About
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July 2018: Luke, Isaac and Brody celebrate the start of a new partnership after Kua purchases one tonne of coffee.
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January 2019: 6 friends move into a sharehouse to start Kua together. This is the original storage and operations shed.
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March 2019: A fortnightly meeting in the front garden.
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July 2019: Dinnertime strategy session. There was a rule of "no coffee talk" after 8pm, but the line between work and home became very blurry.
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August 2019: A late night discussion ends in tears. From this moment forwards, Kua has maintained a strong emphasis on team wellbeing.
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September 2019: Global Climate Strike. One of Kua's four values is 'Act on Purpose'. It reflects moments like this.
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December 2019: Our third visit to Uganda. Mon, Hamish and Darcy debate new sourcing partnerships while travelling between coffee farms.
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December 2020: As part of a partnership with UNSW, we borrowed a 360 Virtual Reality Camera to document Kua's supply chain. Not an inconspicuous object.
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December 2019: The phrase WFW (working from waterfall) is coined.
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December 2019: Hamish sampling the quality of various raw green beans.
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January 2020: The founding team celebrates at The Commons, Sydney.
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May 2020: Nearly six months after Kua's trip to Uganda, the coffee lands in Sydney.
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July 2020: Mars Dimackie, specialty coffee roaster, Kua friend and Kua mentor working with Hamish.
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September 2020: Since launching, the Kua team have been signing emails with 'Happy Days'.
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October 2020: Kua's quarterly 'Strategy Day'.
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October 2020: Darcy and Bri set their pay, live on the Kua Podcast.
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November 2020: Digby (Brand and Design) in the Kua shed.
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December 2020: Lachie, one-half of the 'Carbon Crusaders' team, pours over finacial data to measure and report on Kua's carbon footprint.
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February 2021: The Randwick Sustainability Hub. A Re-Use parter who have been transforming used Kua coffee grounds into rich compost for two years.
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Pre-COVID: Workplace workshop, an important part of the Kua service. We pose two questions to Kua coffee drinkers: 'where does it come from? / where does it end up?'
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Pre-COVID: The effort of lugging a Virtual Reality camera to Uganda pays off.
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April 2021: Mid pandemic. Visiting coffee farms in Uganda is out of the question, so we run the CameraSwap project. Here, we shoot the explainer video.
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March 2022: Bri presents Kua as a case study at the World Policy Forum (and wins second place).
Impact
← Bukhanakwa, 2100 MASL
Sourcing for Impact
Kua advocates for purchasing coffee in a way that addresses the complex and varied challenges faced by the industry, with a strong focus on climate change and farmer livelihoods. Using our Ethical Sourcing Framework, Kua selects partners based on seven key criteria: price, transparency, sustainability, gender, smallholder status, climate change and footprint.SDG10
Minimum Waste
The coffee industry’s wrap-in-plastic then send-to-landfill model is clearly not sustainable. Low impact or circular alternatives are needed to reduce waste and connect consumers with coffee’s true environmental impact. All Kua packaging is either reusable or home compostable. For large business customers we partner with local organisations to recycle used coffee grounds.SDG12
← Tree planting on Mt Elgon
Carbon Negative
All businesses must take responsibility for their carbon emissions. Kua has been carbon negative since 2019 and is committed to measuring, reducing and communicating its business and product footprint each year. Learn more about our 200% offset program and measurement here. SDG13
The Team
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Tahlia
Head of Partnerships
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Steph
Partnerships Manager
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Corben
Partnerships Manager
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Sam
Managing Director
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Darcy
Co-founder
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Bri
Co-founder
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Hamish
Co-founder
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Digby
Co-founder
