Helping Us Lead More Sustainable Lives With Good Roots, Worcester
With sustainability, ethical trade and good vibes at the core of their business, Good Roots in Worcester is a rustic, hip spot for coffee, brunch and everything in between. Championing local businesses, producers and suppliers they not only serve great coffee and food, but heavily concentrate on the provenance and quality of their produce. In the style of a café you’d find in any upmarket farm shop in the countryside, Good Roots have taken the opportunity to also become a retailer for the produce they cook with, going that one step further to support their suppliers.
“When we were approached about the Royal Porcelain site we knew we had the chance to do something special. We wanted to celebrate local business and showcase the high quality suppliers we have on our doorstep. This influence can be seen in our menus, none more so than our eggs.
They come from a local farmer in Hanbury and it’s clear our customers can’t get enough as we go through a massive 900 every week. Our coffee currently comes from a small cooperative of farmers in Columbia, ensuring we support small business in all we do”
— ADAM EDNEY, BRANCH MANAGER
Situated just down the road from our Worcester hair and beauty salon, Good Roots have become a firm favourite for morning coffee, and our professional team can’t wait until they reopen again ready for Easter.
There has been a large shift in the past few years toward wanting to lead a more sustainable lifestyle, making conscious choices where we can to reduce our environmental footprint, support independent and re-emphasising the importance of Ethical Trade. We asked Good Roots Branch Manager Adam, to give us some insight into easy tweaks we can make within our daily habits to support this movement.
Shop local and support indies, understand the provenance of your produce
Not only is shopping in your local farm shop a fun weekend trip, you’re also contributing to local business while also having a good understanding of where your produce has come from, how it was grown/farmed and can ask your local supplier about any of their methods - which is something you definitely can’t do at your local Waitrose!
Reusable take out cups
Using reusable coffee cups has been something of a focus for the past few years as a way to attempt to minimize the amount of disposable cups in circulation- often containing some kind of plastic. The majority of chain coffee shops - along with many independents- are offering incentive discounts on hot drinks when you use your own recyclable cup to dissuade customers from using disposable ones. Good Roots’ favourites are Huskee cups which they use in store as well as retailing them. Huskee cups are by far the most sophisticated reusable coffee cups we’ve ever seen, they’re BPA-free, durable and are made out of repurposed coffee husk!
The Unbreakable: Always have a cloth tote bag on hand
Have you ever packed up your shopping in the supermarket using the plastic carriers, picked it up to leave and the bottoms dropped out? Yeah, us too. However, Adam recommends always having a tote bag to hand. We’re no stranger to carrying our own shopping bags at this point but cloth tote bags are the way forward. A. The likelihood of it ever breaking is slim to none, B. It’s practically a fashion statement and C. It contains no plastic what-so-ever so when the time comes for it to be disposed of, you need not feel guilty. Good Roots have their own branded totes coming out this year, so stay tuned!
Reuse your waste coffee grounds
We love any chance to be able to recycle where we can and reusing waste coffee grounds to improve the health of your plants is such a great trick. Coffee grounds can help increase nutrient levels and decrease the greenhouse gas emissions of your compost. Coffee grounds contain several key nutrients essential for optimum plant growth! We also like to keep a stash of coffee grounds available for making natural body scrubs, combining coffee grounds with natural oils such as coconut oil or olive oil makes for a super quick, gentle homemade exfoliator too.
Good Roots have many more exciting projects to support your road toward sustainability coming in 2021, including adding more local produce to their retail line in store and bringing in a glass milk bottle refillable station from local dairy farmers.
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