By Bahati Bertin Matonde, founder of Tabar Café
When people talk about environmental commitment, many companies settle for words. At Tabar Café, we try to measure.
To date, more than 100 trees have already been planted in Africa thanks to our supply chain, and two peace trees have been planted in Montreal in parallel. It is modest — but a concrete, verifiable start, part of a decade of environmental commitment carried by our founder.
Before Tabar, in the Kyaka II camp in Uganda, I led water-purification projects for refugees and large-scale reforestation campaigns. That work was documented in films, in partnerships with the UNHCR and the World Food Programme. Tabar Café is its continuation, the commercial Canadian version.
Tabar Café aims to connect Kivu coffee with greening and community projects. The terms of a financial contribution, its calculation and beneficiaries remain to be confirmed. No contribution percentage is announced at this stage.
On the ground, it translates to:
- Planting of local species (coffee trees, eucalyptus, fruit trees) on the lands of our partner producers.
- Maintenance and restoration of small water-purification stations around the farms.
- Compostable or fully recyclable packaging for our Canadian products.
- Traceable sourcing from the green bean (Kivu) to the bag (Montreal).
The environmental impact of a coffee is rarely told transparently. We prefer to show it.
