Innovation

Buna believes in creating fruitful alliances not only for economic purposes but more important to reach sustainable goals. This is shown trough the alliances they make with indigenous communities where there is no relationship producer-buyer, but rather an equal relationship that seeks a mutual benefit that not only includes the increase in profits but seeks a reduction on the agricultural impact the production of coffee creates on the surroundings. Buna provides the farmers with much needed knowledge in sustainability, soil enrichment and better practices that would in the medium to long term benefit the farmer and reduce the impact they create on their lands, making the farm last longer and not affect the environment surrounding it.

Buna buys coffee from responsible farms but goes beyond and seeks to sell to their product to buyers which share their values and that will respect and appreciate the product. Buna changes the traditional business model in which a company just buys the cheaper product or the one with more quality without investigating the source and instead invests in relationships that will produce economic and environmental benefits for the producers, the company and most important the environment.

Inspiration

The company was born through the inspiration of a group of friends, a group that wanted to create something different, something meaningful that could change the way companies made their businesses. Through the group’s passions, interests and perspectives Buna was born, with a shared interest for coffee and environmental protection. The group decided to start a coffee roaster that would make business different than the competition. They thought that companies, especially coffee companies, weren’t making any meaningful positive impact on the environment or the communities from which they bought their coffee, and strongly believed they could make a business which would operate with higher standards of environmental and social impact, all while being a business which generated a healthy profit. The values and responsible way of thinking of the founders are embedded deeply in the company’s daily operation, from producers to buyers to business partnerships, creating a responsible entity that looks beyond their own benefit.

Overall impact

Buna is making a positive impact in the indigenous communities that produce coffee and in the environment beyond the direct impact by proximity. Since its foundation Buna has grown to be a coffee roaster which producers and buyers want to associate with and create a business partnership that benefits everyone involved.

Buna seeks to be an example for other established companies and startups that they can make a positive impact while maintaining healthy profits. By giving the example, Buna wants to expand its reach so that more and more entrepreneurs start looking for sustainable better practices so that their businesses cause the least impact on the environment and help communities elevate their quality of life.

Business benefit

Through their continuous effort to increase coffee beans quality with the alliance with farmers, sharing their knowledge in sustainability and values, Buna has created a sustainable business model in which they ensure a continuous supply of coffee beans with certain level of quality from their suppliers which not many other coffee roasters are able to do. Buna has a long-term strategy in which they know that what they plant today will bring benefits in the future, in this case a continuous supply of quality coffee beans.

With the values well preserved and the effort made by the company in favor of the environment, they have created business alliances with buyers and coffee machine sellers that share their beliefs, bringing further economic benefit to the company.

Furthermore, from a marketing point of view Buna, due to their responsible business model, has gained recognition as a B-Corp, which differentiates the company from competition, giving them a sales benefit from achieving this goal. This differentiator is translating into increasing sales each year, making Buna’s business model more successful each year.

Social and environmental benefit

Buna's business model and strategy aims to two focal points, environmental and social. By making fair and equal alliances with indigenous communities it allows them to benefit with higher returns from their hard-agricultural work therefore increasing their quality of life. With Buna’s help communities ensure a continuous supply of quality coffee beans which will increase their profits, combining this and the fair deals they make with Buna, both parties benefit. In the environmental strategy the company doesn’t just focus on the immediate logical impact of the agricultural activity, they go beyond and look at all the possible ecological impacts. Buna shares their knowledge in soil nutrition, agriculture and sustainability with the communities to reduce the agricultural impact on the environment and expand the useful life of the land that is currently being used. Buna goes beyond the direct impact of the immediate land and analyses the indirect impact on corals from the agricultural activities, by eliminating the use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Buna is making sure none of those pollutants seep into underground rivers that will later take the chemicals to sea and destroy corals.

Buna being a successful B-Corp and a company committed with doing things different in expanding its reach by being an example and putting pressure on competitors and other industries to make things different, to think outside the box and make a positive change in their industries.

Interview

Fernando Aguilar, Director