UK coffee company Cafeology wins top national award

Coffee company Cafeology is celebrating after winning a top prize at the Guardian Sustainable Business awards last night.

The ceremony, which took place at award-winning eco venue The Crystal, saw Cafeology pick up the Innovation award in the Natural Capital category.

It recognises Cafeology’s premium Guatemalan Bird Friendly shade-grown coffee – a product launched to the UK market at the end of 2014. The coffee project is an innovative initiative that encourages consumer understanding of how coffee can be damaging to the environment.

This 100 per cent Arabica coffee is grown under conditions set out and certified by the Smithsonian Institution’s Migratory Bird Centre in Washington, which includes rules about tree height and diversity, canopy cover and soil quality.

It is also the first coffee for sale in the UK to be endorsed by the country’s biggest conservation charity, the RSPB.

Bryan Unkles, Cafeology’s founder and director, said: “As an independent coffee company receiving this award means the world to us.

"We have worked incredibly hard to source this fantastic quality and bring it to the catering and retail markets, including a trip to Guatemala to meet the producers and learn about how the coffee is grown.

“We need to help create a demand for shade-grown coffee and spread the word about the negative effects coffee farming can have on the planet.”

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world behind oil. Much of it is sun-grown, which results in the coffee maturing more quickly but at the expense of habitat and biodiversity.r families and boosting local economies.