What is B Corp Certification?

For those new to the concept, B Corp Certification is awarded by the non-profit B Lab to companies that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. B Corps are recognised globally for their commitment to using business as a force for good, balancing profit with purpose to deliver long-term benefits for society, the environment, and their stakeholders. This certification requires a rigorous assessment across five key areas: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers.

Our certification journey pushed us to scrutinise and improve our practices, ensuring we meet B Lab’s high standards in all areas of our business. We’re incredibly proud to now join a global community of over 4,000 businesses that share a similar mission to prioritise purpose and impact.

Why B Corp Certification Matters to Us

From the beginning, Watermark Coffee has operated with a strong sense of responsibility towards sustainability and social impact. This certification formalises our commitment to these values, holding us accountable and inspiring us to continuously improve. For us, it’s not just about the coffee – it’s about how we can contribute to a fairer and more sustainable world.

Our dedication to environmental responsibility includes a range of high-impact projects funded through our coffee sales, each of which drives meaningful change. These projects range from community-led climate initiatives to educational outreach, helping to foster awareness and action across Ireland. Our Woodland Coffee and Green Ocean Coffee brands exemplify our belief in collaboration to expand our impact and support projects that benefit both people and the planet.

How Our Certification Impacts Our Clients and Community

Becoming a B Corp strengthens our commitment to delivering value and impact for our clients and community. As a B2B company serving corporate and hospitality clients across Ireland, our clients can be assured that their choice to work with us supports a business that upholds high ethical and sustainable standards while contributing to high-impact environmental projects here in Ireland. For our community, this certification reaffirms our dedication to our local environmental projects in Limerick, Dublin, and Mayo.

We’ve always believed in taking an active role in our community, offering educational programmes and participating in community-led environmental actions. B Corp Certification only intensifies our dedication to these initiatives and our drive to create a more inclusive and environmentally sustainable future.

What’s Next for Watermark Coffee as a B Corp?

With our B Corp Certification, Watermark Coffee is more energised than ever to amplify our impact. As we expand our Green Ocean and Woodland Projects each year, we’re committed to increasing our transparent, positive climate actions that create tangible local environmental impacts. Moving forward, a primary focus for Watermark Coffee will be to enhance our efforts in nature-positive business practices—aligning our growth with the principles of environmental regeneration and biodiversity protection.

Our journey to reduce our carbon footprint by lowering emissions is ongoing. While we’ve already achieved a significant 55% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions over the past six years, we remain committed to further reductions, recognising that every step counts in building a more sustainable future. This focus is essential to our long-term environmental goals and aligns with our dedication to responsible business practices under our B Corp values.

Becoming a certified B Corp is more than a milestone; it is a pledge to continuously improve—for our clients, our community, and the planet. At Watermark Coffee, we are excited about this new chapter as a B Corp and look forward to deepening our role in purpose-driven business for years to come.

Our Alder trees have once again surprised us with their growth, reaching almost 18ft and higher. They are starting to make our young woodland look much more than just a field. Our conifer trees are also thriving, nestled among grass teeming with biodiversity. Bees, various insects, wildflowers, and other wildlife can also be seen flourishing this summer, making our woodland a vibrant and dynamic ecosystem.

Having a variety of plants, animals, and insects in our young woodland is very important for us. Different species work together to help the woodland grow healthier supporting pollination and enriching the soil. A biodiverse woodland allows the trees and plants to improve their resilience to disease and extreme weather, making it more successful as it develops.

In our 30-acre woodland, we’ve set aside several pockets for nature to re-wild itself, letting natural processes take over without human interference. We believe this approach is important for the success of our woodland as it allows native plants and animals to flourish, preserving local biodiversity. Rewilding also reconnects fragmented habitats, giving animals the freedom to move and thrive, supporting a balanced and sustainable environment. We’ve already seen the benefits in our woodland: foxes and badgers leaving their trails, birds building nests, frogs finding wet patches to spawn, and much more.

It’s amazing to see how the work of our Woodland Coffee is helping this natural habitat thrive. Thank you to our customers who keep supporting sustainability, biodiversity and positive change!

In the clip below you can also have a look at our woodland from the drone view that was captured during the recent visit.

]]> https://www.woodlandcoffee.ie/pallasgreen-woodland-update/ Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:21:51 +0000 https://www.woodlandcoffee.ie/?p=1876 The wet weather over the past year or so has played havoc with so many hospitality businesses and farmers across Ireland but it has really suited our woods in Pallasgreen, Co Limerick.  The ‘soft’ underfoot conditions (marshy!!) have created an ideal growing environment for our trees.  What were small knee height ‘whips’ planted in November 2021 have now shot up to almost 15ft in the case of the Alder.  Alder particularly like wet soil conditions making them an ideal native Irish species for rewilding as they produce nuts and seeds in the Autumn, they also play a valuable role in preventing soil erosion and reducing the instance of flooding.

The 30 acre area has been fairly untouched since 2021 and it is very evident that nature is taking back what was once theirs, Fox and badger trails can be followed all the along the hedgerows, bull rush beds are springing up which give great cover for ground nesting birds, the stream and drains are a haven of insect life. In spite of the roaring traffic of the N24, there is tranquillity and balance returning to the site.  Nature is getting on with its business.

On the crisp frosty January morning that I visited the site, the magical winter scene felt as if it was frozen in time, the year could have been 1824 just as easily as 2024.  The sun slowly rising from the East brought an air of optimism with the predominate yellow and blue colours sparkling and reflecting from the frost covered vegetation,  the spectacle was evocative, joyful and stunningly beautiful.  I felt lucky to have been there.

The Woodland Coffee project has and continues to be a real success and has really captured the minds and hearts of our customers.  When you see the trees towering over your head, it is very evident how small choices and decisions manifest themselves into ideas and action that deliver real meaningful authentic change in a local Irish context.  For everybody who has been apart of this journey, thank you and for those who are not yet involved….please get in touch.  It would be great to have you on board!!

Below is a short (?) social media clip with some drone footage taken in March 2024 that might be of interest.

!!CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO!!

However, planning for the future involves a combination of strategic planning, adaptability, and a customer-centric approach. Here are some specific steps and considerations:

Market Research with your customers

• • Regularly conduct market research with your customer base to stay informed about their changing consumer preferences, emerging trends, and competitive landscape. These can change considerably from one year to another so it’s definitely worth validating your understanding and looking to your customer for ideas that you can implement.

Diversify Your Menu with ‘In Season’ produce:

• • Keep your menu dynamic and responsive to changing tastes. This can be a simple as offering seasonal coffees or focusing on ‘in season’ food as part of the menu. This will also underpin your sustainability ethos and reduce food miles.  For example late spring is an ideal time to serve Nettle soup.

Sustainability Practices:

• • Embrace sustainable practices in your cafe operations. Consumers are increasingly drawn to businesses that prioritise environmental responsibility. Using Woodland Coffee is a great start to communicating your commitment to sustainability but make sure you are getting the most out of it.  Are you displaying how many trees you and your customers are responsible for?  Do you know how much carbon has been sequestered?  If you would like to know more, just ask, we have lots of marketing collateral designed to help you communicate your achievements.

Community Engagement:

• • Build a sense of community around your cafe. Host events, partner with local organizations, and actively engage with your customers both online and offline. Creating a strong community connection can foster customer loyalty.

Staff Training and Development:

• • Invest in ongoing training for your staff. Ensure that they are knowledgeable about all your products, can provide excellent customer service, and are equipped to handle various situations. Well-trained staff can positively impact the overall customer experience.

Financial Planning:

• • Maintain a strong focus on financial planning and budgeting. Regularly review your financial performance, monitor operational costs, and adjust pricing strategies as needed. A solid financial foundation is crucial for long-term sustainability.

Adaptability and Flexibility:

• • Cultivate an adaptable mindset. Be open to adjusting your business strategies based on customer feedback, market trends, and external factors. Flexibility is key to navigating changes in the industry.

Brand Building:

• • Develop a strong and memorable brand identity. Consider the overall ambiance, decor, and customer service in addition to the products you offer. A distinctive brand can help you stand out in a competitive market.

Customer Feedback:

1. • Actively seek and listen to customer feedback. Use surveys, online reviews, and direct interactions to understand customer preferences and address any issues promptly. Positive customer relationships are essential for long-term success.

We would like to wish all of our customers a very happy Christmas and we look forward to working with you over 2024.

Blas na hEireann is often described as the Oscars for the Irish Food Industry and included over 3000 submissions from a wide range of artisanal and specialist food producers.

Of the two categories for coffee (multi-origin and single origin categories), our Green Ocean Carrickwee won the Gold with a 1^st place win for the multi origin coffee. The Green Ocean Dorinish, which is a single origin from the Mutwiri coffee plantation in Kenya, won the silver medal with a second place win, and our Woodland Tibradden, which is also a single origin from Kenya came in with a 3^rd place win.

Speaking about the result, David Lawlor of Watermark Coffee said “We are really delighted that these wonderful coffees have performed so well.  In a very competitive market, with a lot of contenders in the competition, winning 3 out of 6 possible coffee awards is a fantastic result.”

The Green Ocean Carrickwee blend is a medium roast of speciality grade arabica beans sourced from Central America, Brazil and Kenya.  We designed this coffee recipe to reflect the increasing sophistication of Irish consumers but also to ensure it has maximum appeal.  It is not a huge surprise that it received the coveted first place win.

The Dorinish single origin from the coffee estate of Charles Mutwiri is a medium light roast but the earthiness of the Kenyan coffee gives more body with a nuanced sophisticated citrus and herbal flavour.

The Woodland Tibradden single origin coffee from Mt Kenya is roasted to medium light.  This speciality grade coffee has been a huge success since it was launched in 2022.

Producing fantastic coffee with a meaningful environmental purpose is the essence of what Green Ocean Coffee and Woodland Coffee stand for.

If you would like to find out more about these excellent coffees, or to arrange a coffee tasting for your business or office, then please let us know by calling 01 4666 000or dropping us an email on info@watermark.ie

Know you numbers

A good handle on how your profit and loss account works is a key component of success.  As ingredient prices are in a state of flux it is more important than ever to understand your gross margin percentage and how its changing.  Keeping a basic accounting system up to date will spit these numbers out, so that you can arm yourself with the information to make properly informed decisions.  Keeping on top of this, particularly after working in the café all day is not easy.  Information that is 3 months old is interesting at best and does not help in making good quality decisions that are critical in understanding the direction and challenges the business faces.

Staffing

Easily the biggest challenge café owners face is rostering staff.  Engaged, motivated staff make life in the café a much more worthwhile experience for customers and staff. The key here is to understand the workflow of your business and what staff are needed to meet the demand, for example, is the café busier for just takeaway coffee before 9, or does breakfast really start to get going at 10?  The trick then is to set up your shifts to get the right mix of staff serving the demand, with plenty of back up for plan B if plan A is undermined by sickness, resignations etc.  It’s also worth looking at the blend of staff working the shift, pair up experienced with less experienced staff for informal mentoring and experiment with the different personality types within your team to see who gels well.  Ultimately if the staff don’t enjoy the work or are too pressurised they won’t stay. Closing the café due to a lack of available staff has a disastrous impact on profitability in terms of food waste, customer loyalty and paying overheads that are still due whether the business is open or not.

Efficiency

Understanding workflow at the different times of the day and trying to work out the pressure points is the first port of call here.  Getting customers served quickly and efficiently improves customer experience and reduces pressure on staff. Using technology such as use of QR codes for menu downloads, POS systems that send orders to the kitchen / barista really help.  But simple changes to the menu or furniture layout can have a dramatic impact on efficiency.

Increasing capacity

Getting customers served quickly is the key here and this point is tied in closely with understanding efficiency, but it can also be enabled by changing the shift roster to increase flexibility for staff and can give the café the opportunity to open earlier or close later and matching the food and beverage offering to the capability at that time of day, for example coffee only before 8am.

Growing sales

Good use of social media, offers, discounts are important but delivering a great customer experience is key; this means serving a quality product that is value for money in a pleasant way and doing it consistently.  If the customers enjoy the experience of coming into the business, then they’ll be back!

At Watermark Coffee, we have years of experience advising clients, if you would like to have a chat, then please drop us a line.

Green Ocean coffee funds the restoration of the ocean seabed around the coast of Ireland from the sales of coffee. We have partnered with Clew Bay Oyster Co-Op and have started the first phase of restoration between the islands of Dorinish, Inisheeny and Inishgowla in Clew Bay, Co Mayo.  Each bag of coffee sold funds the restoration of 1 square metre of oyster and seagrass bed in Clew Bay.

Why Green Ocean Coffee?

As a scuba diver and a sailor, I have witnessed the effect of human interference and climate change on our ocean in a most dramatic fashion over the past 20 years.   Green Ocean Coffee has come about from the idea that when groups of individuals and companies come together, we can achieve substantial meaningful change that directly affects our environment here in Ireland and those most impacted by it.

Clew Bay

Clew Bay has been a thriving marine habitat for centuries as it is dominated by sheltered shallow waters making it an ideal environment for oysters and seagrass to flourish.  This habitat is a perfect nursery ground for juvenile fish which promotes and enhances biodiversity.  We (Watermark) partnered with Clew Bay Oyster Co-Op to start the journey in restoring these ancient fishing grounds of Clew Bay.  These areas are now designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and closed off to fishing.  The total area for restoration extends to 180 hectares so we have plenty of work to be getting on with over the next few years.  The following video gives some insight into the restoration work and what’s involved.

The Coffee itself

Both Green Ocean Coffee and Woodland Coffee are both rated by the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) as being of speciality grade (Q Grader score of over 80).  We also wanted to ensure that these coffees are sustainably sourced and so we have worked closely with our farmers bringing these coffees in directly.

But we also wanted to bring some variation to our range of coffees (despite retiring a few blends, we now have 12 separate blends in our range, yikes!).  So Green Ocean Coffee is roasted to medium and light roast profiles and are a mix of single origin (Dorinish) and multi farm (Inisheeny and Inishgowla).  The net effect is that these coffees are beautifully balanced and nuanced with flavour like citrus, clementine, tomato, herbal and of course chocolate!  The blends are available in 1 kg bags of whole bean and 500g bags of whole bean and ground coffee (for French Press, Filter, AeroPress etc)

Why are we doing this..

At Watermark, we are committed to running our business in a way that minimises our environmental impact, but as a person who has always been deeply interested in the natural world, I feel that our business has an opportunity to do more than just minimise our environmental impact in a way that is meaningful, transparent, and measurable.  Our Woodland Coffee initiative has been a huge success and the response and encouragement from our customers has given me great confidence to take on and tackle a much more complicated and difficult initiative that is Green Ocean Coffee.  Green Ocean Coffee is a powerful initiative because beautiful coffee funds action today that has immediate tangible environmental benefits in sequestering carbon and enhancing biodiversity here in Ireland.  Green Ocean Coffee is not a promise or aspiration for the future it is action now and one that everybody can participate in by buying this wonderful coffee.

If you would like to find out more, there is a lot more information on www.greenoceancoffee.ie or by clicking here and please follow us on social media.

David Lawlor, CEO

The last date for placing orders for delivery before Christmas is Monday 19th December 2022. Whilst every effort will be made to accommodate your requirements during this very busy period, orders placed after this date run the risk of being delivered later in the month.
Please note while orders will be dispatched on the above dates, next working day delivery is not guaranteed during the festive period.

The office will be returning to normal hours from Tuesday 3rd January 2023.

Please note our breakdown and emergency helpline, 01 4666000, is fully operational throughout the entire Christmas period. Should you need assistance simply call 01 4666000 and select option 1 and wait momentarily and you will be transferred to an engineer.

We wish you a successful trading period in the run up to Christmas and if you have any questions or queries, please feel free to get in touch.

Kind Regards

The Woodland Team

It has been a great 12 months for Woodland Coffee; we planted 27,000 trees and more and more cafes and offices have chosen Woodland Coffee as their coffee of choice during the year.  Woodland Coffee has become our best-selling coffee and it continues to gain momentum.

The feedback that we receive from our café customers is that consumers are really into the taste of Woodland coffee and love the sustainability credentials of the brand.  The transparency and the fact that Woodland Coffee is action orientated makes Woodland Coffee authentic as the trees are planted in Co Limerick and can be seen by anyone who stops on the N24 in Limerick.  Woodland coffee is about action today, not a pledge or a promise of a future action. For the exact co-ordinates, see the map on our contact us web page.

A massive congratulations is due to all our customers (big and small) who have embraced the ethos of Woodland Coffee.  To this end we are in the process of sending out ‘Tree Certificates’ certifying the number of trees that each of our customers are credited with.    Each tree makes a difference, each cup of Woodland Coffee makes a difference, and we are thrilled that so many of you have decided to make ‘One Small Change’ with us.

Bualadh bos daoibh go léir!!!

David

#irelandsmostsustainablecoffee #woodlandcoffee #watermarkcoffee #onesmallchange #sustainablecoffee

During my walk around I could see that the bull rush and tall grass had really come on since we planted the site last November.  This habitat is super for insect, ground nesting birds and small mammals providing shelter, cover and an active food source.  The sapling trees are competing with the bull rush at present but will soon stretch upward above the shade as they compete for light.  As you can see from the video the trees and bull rush are difficult to tell apart at times.

It normally takes a year or two for sapling trees to establish but the Alder has over doubled in size since they were planted 9 months previously.  The Alder is one of Ireland’s most robust indigenous trees and is very tolerant of wet and windy conditions as well as being a source of food for a host of wildlife and fungi.

There were a few tree saplings that had ‘failed’, this is to be expected and occurs due to drought, damage, or a late May frost.  Fortunately, we did not have any late frost this year, but the plantation is vulnerable to this for the first five years until the trees fully establish themselves.  As part of our forestry permission, these ‘failures’ will be replaced in November / December each year.

It gives me great satisfaction to see our project come to reality and while we prefunded the project the ongoing success of this initiative is down to you, our customers, who are as enthusiastic about Woodland Coffee as we are.  Thank you very much for your continued support.