Here at Jordans Mill we believe in supporting sustainability and conservation to help our precious wildlife.
We try to do this not only in our day to day practises, but through a wide range of things, like the materials we have used on the building, recycling of our waste and the renewable energy powering the Mill from the water turbine (which has been in use for nearly 120 years).
Here is a great example of how choosing a local company has helped us look after the local area and support our community.
When did Jordans Mill get involved?
Jordans Mill started using Wooden Hill in the café in the summer of 2016 and so in the last 18 months have bought approximately 1400kgs of coffee = 14 trees, so not far off from a tree a month!
Robin, one of our coffee suppliers talks abit more about the project.
“I've been in the coffee trade for 18 years, but started Wooden Hill Coffee Company in 2015 (It's named after the expression "up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire").
Our coffee is helping the environment
“It was always my intention to be as environmentally friendly as possible and so initially started off by ensuring that the coffee was Fairtrade. Packaging came next, and after a little research I found compostable bags. These were designed to preserve the coffee, but then sit on landfill for a lifetime, like most foil-lined coffee bags. I found it practical to deliver my coffee in reusable wooden crates, this eliminates cardboard waste and in two years I estimate I've NOT used over 2500 cardboard boxes. About 300 of those would have gone to Jordans.”
The benefits of using local suppliers
“The Forest of Marston Vale is on our doorstep and after having a Christmas stall there in my first month of Wooden Hill in 2015, I had the idea of going a step further.”
“The Forest Centre plan to plant a further 5 million trees in the area seemed a good idea to get involved. The idea being that for every 100kgs of coffee a customer buys, Wooden Hill will donate a tree in their name. The tree planting takes place once a year, in 2018 it is on the 4th February. I invite my customers to come along and plant as many trees as they want to. It's a great opportunity to shout about the good that you are doing.”
“In my first year of business, I had sold enough coffee for 44 trees, however, as there were price breaks on the number of trees we buy, it made sense to add more funds and take the total to 100 trees. This year we're set to do another 100 trees.”
There's some really interesting information on the Forest Centre and the benefit and impact of trees on their website: https://www.marstonvale.org/our-story