Job description

Counter Culture Coffee Vision Statement:

• Counter Culture Coffee is a relentless pursuit of coffee perfection.
• Counter Culture Coffee is a dedication to real environmental, social, and fiscal sustainability.
• Counter Culture Coffee is a commitment to creating cutting edge coffee people.

Position: Sustainability Coordinator

Job Overview:
The Sustainability Coordinator works under the direction of Counter Culture Coffee's Sustainability Manager to create programs and policies that support Counter Culture's commitments to real sustainability and communicate with stakeholders including suppliers, customers, and fellow employees. This position requires excellent written and verbal communication skills—in English and preferably in Spanish, as well—independence, confidence, flexibility, passion for coffee, a holistic understanding of Counter Culture’s business, and strong organizational skills. This position also requires travel and a flexible schedule, including weekends. The Sustainability Coordinator must strive to embody Counter Culture's core values and feel comfortable representing these values to peers and the public.

Job Duties:

The role of the Sustainability Coordinator is to support the construction and implementation of initiatives inspired by Counter Culture Coffee's commitment to real social, environmental, and fiscal sustainability. It is the goal of the Sustainability Department that. in five years, Counter Culture Coffee will be recognized nationally across industries as a thought leader in sustainability, on a short list with companies like Patagonia, Interface Carpeting, Seventh Generation, and New Belgium Brewing.

This person helps maintain Counter Culture's reputation as a sustainability leader by strengthening relationships with communities domestically and abroad, researching new opportunities in green business and technology, and communicating sustainability through internal and external marketing. The Sustainability Coordinator will uphold and speak regularly on behalf of the company’s core values to peers in the organization, to the coffee industry, and to the public. Because sustainability is a field still lacking in definition, roles in this department require creativity, flexibility, thought leadership, and the willingness to take risks.

• Serve as a resource for Counter Culture staff to learn about and engage in sustainability
• Maintain regular contact with Counter Culture Training Centers and departments to identify opportunities and challenges to sustainability regionally and departmentally and to disseminate information
• Fulfill requests for information from the Marketing Department to help sell coffees and promote Counter Culture sustainability
• Participate in and lead coffee tastings, sustainability orientations, Pro Dev sessions, and other educational events for staff, customers, and general public
• Represent Counter Culture at industry and community sustainability events
• Gather insights about corporate social responsibility models to inform Counter Culture strategy
• Generate sustainability content for internal and external marketing including articles, photo sets, and interviews
• Identify and develop relationships with NGOs and other community organizations nationally and internationally
• Keep Counter Culture informed of cutting-edge of green business and technology developments
• Manage annual Counter Culture Direct Trade Certification and greenhouse gas reporting
• Communicate and work with coffee suppliers to support Counter Culture sustainable sourcing agenda
• Document Counter Culture relationships and projects on field visits
• Support the evolution of coffee purchasing at Counter Culture by developing tools to aid the Coffee Department in measuring sustainability and analyzing supply chain strengths, weaknesses and opportunities
• Frequent cupping with the Coffee Department in order to understand the relationship between quality and sustainability in Counter Culture products and deliver feedback to growers

Requirements:

• Strong communication skills including writing and public speaking
• Self-directed and curious
• Passionate about coffee
• Facility in another language (Spanish preferred, though French, Amharic, or Kiswahili are also interesting)
• Flexible schedule, some nights and weekends required
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 25% of the time

90 Day Goals:

• Understand each existing Counter Culture coffee and purchasing relationship: duration, volume, price, quality level, customer appeal, unique conditions
• Map community donations domestically and abroad in order to identify potential partner organizations regionally
• Establish relationships with all Counter Culture Training Centers and departments
• Identify like-minded companies and business networks to inform Counter Culture sustainability
• Evaluate coffee using the Counter Culture cupping form and scoring system
• Understand all brewing processes and their impact on cup profile
• Attend the following labs: Espresso Fundamentals, Tasting and Technique, Coffee Origins, Brewing Science (I,II, and III) and Cupping Fundamentals, as well as any Pro Dev sessions
• Understand principles and terms of sustainable coffee agriculture: organic, biodynamic, RA certified, shade-grown, watershed, best agricultural practices (BAP)
• Collect contracts for all CCDTC coffees for 2014 and submit them to auditor for certification
• Become familiar with basic language of coffee purchasing
  • contract terms: FOB and FOT, fixed and differential, SAS, NA/NS, Ex-warehouse, hedging, futures
  • volume/cup quality/price relationships

Upon completion of all of these goals and a satisfactory review by a supervisor, the employee will secure a full-time, permanent position with Counter Culture Coffee.

Compensation

this position is: salaried

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline