Innovation

HEY Coffee Co.’s mission statement makes it clear that they are committed to sustainability. According to their mission statement, HEY Coffee Co. aims to: “Present the utmost in community, hospitality, and quality while advocating for equity and environmental justice at all levels of the coffee industry through radical conservation and supporting sustainable, traceable and ethical farming practices”

This commitment to sustainability is apparent in a variety of ways, both big and small. When it comes to how they source their coffee, they support farms that have sustainable practices of giving back to their community. HEY Coffee Co. does not stop here though. Even the way they handle their trash is consistent with their mission. They do this by removing trash cans in their business and ramping up on composting and recycling and also removing their garbage contract. They also allow their neighbors to find uses for their burlap sacks and pallets. One instance in which Hey Coffee Co had reduced garbage is how customers don’t get throw-away plastic to stir creamer into their coffee; they get a pasta noodle which can be eaten after it is used.

The Innovation emerged by their neighborhood on Magazine Street, where they pushed to reduce landfill dependency. They focus on recycling and composting with their partner Schmelly’s Dirt Farms. This partnership has since helped them turn into one of the fastest-growing small businesses in the community.

Tommy Leblanc, the founder of HEY Coffee Co. was responsible for creating the innovation. They thought about all of this when he was fresh out of college and the owner of HEY! Café & Coffee Roastery became ill and the opportunity to take over presented itself and he took initiative to keep the café open for his neighborhood family.

Inspiration

Tommy was able to take over Hey! Café; which is a café that is located in the same area that HEY Coffee Co. Hey! Café is already an established business in their area; even being referred to as a cornerstone in the neighborhood. From there, Tommy and his partner wanted to expand, while also making a difference. HEY Coffee Co. was founded in 2009.

With the support of their neighborhood and already invested customers, he was able to open HEY Coffee Co. and start working towards their goals of different innovations and sustainable business practices. Tommy’s business decisions and urge to make the positive environmental impacts that they have made were based on an already in process attempt of the neighborhood to go green. Quoted from the interview, Tommy said, “I think that a mistake that some businesses make is they come in with this very rigid vision of what they want the place to do, but sometimes you have to submit that a neighborhood or a building or a place that's been there longer than you is larger than you.” The focus on a green initiative and sustainability in their neighborhood, helped them find the resources they needed and to continue to pave the way in the efforts already established.

Taking the above into consideration, HEY Coffee Co. began working to and eventually accomplishing, reducing their waste and consumption, sourcing their coffee from farms that implemented sustainable business practices, making a positive impact in their business practices, and urging others to do so. They can, so far, hang their hats on three recognized accomplishments. The first accomplishment is removing trash cans from their business and only wasting 1-3 pounds a day. The second accomplishment is growing on and successfully encouraging others to compost. The third accomplishment is switching to pasta straws and encouraging a neighborhood business to do the same.

Overall impact

Innovation of a local coffee shop creating big changes in the community through small innovative opportunities, while enhancing the neighborhood atmosphere. HEY Coffee Co. focuses on waste reduction, traceable farming practices, and reduction on manufacturers and disposal. Allowing innovation to flourish in society and environmental aspects of the company and community.

Creating an open space for customers to see environmental impact changes in a community space, allowed for inspiration within locals to make changes within their own homes and businesses. The main goal during the transition into what Hey Coffee Co is today “was not to assert visions or force our ideas on the place. Whereas we kept in tune with our neighborhood family and made improvements along the way, Tommy.” The change in 2016 that plunged the company into a large environmental impact transition was to cancel the garbage contract permanently, which allowed the expansion of composting and recycling. Partnering with Schmelly’s Dirt Farms for waste reduction and composting and even reaching out to the community to utilize possibly wasted products like burlap and pallets. Tommy stated that “we’ve seen them [be] very creatively used in gardens, decorations, and even Mardi Gras costumes!”

Even with the short-term changes of removing the trash contract, starting a composting goal, and allowing food to make a positive environmental impact in a non-traditional way. HEY Coffee CO utilizes bucatini noodles for straws, allowing every small change to create a large impact on the world and community; partnering with a restaurant next door helps to make them cost-effective for both businesses. The long-term changes are shown directly through the community and how many individuals are inspired to bring change to their homes.

“We obviously aren’t perfect but we are working hard to be a part of the solution toward a more sustainable future, Tommy.”

Business benefit

Utilizing the support they get from the locals has really been key for HEY Coffee Co. Without having the constant support from their community, they would have never successfully opened a business in a post-Hurricane Katrina economy. They are also thriving in our current normal, the COVID pandemic. They have a bulletin board for the community where they only post things about others outside of their business. They use it to highlight and make a big deal out of the artists and businesses in their neighborhood. HEY Coffee Co. advocating for other businesses to share the same efforts has helped make HEY Coffee Co. a valued resource for people to use.

As Tommy explained to us during our interview, they reduced down to two people in the building at all times. They’ve added other sources of revenue and ways for their employees to work since they had to restrict the number of employees in their store. They expanded their online offerings and they transitioned to same-day local deliveries for a while early on. The way they adjusted due to the pandemic and not shut down, prove their love of what they do, their employees, the community, and the environment. They found that more and more people still valued their coffee and what they stood for. They managed to ship coffee domestically for their online store experience and they saw a growth in this category, where when wholesale and over-the-counter sales dropped.

Social and environmental benefit

Digging in a little deeper into the company of Hey! Coffee, we discovered that the business's innovation was to lead a culture that allowed for clean business practices. They have been doing that since the beginning, in 2010, when they were one of the first businesses in New Orleans to start composting. In 2016 Hey! Coffee Co decided to partner up with their now composting partner, Schmelly’s Dirt Farms. Schmelly’s Dirt Farm is a business that has compost farms that uses compost in its plants and sells to the local shops. Hey! Coffee Co is one of them. The impact Hey! Coffee Co brings to their community is outstanding, for years the customers had no clue what composting was and now the company sees their customers start composting and it brings them joy. They have also been successful in their efforts with pasta straws that reduce their plastic waste and consumption.

The company’s creative culture pushed for an atmosphere that uplifts the community and promotes artists and expression. Due to their atmosphere, one of their two locations is currently thriving in Tipitina’s in New Orleans. Tipinia’s is one of the premier music venues in New Orleans. After having an interview with Hey! Coffee Co, a quote that stands out is “so in becoming a resource for everything else that was going on, of course, as a coffee shop or as a place that serves people every day, we became a, uh, you know, a resource for people, which was a good reason to have people keep coming back and to grow.”

Interview

Tommy LeBlanc, Founder