Sustainability at Mondo del Caffè

Organic coffee with attitude – from plant to cup.

Coffee is one of the world's most traded commodities. Few people know the journey it takes before ending up in their cup – and the cost of that journey to people and the environment. We do know. And that's precisely why we've decided to do coffee differently.

Since our founding in 1997, we at Mondo del Caffè have consistently focused on one question: How can we offer exceptional coffee while taking responsibility – for the farmers, for nature, for the people who drink it? You can find our answers here.

Our sustainability areas

We have been buying our green coffee directly from the farmers for over 20 years, without any intermediaries. That sounds simple. But it isn't. It means personal trips to the growing regions, long-term relationships built on trust, and fair prices that are far above what the market demands.

Specifically: We usually pay two to three times the world market price for our direct imports. A fair minimum price alone is not enough for us – we see it for what it is: a minimum standard for the industry. At Mondo del Caffè, it's about genuine partnership.

What does that mean? That when you buy a coffee from Fazenda Camocim in Brazil, you can know who picked it, on what land it grew, and what Henrique Sloper, the farmer, thinks about his coffee. We show you exactly that on our Meet the Farmers page.

Get to know our farmers What we understand by fair trade

Organic and Demeter – because standards sometimes just aren't enough.

Many of our coffees are EU organic certified, from the organic coffee bean to the finished roast. Some, such as the India Yellikodige Estate Demeter, are additionally certified according to Demeter, the strictest guidelines in organic farming worldwide. Our roastery in Echternach also meets the Demeter requirements for processing.

We are delighted with these awards. However, we are even more delighted that we know the cultivation conditions ourselves from our direct partners. This creates a trust that no seal can replace.

More about our organic certification

Packaging that comes back – 100% recyclable mono-material

Coffee packaging is a real challenge. Coffee needs protection: from light, oxygen, moisture. Classic multi-layer films do a good job of this – but they are difficult to recycle because their different material layers cannot be separated during sorting.

We have spent a long time looking into this issue. And we weren't satisfied with our old solution, which was already one of the more sustainable ones on the market at the time. So we developed something new.

Our new coffee packaging is made from 100% monomaterial polypropylene (PP). All layers are made from the same plastic – making it truly recyclable by type for the first time. A metallized inner layer still provides excellent aroma protection. The result is packaging that works according to the principle of the circular economy: the material is returned, turned into granules, and new packaging can be created from it.

This solution was awarded the "Made for Recycling" seal – evaluated according to a scientific method by the bifa Environmental Institute and the Fraunhofer Institute. Our result: over 18 out of 20 possible points.

Read the whole story about the new packaging

Sailing across the Atlantic – our coffees on a sailing course

Sea transport is unavoidable for the global coffee trade. What is not unavoidable: that this transport leaves a huge ecological footprint. A conventional container ship causes about four times more CO₂ per kilogram of transported goods than a modern cargo sailing ship – not to mention the ship noise that disturbs marine ecosystems.

That's why we carry coffees in our assortment that have taken precisely this different route: across the Atlantic by cargo sailing ship. Without fossil fuels, without underwater container noise. Just wind, currents, and patience.

These coffees are marked with the label "FRESH COFFEE CLEAN OCEAN" for sustainable sail transport and are available directly in our shop:

You can learn more about the background of sail transport, the ships used, and the specific CO₂ savings on our topic page.

More on sail transport - coming soon here

Your package – shipped multiple times, not even thrown away

When we talk about sustainable packaging, we don't just mean the coffee packaging itself. The journey to your home also leaves its mark: In Germany alone, billions of single-use cardboard boxes are produced annually, often ending up in paper waste after a single journey.

Together with The Ocean Package, we therefore offer a real alternative: a reusable shipping box that can be used up to 20 times before being fully recycled at the end of its life. The material? Recycled polypropylene – partly from collected coastal plastic. The result: up to 95% less packaging waste and 80% less CO₂ compared to classic single-use cardboard boxes.

The reusable box can be selected as a shipping option at checkout for orders within Germany. Simply select, enjoy your coffee, send the box back – done.

More on reusable packaging

Gently roasted – because quality and sustainability share the same principle.

At our roastery in Echternach, we give our coffees time. Around 18 to 22 minutes at about 200 °C, which is almost ten times longer than in industrial high-temperature roasting facilities. This not only protects the product, it also conserves resources: gentle roasting means less energy consumption per degree of roast, no additives, no foaming of the volume with water or steam.

Sustainability and craftsmanship go hand in hand for us – at the origin, in the roastery, in the packaging.

Our roasting process in detail

Sustainable coffee – for us it's not an add-on, but the foundation.

We are a coffee roastery that constantly asks how our coffee world can be made even more sustainable - responsibly and consistently. Monomaterial packaging instead of composite film. Direct trade instead of anonymous supply chains. Demeter certification instead of minimum standard seals. And new: sail transport and reusable shipping as next steps.

When you buy coffee from Mondo del Caffè, you're not just buying pleasure. You're buying an attitude.

A selection of our sustainable coffees:

Discover our sustainable coffees