Location: Zeebrugge, Belgium
Contact: Email
Benchmark User

Seabridge

As a logistics service centre and distribution platform, Seabridge’s activities are unloading coffee, storage, repackaging, sorting, cleaning and blending of conventional and specialty coffee, quality control in lab, training in quality control of coffee, administrative customs obligations and forwarding documents, loading of coffee and coordination of transport to final clients, on behalf of coffee traders.

We recognize the crucial role every business must play in creating a Future-Fit Society – one that is environmentally restorative, socially just and economically inclusive – and we are committed to playing our part. We aspire to become Future-Fit Business because we believe that our long-term success is tied to the value we provide to society. That means we must eliminate all of the potential negative impacts associated with what we buy, what we sell, and what we do.

Our biggest specific challenges are around climate action along the entire value chain, further development towards a fully circular economy and human and environmental conditions in the production of bags in the upstream value chain.

Our operations are energy-intensive and not yet fully powered by renewable energy. Our focus is on improving and optimising the energy efficiency of our operations and storage and further phasing out the use of fossil fuels. Detailed mapping of greenhouse gas emissions across our entire value chain is therefore a priority. From there, we will formulate strategic targets.

Packaging and repackaging of coffee are traditionally done using specific bags made of jute or polypropylene. While these packaging materials are not reusable for legal food safety reasons, they are fully recyclable. Material use is therefore largely circular. Nevertheless, there are still waste streams that we can manage even better and process into new usable materials in cooperation with partners.

The production of both jute and polypropylene bags in countries like India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Turkey is done in conditions where violations of humane working conditions and environmental management may occur. We will investigate this further.

In addition, we will seek to create positive impact wherever we can, to speed up society’s transition to future-fitness through our own actions and by assisting others on the journey.

In particular, we focus on improvement of the traceability of coffee throughout the supply chain of coffee, on behalf of our clients. Our logistic services, in particular those related to making quality parameters and links in the upstream coffee value chain transparent, make it possible to improve the environmental sustainability of coffee and the social foundations of all those working in the coffee value chain.

We acknowledge that incremental improvement of the status quo isn’t enough, so we intend to transform the way we do things. We will lead by example and encourage other businesses to do the same.