Earth Month 2026
Happy Earth Month!
Our earth, a place we all share. As a company, we must do our part in keeping this place we all call home beautiful for generations to come. Something we continue to do year after year. We have made strides in all aspects of the coffee journey, some little and some significant, that lessen our impact. Our mission is to serve well-produced, sustainable coffee, while empowering people with great coffee. This journey starts with protecting the health of our land by choosing to work with sustainable coffee farms.
We are proud to work with some of the best farms worldwide. Farms dedicated to the land and intentional farming practices that maintain land health so they can produce quality coffee for decades!
The farms we buy from have made strides in water-conserving de-pulping methods, introduced symbiotic relationships with nutrient-enhancing organisms, and created self-sustaining systems.
We carefully select the farms and Exporters we work with and in doing so, sustainability is woven into nearly every step of coffee production. Water used at the wet mill is carefully recycled to reduce waste, while new plantations incorporate shade-grown practices by planting corn alongside coffee trees, and nutrient-rich beans that both enrich the soil and help feed pickers. Nothing goes to waste—cascara from depulped cherries is repurposed as compost, and even lower-grade cherries are still sold and utilized rather than discarded. Coffee bags are reused multiple times both on the farm and through partners like Servex, and at the end of their lifecycle can be decomposed or repurposed in nurseries to support new tree growth. In fact, for every tree removed, another is replanted to maintain ecological balance. Byproducts from the dry mill, such as parchment and husks, are used as fuel for heat, while naturals are further processed into cascara (a tea-like infusion made from dried, nutrient-rich coffee cherry skins), ensuring that every part of the coffee cherry contributes to a more circular, sustainable system
Juan Diego of El Socorro: Earth University
One of our Direct Trade producers, Juan Diego of Finca El Socorro, even graduated from Earth University in Costa Rica! Diego's farms are renowned for their high quality, having been awarded numerous international distinctions.
From Earth University:
"In 1980, Diego's father, Juan De La Cerda Colom, started growing coffee. In this way, the graduate became the heir not to a company, but to a legacy of commitment to quality, which is reflected in the collection of awards he holds. Sustainability is added to the quality of its product. The farm has an efficient ecological wet mill, which pulps the coffee beans, then mechanically transports the coffee and its pulp, while recycling the water in the process. The water is then treated using clean production techniques, before being allowed to return to the forest."
Purchasing green beans from sustainable farms and working with sustainable exporters like Servex, is only the beginning of our journey. Once they make their way to our roasting facility, they're roasted on one of our Sustainable coffee roasters, the Loring.
Designed for efficiency, these roasters minimize environmental impact while delivering consistent quality. The single burner roasts coffee while incinerating smoke, providing 80% fuel savings and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The single-flame design helps heat air efficiently by recirculating warm air to reach ideal temperatures, requiring less time and energy. By implementing these thermodynamic properties and fast-reacting thermocouples, the Loring allows us to find the most precise roast profile for each varietal and origin of coffee bean.
“Our single burner convection design roasts beans and incinerates the smoke, with no external afterburner needed. That means less fuel, less expense, and less environmental impact.” - Loring Roasters
Up next are the supplies we work with and the products we produce!
Once our green beans are sustainably roasted, they're packaged in our Biotre sustainable coffee bags. The Biotre material used for our bags is made from renewable plant-based material. These bags break down into healthy compost over time! The goal of Pacific Bag Inc., the creators of Biotre, is to provide the industry with packaging that protects both the product & the planet.
If your go-to order is a whole milk latte, you can feel confident knowing it’s made with some of the most thoughtfully produced milk available. At Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, we partner with Straus Family Creamery, the first 100% certified organic creamery in the United States, known for its leadership in sustainable dairy. Straus produces organic, pasture-based milk from family farms that prioritize soil health through practices like rotational grazing, compost application, and carbon farming—helping to build healthier ecosystems while reducing environmental impact.
Sustainability extends beyond the farm: Straus is TRUE® Zero Waste certified and has long championed circular packaging systems, including reusable glass milk bottles that are returned, sanitized, and reused multiple times. The creamery also works closely with its network of farms to implement methane reduction strategies, renewable energy systems, and climate-smart agriculture practices. Together, these efforts support Straus Family Creamery’s goal of achieving carbon-neutral dairy farming across its supplying farms by 2030—creating a more resilient and regenerative food system from pasture to cup.
KARAT
Living in San Diego means hotter days and more iced drinks! Our recyclable to-go cold cups are served with sip lids that don't require straws, although we have compostable straws available upon request.
If your go-to drink includes Madagascar Vanilla, Sandpiper (Hazelnut), Salted Left Coast (Caramel), or Chai, those delicious flavors are made in-house and delivered to cafes in reusable containers that get washed, rinsed, and sanitized between each use. By making our syrups in-house, we reduce our carbon footprint immensely with no shipping + packaging materials, and no one-time-use bottles.
SPENT COFFEE GROUNDS
After you drink your cup of Bird Rock Coffee, you may think that that's the end of our sustainability journey. But we don't stop there. Each drink we produce results in spent coffee grounds, and these spent grounds are perfect for your home garden or compost. Ask a Baristas at any location so you can take some home!
When used correctly, spent coffee grounds are great for:
- Improving Fertilizer
- Giving Nutrients to plants
- Deterring Pests
- Composting
- Mulch
Next time you're done making your coffee at home, think about how you can recycle your grounds before dumping them into the trash!
RAD LAB (R & D)
One thing you may not know about Bird Rock Coffee is that we make much of our items in house (syrups, chia, lil dippers, sparkling teas and more). Here are a few things the lab does in an effort of sustainability. We re-use the coffee liners for our trash bags. Wash/Sanitize and re-use all syrup containers that go out to cafe's. We don't use disposable cups for quality testing, each employee has their own demi cup. We cross utilize other ingredients to cut back on waste, ie: berries used to top our chia get turned into our compote for the chia as well as our seasonal berry flavored drinks. We use compostable materials wherever possible, ie our desiccants, made with clay, to keep moisture out. We have more recycle/compost than landfill waste! And when possible, we try to source from company's that implement ethical and sustainable practices.
We are proud to be Ocean Friendly Certified through the Surfrider Foundation!
Just as we are committed to sustainable coffee production from the farms we work with to your cup, we are committed to making choices that keep our oceans healthy and lessen our environmental impact.
To become an OFRestaurant, we have:
- Eliminated single-use plastics (such as silverware & lids that require straws)
- Refined our waste systems with proper recycling & composting of used coffee grounds
- Never using expanded polystyrene (styrofoam) or plastic bags)
- Encouraging reusable cups with a discount when bringing your own mug!
We also proudly donate coffee to their beach cleanups throughout the year. You can signup to volunteer for their beach clean ups here: San Diego Surfrider Beach Clean Up
This year we are continuing our partnership with them and donation $1 per bag sold of our Earth Blend to Surfrider of San Diego!
PRODUCTION
When talking to head roaster Tony about sustainability in Production, he said, "One of my many phrases (and I have many) on the production floor is "think green." I ask that we reuse, as much as possible, most of the items we use daily." Like the liners used for the roasted coffee become trash can liners whenever possible, along with the GrainPro liners.
We strive to be “green” while providing quality coffee in every step of the process, from the farms where the coffee is grown, the roasters we use, the packaging we choose, and where our coffee grounds end up!
As Tony says, "It may not be a lot, but I think that every little bit counts." We hope this blog inspires you to think green.
Thank you for being part of this sustainable journey with us.
XOXO,
BRCR