Innovation

Heartwood Coffee Roastery believes in creating high quality coffee with the satisfaction of sustainability in mind. This growing coffee shop provides local residents and those just passing through a sense of family from the first step through the door. The atmosphere is clean and chic with an overall farmhouse style. Customers can range from a student studying in the corner to a family enjoying a Sunday morning together. Owner Jim Sanders wanted the overall goal of this roastery to “bring the people of our community together by providing the ideal space to relax, get work done, or even spend time with family and friends." Heartwood Coffee Roastery allows local artists to display their work and sell their items in the back of the coffee shop several times each month. Their mission is to support local businesses, artists, and the community in hopes they will see the town grow for the better. The notion of bringing the community together supports Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Another innovation Heartwood Coffee Roastery has been backing since the beginning is gender equality. This concept has been around a long time, but has only been taken seriously in the past 50 years. This has been shown in the number of small and large businesses that have adopted the policy of creating a work-space that treats both genders as equals. Whether it be with pay, benefits or tasks, everyone will have the same opportunities. Heartwood has been a strong supporter of this in both the communities in which it belongs. Sanders noted that he wanted to have an honest and fair business which is shown in sustainable goal number 8: Gender and Equality. The shops provide a space for all people to congregate and also have artists show their work and musicians play for small crowds.

Inspiration

Before becoming the owner of Heartwood Coffee Roastery, Sanders attended Kent State University. While there, he became passionate about the communities where he lived and wanted to find a way to use his fine arts degree to help those areas. With this, he came up with Heartwood Coffee Roastery and made his goal a reality. While growing the business and supporting the surrounding area, he was also raising a family and took his passion and made a business that gives him pride.

Employees of Heartwood Coffee Roastery share the same passion that their owner instilled in them. Working at Heartwood is like working with family: everyone is respectful, energetic, and open to making changes for the better of the community and environment. Knowing the employees share his vision of respect and equality, the business will exceed further in the future.

Overall impact

The sustainable innovation within Heartwood Coffee Roastery may seem small, but those innovations can impact an entire community in a large way. For instance, their supply chain differs from other roasters in the community, by roasting their beans in house which provides more locals with skilled jobs. These can be transferred to other locations and are not only specific to this community. This broadens the effect that Heartwood has on the area.

Heartwood is dedicated to supporting their community by increasing local engagement within the Hudson and Chagrin area. They do this by allowing artists in different mediums such as physical art or music to showcase their work in the stores. They also have community outreach that gives other small, local businesses the opportunity to sell their goods and food at Heartwood locations on certain days. One such business, Cleveland Field Kitchen, comes in on Sunday’s to showcase their breakfast menus to the patrons of Heartwood.

Business benefit

The innovations implemented by Heartwood Coffee Roastery benefit the local business in both the short and long run. Focusing on community engagement allows the coffee shop to gain a larger local customer base and the opportunity to continue expansion. Heartwood stands out over other chain coffee shops, such as Starbucks, by focusing on the community around them and implementing ways to help other local businesses.

Heartwood is dedicated to roasting their coffee beans in house to provide an additional unique aspect of the coffee shop that is not available at chain coffee shops. Roasting the beans in house cuts the cost within the supply chain. These beans are all Fair Trade beans that are delivered fresh, having five of the nine options be single-origin beans. The bags of coffee provided have the roast dates stamped on the back of each recycled bag, so the customer knows they are receiving fresh, high quality beans. Sanders serves as the roastmaster for Heartwood and hopes to eventually pass his knowledge onto his children. The lead roastmaster, however, is a trusted employee who has the time to take on such an important role within the company.

Social and environmental benefit

Heartwoods' benefit on society will long outlast its brick and mortar stores. Its sustainable ways are felt by all its customers. Small innovations can create long lasting impacts that grow larger with every new generation that comes to Heartwood.

Through its gender equality, men and women do the same tasks, earn the same wages,which helps eliminate sexism. Also, by having a short supply chain short,where the same people buy and roast the beans, keeps it local, and intertwined. This means that the skills will be offered to more people, giving not just jobs, but careers.

Interview

Jim Sanders, Owner