Sustainability
Coffee has an impact long before it reaches your cup.
It starts with the people who grow it and the land it is grown on, then continues through processing, transport, roasting, packaging and brewing. We can't remove that impact entirely, but we can understand it better and make responsible decisions in the areas we can influence.
For us, sustainability isn't about making broad claims or pretending we've solved every problem. It's about continually improving how we source, roast, package and serve our coffee — while building relationships that we want to last.
Coffee & Sourcing
Better coffee starts with strong relationships
Great coffee is the result of a huge amount of work.
Behind every coffee we roast are producers, farms, washing stations, cooperatives, exporters, importers and communities responsible for getting that coffee from crop to cup.
We work to build long-term relationships with coffee producers and trusted green-coffee partners, with an emphasis on quality, traceability and repeat purchasing.
Where we can, we work closely with producers to understand how their coffee is grown and processed, what challenges they face and how we can continue buying from them in future harvests. In other cases, we work with specialist exporters and importers who provide the expertise, financing and logistics needed to move coffee responsibly through the supply chain.
For us, responsible sourcing means knowing more about where our coffee comes from, understanding the people behind it and building relationships around quality rather than simply buying on price.
Roasting More Efficiently
Our Loring S35
All of our coffee is roasted at our Liverpool roastery on a Loring S35.
Unlike many conventional roasting systems that use a separate burner and afterburner, the Loring uses a single-burner recirculating-air system to roast the coffee and manage smoke from the roasting process.
According to Loring, its system can achieve up to 80% fuel savings and reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions compared with conventional coffee roasters.
For us, that means we can roast at the scale our customers require while using a roasting system designed around both consistency and efficiency.
Packaging & Waste
Reducing waste where we can
Packaging coffee properly matters. It protects the coffee from oxygen and moisture, helps maintain quality and prevents product being wasted — but it also creates material that eventually needs to be disposed of.
We've been working to improve the materials we use across our retail coffee, subscriptions, online orders and coffee shops, prioritising packaging with clearer recycling routes wherever practical.
Our standard coffee bags are made from recyclable LDPE (low-density polyethylene), identified as plastic #4. This gives us the barrier protection needed to keep freshly roasted coffee in good condition while using a material that can be recycled where suitable flexible-plastic recycling facilities are available.
Our subscription bags are made entirely from paper and can be recycled with paper and cardboard, provided they are clean and dry.
Our cardboard delivery boxes and other paper-based shipping materials can also be recycled through normal household paper and cardboard collections.
At our roastery we look for useful destinations for some of the waste created by producing coffee. Coffee chaff generated during roasting and waste coffee grounds are made available to local gardening and growing projects for composting rather than simply treating them as general waste.
Our Coffee Shops
Small changes across every site
With multiple coffee shops serving customers every day, small operational decisions can add up.
Across our sites we work to reduce unnecessary single-use materials, separate waste where appropriate and choose packaging and disposables with practical reuse or recycling routes wherever possible.
We also encourage customers to choose reusable options where practical and continually review the products we use as better alternatives become available.
The aim isn't to label everything we use as “eco-friendly”. It's to understand what we're using, why we're using it and whether there is a better option available.
Community
Our impact isn't only environmental
Being a responsible business also means thinking about the communities we're part of — from coffee-growing communities at origin to the people around our roastery and coffee shops here in the North West.
We aim to build long-term relationships with our suppliers, wholesale partners and team, and wherever it makes commercial and practical sense, we work with local businesses and organisations.
We also stock Thirsty Planet water, which supports Pump Aid. Every Thirsty Planet purchase generates a donation to Pump Aid, whose work includes providing access to safe water in Malawi. Pump Aid
As Crosby Coffee grows, we want the positive impact of the business to grow with it.
What We're Working On
Sustainability is a process, not a finished project
We don't believe a business becomes “sustainable” by changing one piece of packaging or buying one piece of efficient equipment.
There will always be more we can understand and improve.
Our priorities are to keep developing the traceability of the coffees we buy, improve the recyclability and simplicity of our packaging, reduce avoidable waste throughout our operations and understand our environmental impact better as the business grows.
When better solutions become available, we'll continue to review how they could work across Crosby Coffee.
Where we make environmental claims, we'll be clear about what they mean and what they're based on.
HOW TO RECYCLE OUR PACKAGING
Standard coffee bags — Plastic #4 (LDPE): Check your local recycling guidance for flexible LDPE/plastic film collection.
Subscription bags — Paper: Recycle with household paper and cardboard.
Delivery boxes & paper packaging: Recycle with household paper and cardboard.
Last reviewed: September 2026