Latest news with #LisaLawson
Glasgow Times
11-05-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
Glasgow Coffee Festival drew record crowds this year
More than 2,000 visitors flocked to the Glasgow Coffee Festival, held over two sold-out days in April. The festival, founded in 2014 by Lisa Lawson, is now Scotland's biggest coffee event and a key date in the UK's specialty coffee calendar. (Image: Supplied) Read more: David Attenborough and Eurovision to hit big screen at Glasgow cinema Thanks to the newly opened Clyde Market Halls, this year's event featured more exhibitors, workshops, and attendees than ever before. They were treated to the final of the SCA UK Cup Tasters Championship, with Will Greavner, of Butterworths Coffee, crowned winner. He will now represent the UK at the World Championships in Geneva this June. Meanwhile, Cairngorm Coffee took home the title of Roast Hero, winning the peer-assessed competition against roasters from throughout Scotland. The festival also celebrated a special milestone: the 40th anniversary of the espresso martini, marked with a session hosted by Bea Bradsell, daughter of the drink's legendary creator Dick Bradsell. In spite of a difficult year for the global coffee trade, with green coffee prices hitting record highs, the festival continued to emphasise the importance of sustainability. It remains completely single-use cup-free, due to partnerships with Borrow Cup, Reposit, and environmental charity Hubbub, part of a city-wide campaign to promote reuse. Since adopting the policy in 2018, the festival has prevented tens of thousands of disposable cups from reaching landfill. Coffee grounds from the festival were also collected and repurposed by Revive Eco, a Glasgow-based company which transforms coffee waste into sustainable alternatives. Last week, the event was crowned Best Sustainable Event at the recent Scottish Event Awards. (Image: Supplied) Read more: Glasgow's unsung WWII heroes honoured for bravery Lisa Lawson, founder of B Corp Dear Green Coffee Roasters, said: "We've built this festival to celebrate Scotland's incredible coffee scene, which continues to punch above its weight on the world stage, and to prove that events of this scale can be run responsibly. "From composting and active travel to partnerships with social enterprises, it's all designed to show what's possible when you put values first. "Sustainability is absolutely at the heart of everything we do." Looking ahead, Lisa believes the festival offers many reasons to be hopeful for the future. She said: "Prices are going up, and that's not something the industry can absorb without consequences. "The global cost of raw coffee is at an all-time high. "It's affecting producers, roasters, cafés — everyone in the value chain. "But what I saw this weekend gives me hope. "We had record numbers through the door, people asking the right questions, willing to taste new things, and hungry to learn. "Glasgow's coffee culture is growing and evolving simultaneously. "Meeting the people at the festival, I know this industry will survive and thrive — because so many people continue to do things properly, even when things get hard." This year's festival was supported by sponsors including Dear Green, La Marzocco, Oatly, Mossgiel Farm, Brew It Group, Brewed By Hand, The Social Hub, Story Shop, and BWT.
Scotsman
22-04-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Earth Day 2025: Scottish businesses offering sustainable spirits and drinks
This year sees the 55th Earth Day, which was established in1970, and there are different ways to mark it, including buying sustainable spirits and from B-Cop businesses. What is Earth Day? Earth Day was founded to raise awareness and bring people together for environmental awareness. Since then, the Earth Day organisation has led various fundraising campaigns, awareness events, and more. Many Scottish food and drink businesses are striving to be more environmentally-friendly, from reducing plastic packaging, cutting down on emissions, changing and adapting growing practises to applying to become B-Corp certified. What is B-Corp? B Corporation is a private certification of for-profit companies that takes into account their"social and environmental performance". The official description reads: "B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials." Here we take a look at some of the best businesses in Scotland who are striving to be greener, and what products you can buy to support this. Dear Green Picture: Dear Green Glasgow-based Dear Green coffee roasters gained B Corp status in 2021, with founder Lisa Lawson saying: "Gaining B Corp certification is one of our proudest moments at Dear Green. "To have the ethical standards which are intrinsically in the culture of the company audited and verified to be of the highest standard is incredible." The coffee roasters joined internationally renowned brands including Innocent, Patagonia and The Body Shop in earning the B Corp accolade. The company was founded by Lisa when she became frustrated by how staff, producers, customers and the environment were treated by the industry. Dear Green has been dedicated to putting social and environmental responsibility, sustainability and purpose ahead of profit ever since. Arbikie Disitllery This family-run farm-to-bottle distillery in Lunan Bay has been working tirelessly to reduce its carbon emissions and offer customers a truly field to bottle range of spirits. In 2020 they launched their first climate positive gin, Nadar, which was followed by a vodka. Nàdar, which means nature in Gaelic, is thought to be the world's first climate positive gin made from peas. A revolutionary spirit for the drinks industry, with a carbon footprint of -1.54 kg CO 2 e per 700ml bottle, it is at the forefront of the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss - the biggest challenges humankind has ever faced. Nadar is the result of five years of research, through Master Distiller, Kirsty Black's, PhD studentship between Abertay University and The James Hutton Institute. Arbikie also gained planning permission to build a 1 MW Wind Turbine on its farm at Lunan Bay in 2022, which will allow the production of green hydrogen. Arbikie believes it will be the first distillery in the world to be powered with green hydrogen, another major milestone on their journey to becoming one of the world's most sustainable distilleries. Bruichladdich Bruichladdich became B-Corp certified in 2020. Of this, the team at Bruichladdich said: "Highlights that helped us to achieve our original certification included our benefits package to staff. "These include Living Wage employment, a 5-10% bonus scheme shared for 100% of our staff, annual cost of living adjustments as well we private healthcare, life assurance provisions and 34 days paid annual leave as standard. We're also a diverse employer with a sound training and development program. Our team in 2020 had 50%+ female senior management and an age range of staff spanning from 19 to 75 years of age. "Our progressive attitude towards our community and sustainability also helped us qualify. We circulate the wastewater from our stills to heat our offices, bottling hall and visitor centre. We switched to 100% green electricity, sourced within the UK. We have ambitious plans for the future, and we can confidently say we are on our way." Nc'Nean Nc'Nean was named a 2022 Best for the World B Corp in recognition of exceptional positive impact for its environmental stewardship, ranking in the top 5% of all B Corps for that category in their corresponding size group. Best for the World is a distinction granted by B Lab to Certified B Corporations (B Corps) whose verified B Impact Scores in the five impact areas evaluated in the B Impact Assessment — community, customers, environment, governance, and workers — hit that top percentage category. Nc'nean earned this accolade based on initiatives such as powering the distillery with 100% renewable energy, using organic barley sourced exclusively from Scotland and bottling its whisky in a 100% recycled clear glass bottle – a UK first for a premium spirit. Rigorous in its approach to sustainable production, in 2021 it became the first whisky distillery in the UK to be verified as net zero for its own operations. Nc'nean founder Annabel Thomas said of this: 'As a small, passionate team we are incredibly proud to have achieved this accolade, which reflects our deep-rooted commitment to championing the most sustainable production processes. "We are extremely pleased with our very high score of 73.3 under the environmental stewardship section and being championed as one of the top 5% of B Corps in our size group for that category worldwide is a fantastic achievement. "We are not afraid to challenge perceptions of the way things should be done in the whisky industry and will continue to pioneer best practice with our ongoing environmental initiatives.' Brewgooder Picture: Brewgooder Twitter Another Scottish drinks brand that has been named Best for the World B Corp in recognition is Brewgooder. The firm achieved this in 2021. The team said of the accolade: "The 'Best for the World' are B Corps whose scores in one or more of the five impact areas assessed towards the certification, reach the top 5% of all B Corps worldwide. At Brewgooder, we have been recognised for our clean water efforts in the Community area. "As all B Corps are already businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose — this is a recognition that makes us incredibly proud. "And we're just getting started… We will continue collaborating with the global B Corp community to improve and positively impact through the power of great craft beer."
