How to B a Force for Good: Olympia Coffee’s Impact as a B Corp
From the moment you walk into an Olympia Coffee shop, it’s apparent why I love this place:
Sleek interiors with skillfully planned acoustics and gems like these light fixtures.
A barista with the sense of humor to:
1.) Clock the 32 oz. tumbler I brought in and
2.) Ask, “So is that water or the backup coffee?” with a grin.
And - oh, right! Coffee that is, as one reviewer put it, “unequivocally dope.”
What truly brings me back again and again, though, doesn’t fall under any one of these obvious reasons. The biggest reason I keep returning is that Olympia Coffee is a B Corp.
What the heck is a B Corp?
So glad you asked.
In short, becoming a B Corp requires an organization to demonstrate that it works holistically to make their business a force for good. The unbiased B Corp certification verifies that a company has met rigorous standards on a number of different business practices, from diversity and inclusion to sustainability to poverty alleviation. The verification process is so involved, in fact, that it took Olympia Coffee 15 months to complete its certification before achieving B Corp status in 2019.
Knowing this, it came as no surprise to me that the company has implemented some important standards like:
Digging deeper revealed a number of other impactful practices, including:
The more I uncovered in my research, the more I could tell that this was just the tip of the iceberg. After all, with everything the B Corp certification process measures, there must be a slew of practices that companies like Olympia Coffee have successfully implemented and maintained. So rather than embarking on my own internet scavenger hunt (and definitely falling down the digital rabbit hole), I reached out to gain a better understanding of what it means to be a B Corp from the source.
Olympia Coffee’s HR & AP/AR Manager, Richelle Parker, was gracious enough to walk me through the diligent work that lies behind their impressive scores. Quite frankly, our conversation gave me a newfound sense of hope in how a business can be a force for good. I’m excited to share everything I learned about what becoming and practicing as a B Corp can mean for the organization, the staff, and the communities they serve.
What does being a B Corp mean to Olympia Coffee as a company?
At its core, Olympia Coffee exists to “improve the quality of life of farmers and staff by providing quality service to our community." Olympia takes this mission so seriously that co-owner Oliver Stormshak created a completely new standard for coffee sourcing that goes above and beyond Fair Trade and Direct Trade standards.
The Fair for All program guarantees a sustainable minimum wage for all farmers, currently set at more than double the Fair Trade rate. Beyond compensation, Fair for All ensures access to healthy food and clean water in farming communities, as well as the ability for farmers to work away from imminent danger and violence.
Vendor relationships are a key component of how Olympia conducts its business. The company is intentional about working with local businesses, as well as those owned by women and minorities, where possible. During the B Corp certification process, they discovered an opportunity to shift some partnerships, including onboarding a local linen service vendor and sourcing straws within 50 miles of the Olympia Coffee headquarters.
Ultimately, the company has truly cared for each person who is impacted by how it carries out its mission.
- What does being a B Corp mean to the Olympia Coffee team? -
(café staff members - corporate employees - coffee farmers)
I have to start this section with one of the most impressive stories Richelle shared about how Olympia supports its farmers’ livelihoods.
In farming communities, as Richelle explained, coffee is seasonal. Because of this, farmers and their children often need to venture into nearby cities to work during the off-season. Seeing an opportunity to make a difference in an unexpected way, Olympia Coffee began providing English tutors. Because the highest-paying jobs are often those that require speaking the English language, farmers and their families have been able to thrive in their communities. One family, for example, has earned enough income to hire others to work on their family farm, rather than having to tend to it themselves. This has alleviated the responsibility of their children, who can now attend school, earn an education, and continue to thrive in the future.
Throughout the company, employees enjoy a variety of benefits:
Staff and management provide feedback to one another in a 360-degree continuous loop. Structured monthly check-ins allow for open discussions on systems, ideas, and improvements. These suggestions are considered thoughtfully, and they are implemented where possible. Some of the sustainability initiatives noted above, for instance, first began as ideas presented by café staff members.
Olympia has worked diligently to offer healthcare plans that are affordable and accessible to all. In underserved farming communities, the company has expanded its network of covered providers and even provided translation services for family members where needed. Health insurance is incredibly affordable, and it includes medical, dental, and vision coverage.
Olympia Coffee is a Living Wage Leading Plus Certified company. (Say that five times fast). This independent certification (separate from its B Corp status) verifies that all employees are paid a living wage based on the real cost of living in their area. This accounts for tips, health insurance, and employer contributions toward retirement (did I mention that 401K plans are offered to part-time baristas!?) The Leading Plus tier is the highest achievement, and it reflects Olympia’s additional benefits like paid time off, education and training, and life insurance.
Even in high-cost-of-living areas like Seattle, employees can purchase their first homes, start families, travel, and do the things they have always dreamt of doing. Olympia feels a responsibility for people’s well-being, and the company takes that responsibility seriously by caring for its staff in a variety of trailblazing ways.
What does it mean to have a B Corp in your community?
The work Olympia Coffee does to improve quality of life extends well beyond those who work inside the company.
In Washington, Olympia Coffee serves the greater community through the Give Club. Through this program, staff members are paid for hours spent volunteering for local organizations like:
My Sister’s Pantry, which serves the houseless community and at-risk youth with hot meals, groceries, and clothing.
A Metro Parks program, working to remove invasive plant species in public parks.
Other non-profits, including a Seattle organization that provides basic necessities for parents and children.
Olympia is dedicated to diversity and inclusion, and it has used its company platform to reinvest in local businesses. By hosting pop-up shops at café locations, Olympia has featured and supported queer, female-owned, and minority-owned businesses. One of Richelle’s recent favorites was Umami Kushi, a local black-owned, Japanese-style savory doughnut shop. Um, yes please!
The thing is, you don’t even need to know all about Olympia Coffee’s work as a B Corp to fall in love with their brand. On the surface, it can seem like all of the ways the company gives back are just icing on the cake, or like foam on the latte. But really, its mission-driven work has actually been slow-roasted into everything the company does.
Okay, I’ll stop with the coffee puns.
What I’m saying is that Olympia Coffee’s product can stand on its own. Not to mention, when you come into a café, you kind of feel like you’re part of something bigger, even if you can’t quite put your finger on it. You can just come in, enjoy a cup of delicious coffee and some playful barista banter, and then go about your day. Meanwhile, Olympia is working day in and day out to do what it has set out to do - improve the quality of life for everyone connected to its brand.
I can’t end without including an enormous THANK YOU to Richelle for speaking with me! I am extremely grateful for your time, your insights, and your thoughtfulness. And, I am extremely grateful that I’ve gotten to learn and share how Olympia Coffee uses its business to be a force for good.
To learn more about Olympia Coffee and snag some of their products, head to their website.
To learn more about B Corps, head here.
One last thing. Since you’ve made it to the end, I’ll reward you with an extra little fun fact:
Back in 2017, I took a trip to El Salvador with Habitat for Humanity Global Village. After we completed a week of building homes, we did some sightseeing on our final day. We visited a coffee producer in Ataco, toured the facility, and tasted some of the freshest coffee ever. As I researched Olympia Coffee recently, a few things looked eerily familiar in the El Salvador video on the website:
(My photos are shown side-by-side with snapshots from the video)
It turns out that this facility was, in fact, once utilized by Olympia Coffee! Richelle explained that this mill, called El Carmen, was once contracted by Olympia to process coffee for the Ariz family.
What are the chances? For real.
To me, this is just another important reminder that this world is such a small place, so we better take good care of it and each other.
