Condesa Co. Lab know that Australians love their coffee. Which is why the Sydney based organisation takes its business seriously as a specialty green coffee importer, with links to unlimited access to coffee beans all over the globe.

Through their championing of sustainable practices and certification programs, Condesa Co. Lab strive to do better. The ECOM coffee group has led the market over the past 20 years in its sustainability initiatives at a farm level by providing pre-crop finance, technical assistance in the areas of agronomy and quality control in post-harvest processing through to assistance in marketing and connecting coffee from the farm gate to the roaster. Condesa Co. Lab works with several certification partners, including; Fairtrade, Organic, UTZ Certified, Rainforest Alliance and 4C, they also stock coffee from ECOMs internal Sustainable Management Services (SMS) program.

Condesa Co.Lab trees (1,500) have been planted across 2 Victorian sites; Hopetoun Park (600 trees), Murrindindi Shire (500 trees) and the 3rd site will be planted out this winter at Westgate Park (400 trees).

Site A | Hopetoun Park | 600 trees

The trees and native understory now growing from Grow West’s recent planting day has contributed to the green wildlife corridor at Hopetoun Park, VIC. The park sits alongside the Werribee River, adjacent to Parwan Gorge. It is here that Condesa Co. Lab trees were planted. This region is home to its very own species of eucalyptus, the Werribee Blue Box tree. The fascinating thing about this tree is that it only occurs along the Werribee River and its tributaries. In 2011, the Werribee Blue-Box was officially recognised by the National Herbarium of Victoria. Classified as endangered under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, these magnificent trees can grow up to 12 metres.

The Grow West Community Planting Day was a wonderful success. With a beautiful location on the Werribee River in Hopetoun Park, and a glorious sunny day, over 160 wonderful volunteers planted more than 3,700 trees, shrubs and grasses. It is so fantastic to have community members, who care about the environment, come together to improve habitat and increase connectivity in the landscape. Days like this could not happen without the amazing support of organisations such as Fifteen Trees and their sponsors.

Animals that will benefit from this planting include, platypus, and numerous species of birds, frogs, reptiles, insects, possums, small mammals and macropods.

Lindy Macraild |  Coordinator | Melbourne Water

Protecting this space is important on so many levels. And we thank Condesa Co. Lab for ensuring it thrives.

Site B | Murrindindi Shire | 500 trees

Upper Goulburn Landcare Network (UGLN) planted out the 500 trees at Molesworth, VIC. The trees were a collection of eucalyptus, acacia, bursaria and banksia. The revegetation project is to protect the dominate species in the floodplain district, which is the mighty Redgum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis).

Site C | Westgate Park | 400 trees

Fifteen Trees has been working with Westgate Biodiversity for 8 years and have watched the park expand and grow. This has been due to the team of amazing volunteers, some whom have been attending weekly park activities for over a decade. This spring, we planted 400 native trees and shrubs on with the assistance of 2 Condesa members, Emilie and Freddie.

The trees are a mixture of a variety of natives, all indigenous to the district. In fact, the seeds collected to propagate plants have been gathered within a 20 km radius of the park. They are grown by a host of volunteers from Westgate Biodiversity and delivered to the park for planting over the course of the winter and spring.

Drone footage from the day here.

So with the right principles in place, let’s look to Australian coffee consumption stats:

•  75% of us drink at least one cup a day
• 25-34 year olds drink the most
• 78% of coffee lovers claimed they look first and foremost for good quality and taste
• followed by price (6%), customer service (4%), and speed of delivery (2%)
• the latte is most popular when it comes to coffee served at cafes & other hospitality spots (27% of sales), with the flat white coming second.

When it comes to factors that would make us pay more for a cup of coffee, the origin of the coffee bean is the most important (15%), followed by customer service, the coffee roaster’s brand, and location.

It is truly pleasing to see the commitment to sustainability from Condesa Co. Lab extending to partnering with Fifteen Trees to plant 60 trees for every employee, and creating their own mini-forest of 1,500 trees.

If you are interested in how your business and Fifteen Trees could work together, contact Colleen at <[email protected]> and in the meantime check our company page for more info.

Writer – Lou Ridsdale

Lou is a big fan of words and has been our Comms Manager since 2019.

She is a green thumb, Earth Lover, big-hearted nature freak, plus a savvy media and horticulture expert, who passionately believe that everyone can lead a more nourishing and sustainable life. Her passion for education + communication being the most empowering tool for change is reflected in her setting up her side hustle Hey Hoe Let’s Grow. She also founded Food Is Free Inc., a unique grassroots food security platform specialising in food security education. She fell in love with trees after reading The Magic Faraway Tree as a child.

You can find Lou here