Every cup of coffee, and every single bean, leaves a footprint. No, not the muddy kind; we’re talking carbon.

Since opening the Two Chimps Coffee roastery back in 2016, sustainability hasn’t been an afterthought. It’s been at the very heart of how we do things.

With global temperatures rising and pollution affecting countries worldwide, we believe businesses have a responsibility to put the environment first. After all, the planet gives us our coffee, so why wouldn’t we show it some serious love?

From farm to cup, every step has an impact. That’s why we’ve set an ambitious but achievable goal: to achieve Net Zero by 2040. By slashing emissions wherever possible and embracing new technologies over the next decade or so, we’re tackling what we can control and finding solutions for what we can’t control just yet.

The wheels are already in motion, and we aren’t turning back now!

What does Net Zero actually mean?

A lot has been said about sustainability and Net Zero over the last few years, and unless you’re around it daily, some of the terminology can get very confusing. So, let’s keep this bit simple: Net Zero means cutting our emissions as much as humanly possible, then balancing out whatever is left.

Now, as mentioned, some things are within our control, while others are a little out of our hands, but we can manage and mitigate them wherever possible. It may be that we can add these to the ‘under our control’ list in the very near future, but for now, it’s just not possible. Let’s take a look:

What we can control

How we roast our coffee, the energy powering the roastery, our packaging materials, and the fuel in our delivery van. These are all things that fall into the category of what we can control because we could or can change how we do things.

For instance, we could swap our petrol delivery van for an electric model, and we’ve already switched to renewable solar energy to power up to 98% of the roastery (more on that later).

What we can’t control (yet)

So what about the things that we can’t do much about? Unfortunately, we can’t do much about global shipping costs when there’s a war on, for example, or about farming methods in remote parts of the world that lack access to green equipment, where farmers are forced to use whatever equipment they have to make a living.

We hope that, by working with them and building relationships with the farmers, they can reinvest any earnings in new, efficient, and environmentally friendly equipment or sustainable farming methods.

Based on those variables we now have a series of long and short-term targets which we can measure:

Long-Term Targets

  • Reduce our total market-based emissions (Scope 1, 2, and 3) by at least 90% by

2040.

  • Neutralise any residual emissions using verified carbon offsets.

Near-Term Targets

  • Reduce Scope 1 emissions by 42% by 2030.
  • Maintain zero market-based Scope 2 emissions through to 2030.
  • Reduce Scope 3 emissions by 42% by 2030.

Our progress so far: where we stand in 2026

2040 might sound like a long way off, but we’ve already cleared plenty of hurdles and reached several checkpoints on our journey to Net Zero.

Right now, we’re proud to say we are in a very good place and believe we’re well on track to achieve our goal. We are working alongside environmental experts like Positive Planet to identify opportunities to improve, analyse data and monitor our progress. So far, we’ve secured a Silver Accreditation with them for our commitment to minimising our environmental impact, which is great recognition, but we’re not going to stop there!

Other areas, such as replacing the delivery van, will take a little longer to implement as we want it to reach the end of its natural life and are looking to see how EV technologies evolve in the coming years. It’s a similar story with the gas-powered roaster, which we could replace with an electric model, but costs are currently too high, technologies aren’t quite where we need them and it still has a lot of life in it yet!

 

Here is a summary of what we’ve been up to in the last few years:

Powered by solar

Thanks to a match-funded grant from Rutland County Council and the team at Rutland Renewables, we’ve installed solar panels across our roof. Combined with an on-site battery storage system, this setup has the potential to power up to 98% of the roastery, lowering both our carbon footprint and our utility bills.

 

Smarter, greener packaging

Our 250g and 500g coffee bags are fully recyclable, right down to the one-way freshness valve. We use eco-friendly glue dots for our tent labels instead of staples, and our dating stickers are recyclable, too. Plus, we seal all our delivery boxes with paper tape instead of plastic, so customers can recycle them easily.

Future-proofing our logistics

We’ve already installed an EV charging point right outside the roastery. While we are waiting for our current delivery van to reach the end of its natural life before upgrading to an electric model (because scrapping a perfectly good van early isn’t very green), the infrastructure is ready to go and already powering staff vehicles.

 

Carbon Literacy training

Sustainability is rooted in our culture. Several team members have completed official Carbon Literacy training to better understand how daily actions impact our footprint. Certified staff typically help reduce emissions by 5–15%, so we plan to roll this training out to more of the team soon.

Understanding the carbon footprint of coffee

To fix a problem, you must understand it. A coffee bean goes on a massive global adventure before it reaches your mug, and emissions creep in at every single stage. We said right at the very start that every coffee bean leaves a footprint, and this is what we mean:

  • Farming: Cultivating, processing, and washing the beans at origin.

 

  • Shipping: Moving the green coffee across oceans to our Rutland roastery.

 

  • Roasting: Turning green beans into delicious specialty coffee requires gas to power our roaster.

 

  • Packaging: We’ve made all of our packaging recyclable, including the coffee bags, tent labels and eco-friendly glue dots that seal them, even the date stickers

 

  • Brewing: Yes, even boiling your kettle at home leaves a footprint! (At the roastery, we use a clever kettle that glows red when hot, so we avoid unnecessary re-boiling.)

Overcoming our Scope 1, 2, and 3 challenges

Greenhouse gas emissions are divided into three categories, or “scopes”. Here is how ours break down based on our 2025 data, and how we are actively improving them:

 

Emission Category What It Means Our 2025 Data Our Action Plan
Scope 1: Direct Emissions from sources we directly own or control (like our delivery van exhaust). 3.5% of our total footprint. Optimising delivery routes, checking tyre pressures, and preparing for an electric van swap.
Scope 2: Indirect Emissions from the generation of purchased energy (such as electricity purchased from the grid). Less than 0.2% Maximising our solar panel and battery storage usage to stay off the grid.
Scope 3: Value Chain All other indirect emissions, split into Upstream (sourcing/transporting green coffee) and Downstream (roasting and customer delivery). 96.3% (Upstream activities alone). Partnering with eco-conscious suppliers and analysing shipping data to find greener freight options.

 

In 2025 our Scope 3 emissions were a lot higher than they would normally be. Don’t worry. When we moved into our new roastery, we took on an empty shell of a building that was poorly insulated. We knocked down walls, heavily insulated the roof, and moved all our equipment over (with zero customer downtime, we’re proud to add!)

While setting up the new roastery and getting it into the fantastic condition it’s in today, we caused a temporary, anomalous spike in our data. However, now that we have total control over our utilities and are predominantly running on renewable energy, these numbers will level out dramatically over 2026 and beyond.

We hate waste, so we focus heavily on repurposing materials right here in the roastery:

 

  1. Wholesale Boxes: We’ve teamed up with Lincoln-based Reuseabox to use second-hand cardboard boxes for wholesale deliveries, alongside our own double-walled recycled cardboard options.

 

  1. Community Cardboard: Any cardboard boxes we can’t reuse ourselves are donated to local schools and community groups for projects.

 

  1. Smart Roasting: We roast in precise, small batches several times each week to make sure our customers get the freshest beans, and that no coffee is ever wasted.

Our work extends outside of the roastery, too

True sustainability goes beyond carbon; it’s about supporting people and local groups, too. We regularly collaborate with local charities to support our community’s wellbeing, including:

 

  • MindSpace Stamford: We partnered with this incredible local mental health charity to create a limited-edition coffee, donating £1 from every single bag sold. Chris even joined their weekly Friday morning 5k run to help spread the word on social media.
  • Root and Branch Out: Tree Protection: We’ve donated traditional hessian sacks used to ship green coffee to the local gardening group, who wrap them around the base of new

How you can help us

We can’t hit Net Zero without you. There’s no point in us sourcing fully recyclable packaging if it ends up in the wrong bin! Please check your local recycling rules, give your empty Two Chimps bags a quick rinse, and recycle them properly.

 

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