Coffee connects worlds. Every cup begins with farmers and passes through many hands before it reaches ours. At Higher Grounds, we believe every part of that journey should create value— all the way through each link in our supply chain. 

That conviction has guided us since 2002, when I returned from living among the farmers of the Maya Vinic cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico, and sold our first bag of coffee at a Traverse City farmer's market. Twenty-four years later, we still buy from those same farmers. In a moment when the news bends toward conflict, corruption and fraying community, that endurance is our answer. Action is the antidote to despair—and every cup is a chain reaction of intentional action, from the farmer picking the cherries to you brewing a cup and everywhere between.

Roaster-owners of Coop Coffees visiting the Fero cooperative in Sidama, Ethiopia, 2025

Cooperation is our business model

Higher Grounds buys from small-scale farmer cooperatives and is itself a member-owner of Cooperative Coffees, founded in 1999 as the world’s first roaster-owned green-coffee importing cooperative. Most coffee companies purchase through an importer. Higher Grounds co-owns and governs one cooperatively in collaboration with 20+ roasters in North America. It’s the only of its kind in the world and as such has received broad recognition with the Sustainable Business Model of the Year Award from the Specialty Coffee Association in 2020.

That difference is practical, not symbolic. It means shared decision-making with producer partners and pre-harvest financing with open contracts —up to 60 percent of a contract’s value advanced before harvest—so farmers are never forced to sell at the year’s lowest prices. Three cents from every pound we purchase funds farmer-led climate and soil projects through the Carbon, Climate & Coffee Initiative. And we show up: visiting farms, meeting growers face to face, and listening to the priorities they set for their own businesses and communities. When mudslides devastated the communities of our growing partners in eastern Congo, we had financial aid and a team on the ground to identify further needs before international aid organizations showed up. 

The promises come with proof

Every Higher Grounds coffee is certified organic and fairly traded—every lot, every year. In 2016 we became a Certified B Corporation, the first Michigan coffee roaster to do so, making ourselves legally accountable for our impact on workers, communities and the environment alongside financial performance. And as such we’ve been recognized three different years as a global company building community as a B Corp. 

We go further with transparency; publishing the contracts behind our coffee through FairTradeProof.org. Anyone can see what was purchased and what producers were paid. In an industry filled with broad claims about sustainability, we believe trust should be built with information people can verify.

Chris visiting a school constructed with support from OTG in Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia

Value returns to coffee-growing communities

The needs of the communities where our coffee is grown are too great to ignore. That’s why we at Higher Grounds Coffee helped create On the Ground, a nonprofit supporting locally-led work in coffee-growing regions: clean water, education, gender equity, climate resilience and emergency response, with priorities defined by the communities themselves.

Over the past 20 years, that impact has taken shape In Chiapas, with 13 community-built water systems now bringing clean water to more than 5,000 people. In Yrgacheffe, Ethiopia, we built 3 schools and a library that after a decade still operates with 100s of children a year receiving a primary and secondary education as a result. In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, On the Ground works alongside the Muungano cooperative and its 4,355 farming families, sustaining gender-equity programs, education and emergency relief through years of conflict and displacement. These are decades-long relationships that hold when the world gets hard, not flashing campaigns to earn your attention to buy a bag of coffee from us.

This creates a circle we rely on as a core operating approach: farmers grow the coffee; their cooperatives organize and export it; Cooperative Coffees imports it; Higher Grounds roasts it; customers enjoy it; and resources return through locally-directed investment via partners and organizations such as On the Ground which we’ve helped to build, borne out of the need and opportunity to support our partners and the business objective of strengthening a resilient supply chain. Ethics are built into who owns the organizations, how the coffee is purchased and where, why and how value flows.

the grand staircase at Commongrounds, a community gathering place (photo courtesy Cunningham Limp)

Rooted here, connected everywhere

The same cooperative spirit shapes our work in Northern Michigan. Higher Grounds co-founded Commongrounds Cooperative, a community-owned Traverse City development, created around local needs such as childcare, food, wellness, and the arts. At our HG Learning Lab inside the Esperanza Teaching Kitchen at Commongrounds, you can take classes to learn how to brew or identify your favorite coffees. Through our line of seasonal Coffees for Change products and partnerships, our coffee supports organizations doing important work we believe in, putting thousands of dollars annually toward addressing domestic violence, youth development, food access, environmental stewardship and housing.

Our roastery and coffee bar in the Village at Grand Traverse Commons is the convergence of the global and local, where all of us can enjoy an artfully crafted drink in beautiful surroundings For nearly 150 years, the natural environment of the Commons’ campus has been a crucial component of the state hospital’s original mental health strategy of “beauty as health,” a cornerstone of Dr. Munson’s philosophy and a crucial theme in the history of the Village of Grand Traverse Commons. Enjoy a coffee or tea, explore local art, or join a free public roastery tour and follow coffee’s journey back to its source. 

the HG Coffee Bar patio in fall

Your cup completes the circle

We roast coffee to be delicious—carefully sourced, thoughtfully developed, made to bring people together. When you choose Higher Grounds, you join twenty-four years of one mission, in the same communities, alongside an ever-deepening circle of allies: exceptional coffee from a world of good friends, with care built into every step.

We hope you choose Higher Grounds Coffee for your morning movement to fuel your everyday revolution. Help us actively fund enduring farmer relationships, transparent trade, and community-led change with every purchase. Consider a donation directly to OntheGroundGlobal.org and help us combat the largest outbreak of Ebola in history. Right now the need has never been greater in the coffee growing regions of eastern Congo, home to our long-term partners Muungano Coffee Cooperative and the headquarters of On the Ground, Project Congo.

--Chris Treter

Visit Higher Grounds at the Village at Grand Traverse Commons in Traverse City, explore our coffees at highergroundstrading.com, or join us for a free roastery tour and tasting.