Bringing Back The Trust: Business Transparency

This month a whole range of businesses invited people to step behind the scenes to see that the B Corp logo isn’t just for show. B Corp Month is a time to amplify the imperative for this kind of business and to lift up the work that B Corps do to tackle injustice and inequality and bring positive impact to people and the planet. 

B Corp businesses want to reveal how business can be a force for good and how this new way of doing business is changing the world. 

This month, Montville Coffee has spent some time highlighting our successes within the B Corp framework and reflecting on the challenges we face and how we are working on them. 

Here are some areas we are really celebrating:

Our Workers

• All employees receive a share of profits through a profit share model
• All employees are offered cross-skill training for career advancement or transition
• All employees have access to business financials through an open book management framework
• Montville Coffee is majority-owned by women
• Over 50% of our workers identify as women
• Over 30% of our workers are under the age of 24 or over the age 50  

Our Customers

• We offer product/service guarantees, warranties and protection policies
• We offer third party certification that guarantees our product is Fairtrade and Certified Organic 
• We provide customer service feedback or complaint mechanisms
• We have policies in place for ethical marketing, advertising and customer engagement

Our Supply Chain

• We have a policy that gives preferences to suppliers with ownership from underrepresented populations
• We have formal targets to make a specific percentage of purchases from suppliers with diverse ownership
• We have a formal program to purchase and provide support to suppliers with diverse ownership
• We have third party certifications from Fairtrade, NAASA (National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia), and B Corp

Civic Engagement

• We provide ongoing sponsorship to local community events: Sconetime, Barung Landcare
• We donate our services, time and expertise to: Sconetime, Food and Agribusiness Network, local schools, Baha’i community, The Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity, other community speaking engagements and interviews with stakeholders

Environment

• Our product is manufactured in a way to significantly reduce environmental impacts compared to typical practices for our industry
• Our product is manufactured using renewable energy
• Our roastery works to conserve resources, via energy, water and material auditing and efficiency frameworks
• Our retail packaging is recyclable and our cafe packaging is compostable

In the coming year we will be focusing on:

• Moving towards carbon neutral certification
• Continuing our efforts to offer cross-skill training to our team and empower them to make independent decisions in line with the business vision and mission and values 
• Continuing focus on business growth: this enables us to create bigger change by purchasing larger portions of Fairtrade coffee

We would love you to get in touch if you have any questions or queries or thoughts!