#WhoWhatWhy - Will Corby, Director of Coffee and Social Impact at Pact Coffee
If you've spent time in an x+why site recently, chances are you may well have tried Pact Coffee from one of our break out points. Since 2012, Pact have pledged to bring speciality coffee to the UK while making life better at source.
Will Corby is Pact's Director of Coffee and Social Impact, we asked him a few questions:
Will, what is your 'Why’?
By introducing UK coffee drinkers to some of the world's greatest coffee, we can improve hundreds, if not thousands, of lives at origin while upgrading your daily brew. It's a win-win. We're using fantastic coffee as a catalyst for significant change, and thanks to UK customers, offices, cafes and restaurants, we've been able to support reforestation projects, bring nutritional aid to farming communities, invest heavily in projects for gender equity, and much more.
Tell us something you find helpful in your working day.
Seeing farmers that I've worked with for over a decade thrive. For example, when I began working with Marcus Carvalho 11 years ago, he was going through a really tough time and was even considering leaving the coffee industry. Since then his coffee has gone from strength to strength with every harvest, and he's now undoubtably one of the best coffee farmers in Brazil - the country that produces the most coffee in the world. It keeps telling me to keep doing what we're doing - even when the to-do list is seemingly neverending!
Shoutout time! Name a company you think are doing great things.
Small Beer - a innovative brewery just down the road from our Bermondsey office. They genuinely care about sustainability, and make awesome beer too - give it a try!
Something you are proud of from the last year and looking forward to in the next? 🎉
We bought 47.7% of our coffee from women or gender equity groups last year. In an industry which can, in some countries, be very unequal between men and women, this is a huge priority for us, and I was thrilled that we surpassed our target significantly.
Reading recommendation?
How to Make Coffee, The Science Behind the Bean - Lani Kingston. It's a great way to get started with the technical side of coffee, if you're interested.
Thank you, Will, for taking the time to share your world with us. We’d encourage all readers to check out Pact Coffee.
