Time for the next round of the Eco-Project Challenge, Granny Trude’s new family game. Her grandson Michi has discovered an unusual ecological enterprise in Leipzig: coffee shipped across the Atlantic by sailboat! An invitation to sustainable consumption!
My Dears,Our new family Eco-Project Challenge is so much fun! Our family chat has become awfully exciting lately as a result! I presented our first winning project from Cologne in last month’s letter. My grandson Michi, who recently moved to Leipzig, has discovered the second one there in his adopted city and I’ve just got to tell you about it: carbon-neutral “sailboat coffee” from a Nicaraguan farmers’ cooperative. It’s our new favourite eco-project! You’ll be as amazed as we were to find out all about it.
Michi’s new dream city
Leipzig is like winning the jackpot, enthuses Michi. All that art, culture and history, a marvellous mix of modern and old – he feels quite at home there and keeps asking when I’m finally coming to pay him a visit. I aim to come as soon as I can. After all, Goethe studied in Leipzig, it’s one of the oldest trade fair locations in the world, and the city played a pivotal role in the reunification of East and West Germany. Not only that, but Leipzig aims to be at the forefront of the ecological transition. Since 1989, for example, the so-called Ökolöwen (Ecological Lions) of the environmental association Umweltbund Leipzig e.V. see themselves as nature’s advocates. Knowing Michi as I do, my little Bavarian lion will soon be roaring along with them and actively supporting his adopted city’s environmental policy. Michi raved to us about the association’s projects. And I expect he’ll be actively involved in efforts to reduce the number of private cars on the city streets, promoting car sharing and making the city greener. He told me that the Eco Lions brought “Park(ing) Day” to Leipzig – and to Germany as a whole – back in 2011. It’s a great idea for inner-city renewal: on the third Friday in September, parking spaces in Leipzig – and various cities around the world – are repurposed for a few hours into little green oases, where people celebrate and demonstrate.Fair coffee for a fair future
Some time ago, whilst exploring his new city, Michi was drawn by the aroma to a coffee roasting house in the Plagwitz district. That’s where he met Jens Klein, the founder and owner of Café Chavalo. Klein, like many others, has cut out the middleman and buys fair trade coffee directly from coffee farmers in Nicaragua, where he’s already been several times. To this end, he has founded a cooperative in Germany: a share in the co-op costs €500. Café Chavalo’s shareholders include two Nicaraguan coffee cooperatives. Once a year, the coffee farmers way over in Central America take part remotely in the general assembly for shareholders. Three cheers for the Internet and modern technology, as I always say! But the farmers take part in less important meetings, voting and discussions online as well. So far, so good, but all that is not in itself all that exceptional.Courage to do the unusual
But here’s the twist: Jens Klein’s coffee gets to Europe by sailing ship! It’s typical of Michi that he should meet the boss in person, the mastermind behind such a remarkable business concept, who tells him all about his undertaking and his travels to Nicaragua. Next thing you know, the Leipzig fair coffee trader will be taking my grandson along to Central America...Some Café Chavalo brand coffee is shipped to Europe in the hold of an eco-friendly sailing vessel that’s over a hundred years old.
A full success
At the outset, the cooperative was importing two tonnes of coffee a year: that figure has since shot up to 80 tonnes, 30 tonnes of which are brought by sailing ship. By the way, you can buy the beans at fair trade, zero waste and whole food shops in Leipzig or online – shipped by carbon-neutral transport, of course. Sailboat coffee doesn’t taste any different from container ship coffee – but why not try some yourself? And although sailboat coffee costs a few euros more, it’s doing a “roaring trade”, as Jens told Michi. I’m delighted about that! We need success stories like this one in such gloomy times, don’t you think?Another commendable point is that Café Chavalo pays farmers more than the standard fair trade price, which – including an organic produce and fair trade premium – comes to €5.20 per kg of raw coffee beans. Café Chavalo pays the farmers a much better price, at €6.80 a kilo. Does that sound good? Sure does!
Wind-powered
Naturally, the sailing ship can’t carry anywhere near as much cargo and it takes a lot longer to get there, but it’s carbon-neutral. Small CO2 emissions are produced in getting the cargo from the Hamburg port to Leipzig, for example, and processing the coffee beans, but they are offset by the cooperative through myclimate, which I’ve written to you about before. The money goes to funding reforestation projects in Nicaragua.“It’s a challenge,” Jens explained to Michi. The steps involved in importing carbon-neutral coffee are more various and unusual, but he’s still as passionate about it as ever. Jens has yet to accompany his beans on its voyage – which would take three and a half months, including a few stops along the way, as opposed to three to four weeks on a container ship. So meantime, Jens contents himself with unloading his cargo in Hamburg. Volunteers can help unload there, by the way, at Museumshafen (Museum Port). My granddaughter Miri lives in Hamburg, I’ll have to tell her about that.
So, are you excited about this Eco-Project Challenge winner? If so, then I’m glad – and rest assured we’ll find some more exciting projects to share with you!
See you soon – warm regards
Granny Trude
October 2022