Sustainability

At both locations we participate in PG&E’s Climate Smart program where we pay 10% extra on top of our bill and that program invests in carbon reduction and elimination programs like planting trees, building solar and wind farms and more.
Barefoot is a certified member of the EPA’s Green Power Partner Program.


Even our website hosting company is 100% green energy.

Environmental:
Barefoot Coffee was one of the first five businesses to join the Green Energy program through Silicon Valley power, where 100% of our energy used is 100% green from wind, solar and geothermal. Barefoot was just recognized at an awards ceremony for our contribution to green energy. Barefoot was also one of the first businesses to join the PG&E Climate Smart program and now all Barefoot locations are 100% energy carbon neutral including our roasting plant. All of our coffee is grown in native species shade and without the use of pesticides. Even our coffees which are not certified organic hardly use any chemical fertilizers at all and grow sustainably. Barefoot buys only locally made, organic milk from grass fed cows from Strauss Dairy in Marin. Even our honey is locally made. All of our packaging and paper products are made from recycled materials and we recycle nearly everything we use. We compost our coffee grounds to a local organic farm. We recycle all milk cartons, bottles, cardboard, paper, plastic, glass and more at all our locations. All food waste is composted. We make great effort to ensure that as much of our products and services we buy are from small, local companies who share our environmental and quality commitments. We plant California native low water usage plants at all our locations. At our own cafes and our wholesale partners we push hard to eliminate or reduce the use of all disposable cups. In our own cafes we have successfully converted over 65% of ALL our drink sales to use real ceramic cups rather than paper cups. We were one of the main impetuses in Google’s switch to the Melamine cups in use now.

Social:
We offer medical benefits to all of our employees even part time staff. We provide fresh roasted coffee and periodic cash contributions to Emergency Housing Consortium to provide shelter and housing for families in Silicon Valley. We support many of our local schools and charities with coffee donations. We support Full Circle Farms (organic farm in sunnyvale) with cash contributions and compost materials. Barefoot is a Fair trade licensed roaster. We helped pay for a medical clinic on one of our Relationship Coffee farms to provide medical care and services for the surrounding area. We also have helped pay for several schools at some of our farms to help educate the children of the areas.

Financial:
We work hard to pay our staff a living wage with medical benefits. We deliver 60% more cash into the hands of our Relationship Coffee farmers than fair trade premiums provide. We ensure that our farm owners are paying at least 33-70% higher wages to their farm pickers. We do not shortchange our farmers to get a lower price. We pay more for better quality and better environmental and quality practices. Barefoot is also a Fair trade licensed roaster. We are committed to profitability for everyone in the chain from retailer to coffee farmer to keep the system sustainable.