The very first cargo of coffee transported by sailboat intended for the Sherbrooke roaster Café William left Colombia on December 18, culminating several years of efforts by the company to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
L’Avontuura 43-meter schooner, left the port of Santa Marta with the equivalent of four containers of green coffee on board, told The Press the president and CEO of Café William, Rémi Tremblay.
“We want to participate in the growth of the transformation of the industry,” he enthuses, bluntly recognizing the heavy carbon footprint of coffee when consumed in our latitudes.
L’Avontuur Unable to reach Quebec waters at this time of year, its cargo must be unloaded at a port in New Jersey these days and travel the rest of the way by truck.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Serge Picard and Rémi Tremblay, respectively co-owner and president and CEO of Café William
But Café William has bigger ambitions and is planning to ship a second shipment in June, this time aboard a much larger sailboat, which will carry the equivalent of 50 containers of coffee and which will travel as far as at the port of Quebec.
What [a] done in December, it is very artisanal in terms of cargo volume and organization.
Rémi Tremblay, president and CEO of Café William
The quantity of coffee transported is equivalent to a little less than a month of production for the Sherbrooke company, which however anticipates that the transport of all the coffee sold under the Café William brand will be carbon neutral in a few years – the company also roasts coffee for food service companies or for grocery chains that sell it under their own brand.
“Within 12 to 18 months, we will cover the majority of our coffees, with the exception of that from Indonesia,” indicates Mr. Tremblay, hoping to be able to transport coffee from Asia without emitting GHGs. here three years.
In the meantime, Café William intends to offer a new range of more “sustainable” coffee, the origins of which will be selected based on transport by sailboat.
“Then, for the other products, it’s not us who will decide; the margins are thin, the competition is fierce,” says Mr. Tremblay, who nevertheless hopes that his customers will follow suit.
Change of sailboat
Organizing the transport of its coffee by sailboat was not easy for Café William, who has been toying with this project for more than three years.
The Sherbrooke roaster is waiting to take co-possession of the Ceibaa sailboat whose construction in Costa Rica will not be completed until 2025.
It was therefore necessary to charter another ship for the first transports, but the one which had been initially selected, the Vegaa wooden-hulled sailboat more than 100 years old, also had to be replaced.
We have never been able to insure it for maritime cargo!
Rémi Tremblay, about the century-old sailboat Vega
But Rémi Tremblay is not discouraged by these unforeseen events; Café William is, on the contrary, proud to contribute to the development of transport by sailing cargo.
“There really is a maritime industry that is being organized and we are supporting this industry,” says Mr. Tremblay.
BALSATE AND VOLCANO MEDIA PHOTO, PROVIDED BY CAFÉ WILLIAM
LoadingAvontuur in Colombia
Since sailboats are smaller than motor cargo ships, their loading time is considerably reduced, which compensates for their slightly slower movement, explains Mr. Tremblay.
“The transit time isn’t much different after all,” he says.
World premiere
Café William’s ecological approach does not stop at transport: the company has been busy running its new factory since the fall, equipped with a roaster running on electricity, “a world first on an industrial scale », enthuses Rémi Tremblay.
“It’s no worse madness that we introduced into the construction project,” he says, explaining that the device requires a dedicated electrical input of one megawatt.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Café William’s electric roaster, which is the first in the world on an industrial scale, according to the Sherbrooke company.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Café William’s electric roaster is located on the fifth level of this structure.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The roaster requires a dedicated one megawatt electrical input.
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PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The new Café William factory in Sherbrooke is also equipped with fully electric post-roasting fume treatment equipment.
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The device, which is in reality dual-energy, in order to be able to operate on gas in the event of a breakdown, was designed by the German equipment manufacturer Neuhaus Neotec, which also saw it as a “very promising” project, says Mr. Tremblay.
The operating costs of this roaster should be similar to those of a gas appliance, predicts Mr. Tremblay, who specifies that the objective was not to save money, but to reduce GHG emissions.
“We’re trying to influence the transformation of things in the coffee industry,” he says.
Café William’s new factory has the space and electrical capacity to add two more identical roasters, demonstrating the company’s growth objectives.
And trucks
Café William is also waiting for two Tesla brand electric trucks, for which it has made a significant deposit in 2021. “These are the only ones that promise quite interesting autonomy,” says Rémi Tremblay, who “also closely monitors what Happens at Lion.” Café William plans to acquire a small fleet of electric trucks to make its deliveries in Quebec, while doing business with carriers who themselves have an electric fleet for transport over greater distances.
Learn more
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- US$0.10
- Average price of transporting a pound of coffee by motor cargo ship
Source: Café William
- US$0.30
- Average price of transporting a pound of coffee by sailboat
Source: Café William