASOCAMPO is developing rapidly, yet is on a path that is supporting sustainable livelihoods for its family members.

Try some of our coffee that might contain ASOCAMPO’s beans.

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We’re about two weeks into the Revelation to Action competition and the entries are starting to roll in! The online competition is looking for ideas that strengthen local communities in New England and New York. So far we’ve got 16 entries and 13 nominations!

Today, we’re highlighting one of the online competition’s most read ideas last week – this one from Rhode Island.

Meet ecoRI, Inc from Rhode Island, about Rhode Island:

Their mission is ” to investigate issues and write stories that will catalyze positive environmental change in Rhode Island. The nonprofit journalistic initiative is devoted to educating Rhode Island policy makers and the public about the causes, consequences and solutions to local environmental issues.

According to their entry, “no other state features an online news organization that is solely dedicated to local, independent and investigative environmental journalism. ecoRI.org doesn’t have links to stories written by other sources and posted on other Web sites, and the stories, opinions and videos are written and produced by Rhode Island people about topics that matter to Rhode Islanders.”

Rhode Islanders, what do you think? Let us know your thoughts below or discuss their idea on the Revelation to Action competition site.

Know another organization that is working to strengthen your community? Nominate them! If an organization you nominate wins, you win a Keurig B60 Single-Cup Brewer (just for nominating!!).

We’re also holding re-tweet competitions every Friday during the competition, with a chance to win free coffee. Follow Changemakers and GreenMtnCoffee on Twitter for more information. You can also check out last week’s Coffee Break video for more information.

For all prize and competition information, head to the Eligibility, Criteria and Prizes section on the Revelation to Action competition homepage.

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It’s Changemaker Tuesday, and you know what that means – updates!  It’s been about a week since we launched the Revelation to Action Competition. We partnered with Ashoka’s Changemakers to launch this online competition to find and help fund creative solutions to strengthen communities across New England and New York (see last week’s blog post for more details).

Each week we’ll be working with Sarah and Noelle from Changemakers to post a weekly video – Coffee Break – on the progress of the competition. You can check out the first Coffee Break here. Below you can find the next episode of Coffee Break, featuring Kristen and myself at our Visitors Center in Waterbury, Vermont. From the Green Mountain Coffee side of things, we’ll be filming at a different location for each episode. Is there someplace on our Waterbury campus you’re curious to see? Leave us suggestions below and you may see us there on our next episode.

Now, for this week’s Coffee Break: We discuss the upcoming ReTweet competition which starts on Friday, 2/19.

For rules and regulations, go to Changemakers.com/Revelation and click on Eligibility. Follow Changemakers and Green Mountain Coffee on Twitter for more details.

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Here at Green Mountain Coffee, we believe that real change starts at home.  It’s because of this belief that working together with Ashoka’s Changemakers to launch an online competition to find and help fund creative solutions to strengthen communities across New England and New York.

The Revelation to Action ^sm competition aims to discover promising initiatives, explore fresh ideas, and encourage collaboration on the best ways to inspire community action.  Ideas could include rallying a regional group to support a local foodbank, helping a community address its carbon footprint, establishing a program to incentivize recycling, or mobilizing a neighborhood to do an annual river clean-up.

Take a peek at what Michael Dupee, Vice President of Corporate and Social Responsibility for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. and Charlie Brown, Changemaker’s Executive Director, have to say about the competition:

Now, for the details:

The competition takes place at www.Changemakers.com/Revelation, where community members are invited to:

• Enter solutions to strengthen the community,
• Nominate individuals and organizations with community solutions,
• Discuss and share ideas and success stories,
• Comment on proposals, and
• Vote for finalists after June 9, 2010.

Winners will be judged on innovation, social impact and long-term sustainability.  The best innovations – top 3 voted by the community, and then one from each New England state and New York – will be awarded prizes totaling $50,000.  For complete rules and regulations of this competition, visit www.Changemakers.com/Revelation and click on “Eligibility, Criteria and Prizes.”

Let the change begin!

Stay tuned for updates our blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, or YouTube channel. [And don’t forget about Changemakers – they’re on their blog,  Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, too!]  We’ll keep you in the loop on the latest news, ideas, and innovation that this competition brings.

So, the question must be asked:  Are you a Changemaker?

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