EcoBeans is currently at the innovation stage and we have decided to target three of the Sustainable Development Goals: responsible consumption and production, decent work and economic growth as well as reduced inequalities.

 

To encourage responsible consumption and production, we will utilise biodegradable coffee cups to prevent further detriment to already worrying levels of worldwide pollution. More than 50% of FairTrade coffee beans have been certified organic as they are free of pesticides and fertilisers helping us to ensure the healthiest options for our customers who may have specific dietary requirements or suffer from allergies. We aim to provide decent work and economic growth and reduced inequalities through recruiting full time employees from socially disadvantaged communities. This allows them to gain valuable skills to boost their employability and CV which they can then use for future employment opportunities. To measure the level of success in directly improving the quality of life of our employees, we will be assessing income inequality indicators and conducting a thorough analysis of the before and after monthly income values versus monthly expenditure of our employees. We will partner with local homeless shelters in order to source employees who are classed as a ‘vulnerable person’. We will pay them the Living Wage of £8.45 and as the current cost of biodegradable coffee cups is 10p per cup, by pricing our coffee at £2 per cup, we will have to sell 5 cups per hour to cover the wages for our employees.

 

FairTrade coffee beans traders reinvest at least 25% of their premium in building a better quality of life for families and communities of coffee farmers in developing economies like Africa and Latin America. Therefore, climate change which may cause the extinction of wild coffee in 2080 and poverty cycles or unpredictable incomes due to the instability of working in the agricultural sector can be reduced. We will as much as possible opt for utilising local wholesalers as our source of ingredients to ensure that we are supporting the local community and smaller businesses.

 

The current coffee market in Nottingham, especially on campus is dominated by expensive coffee companies such as Costa and Starbucks. This means that economically disadvantaged students often have to spend up to £5 for coffee everyday. Therefore, EcoBeans provides a plausible solution as a significantly cheaper alternative while providing a unique selling point of positive social impact. Our target market is a mixture of students and staff based on Jubilee Campus but we also anticipate customers who have travelled from other Nottingham campuses. There were over 44,000 students at the University of Nottingham in 2015 and 60% of adults in the UK drink on average 2 cups of coffee per day. That’s approximately a whopping 26,400 students drinking 52,800 cups of coffee daily. Furthermore, in a survey we conducted, 70% of our responses came from individuals aged 20-26 and 53% drank 1 cup of coffee daily.