We are an Eco-Lighthouse certified enterprise

Being an Eco-Lighthouse certified enterprise means having a continuous focus on one's own operations and always minimizing the impact we have on the climate, environment, and working conditions.

First and foremost, we want to take responsibility for operating our business in a sound manner, with goals and values that embrace sustainable thinking at all levels. This is something we have actively worked on for a long time, but without the specific frameworks that systematize responsibility. We are good at minimizing the amount of consumables, we value quality and sustainable production when looking for new suppliers, and we work hard to be a good and inclusive workplace.

How and why Eco-Lighthouse?

On May 4, 2022, we at Kaffabutikk AS celebrated becoming an Eco-Lighthouse certified enterprise. This has been an educational and exciting process that has shown us smart tools for working concretely with goals and measures in various areas. We have achieved a more holistic and systematic way of carrying out our work, which was necessary after strong growth in recent years.

We have sharpened our criteria when it comes to purchasing goods, both from Norwegian suppliers and especially for suppliers from whom we import goods to be distributed further in the Norwegian market. As an importer, it is important that we take responsibility for the products we present; for example, no products should contain microplastics, but we must also strive for new brands that are of good quality and have a realistic expected lifespan.

It is also important to us that our customers and dealers can trust that we take our responsibility seriously when introducing products to the Norwegian market. We will map and quality-assure backwards in the value chain to ensure both socially responsible and sustainable production.

Brenneriet KAFFA AS

Our sister company KAFFA sources coffee from several of the most skilled coffee producers in the world. Through long-term trading relationships with a shared focus on high quality, KAFFA guarantees that the coffee farmers we work with receive a much better price for the coffee they produce than they would on the open, global coffee market. Where possible, the roastery purchases organic certified coffee, and in some cases, the coffee is also certified through schemes such as Rainforest Alliance, UTZ, Fairtrade, etc., but we are not specifically looking for certification schemes for coffee at present. Our main focus as a specialty coffee roastery is to ensure that as much of the premium price we pay for our coffee goes directly back to the farmer and those who produced the coffee. This is what we believe is the most sustainable and forward-looking form of coffee trade. The certification schemes we are familiar with as consumers in Norway have their weaknesses when dealing with small suppliers, something we have experienced over time and can elaborate on in a later blog post.

All coffee packaging is now made from 100% recyclable plastic. To make production more energy efficient, KAFFA is now investing in a new coffee roaster this year. A modern and safe roaster that recovers almost all heat in the process. This change alone means that the roastery hopes to cut up to 35-40 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

About Eco-Lighthouse 

Eco-Lighthouse is Norway's most widely used certification for businesses that want to document their environmental efforts and demonstrate social responsibility. It is an environmental management system, not a certification of individual products like, for example, the Nordic Swan Ecolabel. The Eco-Lighthouse Foundation was established in 2003, and in 2017, the certification was recognized by the EU as a system of high environmental standard with a focus on quality, on par with international eco-labels such as EMAS and ISO 14001. 

Read more about Eco-Lighthouse here.