Cafe William conducts wind-powered initiative
By Derek Winkler
Café William, a coffee roasting company based in Sherbrooke, QC, recently conducted an initiative intended to highlight the company’s sustainability efforts. Late last year, the company brought 72,000 kilograms of coffee beans from Colombia to North America using a sailing ship. The journey took 20 days. The coffee transported by the ship will be available to consumers for a limited time. The company stated a future goal of using cargo sailboats for 100 percent of its coffee bean import.
“It's a commitment to sustainable transport, but also to setting a precedent for other players in the sector,” said company owner Serge Picard. “It was vital for us to find an alternative method of transporting coffee, which largely depends on fossil-fuel cargo ships. With a first voyage as a proof of concept for the cargo sailboat, this is just the beginning of plans to supply zero-emission coffee.”