Think Coffee Japan – Fund Overview
Think Coffee – loved by New Yorkers for years – is finally coming to Japan. Foremost even amongst NYC’s cafés with regard to comfort and sustainability, Think Coffee takes immense pride in both the quality of its beans and the ethical direct trade that brings them to your table.
We are proud to announce that Think Coffee – foremost amongst New York City’s most beloved coffeehouses – will open its doors in Japan in July 2022. Think Coffee values human rights and transparency within its supply chain above all, and goes beyond even Fair- and Direct Trade initiatives in ensuring the well-being of farm worker communities. This fund is dedicated to supporting the establishment of the first location of Think Coffee Japan.
At Think Coffee, the discerning consumer is be able to enjoy specialty coffee with the knowledge that their money goes as directly as possible to the farm communities that actually produce the beans. It will form the centerpiece of the SDG Connection Project – itself the brainchild of Mr. Kazuo Tase – at the heart of Kanda Nishikicho.
Part of the proceeds from this fund will go toward ensuring increasingly sustainable operations including Day 1 disclosures of all carbon emissions. Those who purchase at least one share will receive an exclusive Member’s Card that entitles the bearer to one year of coffee at half-price.
How this fund contributes the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This fund carries the designation of a “Social Return Indexed Fund”. Funds in this category use a specific set of Key Performance Indicators to quantitatively measure their social impact. Data from these indicators will periodically be reported to those who purchase shares.
Social Return Indices
This fund measures its social returns with indices based on impact on the Environment, Society, and Governance.
Table of Contents
Think Coffee: a New York-based global leader in sustainability
2. Contributing to global sustainability, one exceptional cup at a time
3. Every cup a contribution
4. Bringing HuskeeSwap, a free cup-swapping system based on up-cycled cups, from New York to Tokyo.
Social Impact Sans Frontières
5. SDGs, Collaboration, and the Kanda Project
6. Synergy with co-working and educational spaces
An exceptional cup of coffee in a space as sublime as New York City
Even within the culinary and cultural mecca that is New York City, Think Coffee is beloved as one of the most sublimely comfortable places to enjoy an ethically sourced cup of coffee. The Summer of 2022 will see the expansion of this popular coffeehouse to Tokyo, Japan.
Formerly a lawyer by profession, Mr. Jason Scherr founded Think Coffee in 2006 and has since expanded its reach to 11 locations within New York City. Despite a deluge of offers for franchise branches and mergers, Mr. Scherr has remained committed to steady and sustainable growth to avoid diluting the very essence of what makes Think Coffee so popular.
Think Coffee sources its beans directly from farming communities in Ethiopia, Columbia, Nicaragua, and beyond to provide high-quality single-origin coffee for the discerning consumer.
In addition to exceptional beverages, Think Coffee offers a wide range of light meals ranging from bagels loaded with cream cheese and smoked salmon, to sandwiches and even freshly baked pastries delivered straight from the oven. A carefully curated selection of wines by the glass rounds out the offering, making Think Coffee a favorite of not only students and coffee connoisseurs, but New Yorkers of all walks of life.
The appeal of Think Coffee is not limited to just its wide variety of offerings, however. Each location – meticulously crafted and pored over – exudes an ineffably sublime warmness unmatched anywhere else. While each location maintains its own unique atmosphere and personality, one can be sure when walking into any Think Coffee that they will be greeted with smiles and a comfortable ambiance. A space filled with high-quality furniture offers a variety of places to enjoy the coffee, and robust wifi infrastructure makes Think Coffee perfect for both students and working people alike.
Think Coffee Japan, due to commence operations in July of next year, will occupy the first and second floors of a newly-renovated building in Kanda Nishiki-cho, Chiyoda Ward. The building – having stood for fifty years – will be entirely refurbished to both bring it into compliance with modern regulations and re-create the unique warmness of Think Coffee. An atrium linking the first and second floors will give the location an exceptionally high ceiling uncommon in Japan.
Contributing to global sustainability, one exceptional cup at a time
The “Think” in “Think Coffee” is not derived solely from the crowds of students that gather there to study – rather, it is a natural extension of one of the core tenets of the Think Coffee philosophy. Coffee – sourced almost exclusively from the tropics – entails a great number of issues surrounding social responsibility and sustainability. Think Coffee seeks to remind the conscious consumer of the imperative to Think about how our quotidian consumption patterns can bring positive change to the world.
Whereas it has become increasingly common for coffeehouses and cafes to pursue sustainability and social responsibility, positive social impact is and has always been the central pillar of the Think Coffee philosophy.
Think Coffee has gained a well-deserved reputation for delivering on these goals and providing a space to develop even more ways to bring positive social change.
Foremost amongst the social impact that Think Coffee seeks to impart is that which improves the quality of life for the farming communities providing the beans so crucial to the coffee making process. In this endeavor supply chain transparency is only the first step – Think Coffee ensures that tangible benefits are delivered to those communities.
As shown in the graphic below, not even “Free Trade” or “Direct Trade” labels are sufficient to ensure that much of the proceeds from a cup of coffee are going toward the farmers who actually produce the beans. Think Coffee pursues a model that completely eliminates the middlemen to ensure that you can be confident that your money is going directly to farming communities.
Think Coffee values transparency above all, offering unparalleled information regarding the origins of its beans, the prices at which they were purchased and how those compare to market prices, inventory data, and the flow of money within its supply chain. This is all done in service of a “Farming Communities First” approach to protect those in the weakest position within the global economy – agricultural workers in developing nations. Think Coffee exemplifies the best practices associated with responsible consumption necessary to bring the industry as a whole forward.
Mr. Kazuo Tase – Japan’s leading expert in SDG implementation – will leverage experience from his work in the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the United Nations, and major consulting firms in his capacity as the CEO of Think Coffee Japan. Having advised a multitude of major Japanese firms in the field of sustainability, he states that “[Think Coffee’s] exacting standards of transparency and accountability within the supply chain simply cannot be replicated by other major brands”. Mr. Tase explains that “Think Coffee doesn’t merely focus on growth,” elaborating that “traceability within the entire supply chain is the foremost consideration when opening a new location”.
Despite being inundated with the aforementioned countless offers of mergers and capital injections in New York City’s growth-focused environment, Think Coffee NYC has remained stalwart, having hitherto rejected each offer to maintain propriety of operations over profits. Mr. Tase is committed to adhering to this philosophy, resolving to “eschew unsustainable growth in Japan,” and electing instead to “expand at a reasonable rate of one location per year” for the foreseeable future.
Think Coffee NYC calls single origins “the best way of getting to know a country's regional roots and the people who do the hard work of harvesting its coffee,” providing packages with clear labelling so the discerning consumer can identify exactly whence their beans came. Such is their commitment to traceability.
Every cup a contribution
“I see each cup as an opportunity – not just an opportunity to enjoy the richness and depth of flavor, but to Think about responsible and sustainable development,” says Think Coffee founder Jason Scherr.
In pursuit of a comprehensive understanding of the coffee-making process, some baristas at Think Coffee complete a portion of their training within farm worker communities. This gives them an unparalleled view of the labor that goes into the products that most consumers in developed countries take for granted.
This experience forms the foundation for another unique aspect of Think Coffee – social projects that impart tangible results. A portion of revenues goes toward providing educational opportunities, vital infrastructure, housing reconstruction, and other efforts to directly improve the quality of life in those farming communities.
Each bag of Think Coffee beans are marked with a specific color to indicate the particular social project to which funds are allocated:
Green: Clean water infrastructure to provide access where local governments are unable to do so.
Yellow: Modern housing for farm workers.
Blue: Menstrual activism
Pink: Housing reconstruction for communities affected by natural disasters
The Think Coffee website provides transparency with regard to the specific improvements made in each field.
Bringing HuskeeSwap, a free cup-swapping system based on up-cycled cups, from New York to Tokyo.
High-quality soil begets high-quality beans. This is why Think Coffee has – since the moment of its inception – sought by every means possible to minimize its impact on the environment.
One of the arrows in Think Coffee’s quiver is the Huskee Swap system: a Huskee Cup is a reusable and dishwasher-safe cup made from the husks of the coffee plant which would otherwise be discarded during the coffee-making process.
Once a Huskee Cup is purchased, the conscious consumer can bring it in as many times as they wish – Think Coffee will swap that cup for a freshly washed cup every time. Unlike mugs or portable thermoses, there is no pressure to wash or maintain it: you can bring it in as many times as you wish.
Through the Huskee Swap system, Think Coffee mitigates the environmental impact of the 600 billion single-use coffee cups that go into landfills every single year. The impact is not limited to the developed regions in which the coffee is consumed – Huskee Cups also reduce the amount of waste produced in coffee-producing regions, limiting environment damage across the globe.
Since the introduction of Huskee Cups to New York City’s Think Coffee locations, many other cafes and coffeehouses have followed its lead. Think Coffee Japan seeks to introduce the Huskee Swap system to Japan, thereby reducing the burden of single-use plastics and promoting greater efforts toward recycling within the country.
SDGs, Collaboration, and the Kanda Project
Think Coffee’s unfaltering commitment to social responsibility – particularly toward the farm worker communities so vital to the production of beans – has earned it a loyal following within New York and beyond. Immensely popular amongst both native New Yorkers and Japanese who have spent time in the City, Think Coffee will be opening its first Japanese store in a carefully selected locale: Chiyoda Ward’s Kanda Nishiki-cho.
Think Coffee Japan CEO Kazuo Tase first encountered Think Coffee in 2006 during his time working for the United Nations. While walking around New York University – where he had completed an exchange program in the 1990s – he came across Think Coffee’s Mercer St. location.
Immediately taken by its warm interior and the high-quality of its offerings, Mr. Tase frequented the coffeehouse on a nigh-daily basis. Even upon his return to Japan, he could not forget the experience offered by Think Coffee, and longed for somewhere that could match its appeal in Japan.
Having worked at both the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations, Mr. Tase is acutely aware of and intimately familiar with the problems – ranging from human rights violations to hunger – that fetter developing nations today. Realising that the strength of private enterprise is indispensable in the fight against these scourges, Mr. Tase began work as a Director at a major consulting firm in Japan. After founding the first Sustainability Division in Japan, he gained independence by founding SDG Partners, a consulting firm specializing in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Having aided numerous major global brands in this field, he founded SDG Impacts, a subsidiary of SDG Partners that develops enterprises focused on sustainability.
It was in this capacity that Mr. Tase came across the Kanda Nishiki-cho project. The building, owned by the Yasuda Real Estate Corporation, had stood for 50 years and was no longer in compliance with modern building codes. In light of these conditions Mr. Tase proposed that the entire building be wholly renovated in service of sustainability, and saw a perfect opportunity to bring Think Coffee to Japan. He reached out to Think Coffee NYC Jason Scherr to explain his vision, walking away from the meeting with a resounding YES.
”We are very excited about the opportunity to partner with SDG Impacts to open Think Coffee locations in Japan. We believe that SDG Impacts' strong commitment to sustainability aligns them perfectly with our brand. Together, we look forward to bringing high-quality, responsibly sourced coffee to the Japanese market."
- Jason Scherr, Think Coffee Founder
Mr. Tase is committed to preserving the brand of Think Coffee – which to date only has locations within New York City and Korea – while leveraging the value-added to be gained from the Japanese market for further growth.
Kanda, the planned location of the first Japanese location, is a mecca for coffee. Represented by everything from small passion-driven enterprises to branches of multi-national brands, Kanda attracts coffee connoisseurs and consumers of all kinds.
“We want to use the project to bring further life and activity to the Kanda Nishiki-cho area, leveraging the Think Coffee location as a nexus,” explains Mr. Tase.
Synergy with co-working and educational spaces
Think Coffee will not be the only sustainable aspect of this project – all six floors of the building will be leveraged as the center of the Yasuda Real Estate Co’s efforts to bring additional economic activity to the Kanda Nishiki-cho area.
Dubbed the Kanda SDG Connection by Mr. Tase, it represents the product of years of United Nations and consulting know-how brought to bear. Intended to be for people from all walks of life, it will also be a place where families can bring their children to gain a deeper understanding of the sustainability.
“Whereas it is a triumph that the Sustainable Development Goals have been increasingly integrated into business, it is regrettable that this progress has been incomplete. Some businesses have made great strides in reducing plastic waste while simultaneously eroding labor rights. Others have contributed toward greater diversity in the workplace while at the same time paying minimal wages for labor from developing nations,” says Mr. Tase, “The Kanda Connection Project goes above and beyond, striving for a complete implementation of the SDGs, manifested as a space where sustainability is paramount”.
“The Sustainable Development Goals are predicated on mutual interdependence between the individual goals, and are dependent on international partnership to truly come to fruition. To this end we cannot be satisfied with limited or partial achievement – we choose to strive for total implementation not because it is easy, but because it is hard,” he continues.
“Yasuda Real Estate Co. values history and culture when deciding on how to best bring additional activity to a region or neighborhood – after all, what really gives an area its character is its people. Kanda Nishiki-cho – the area in question – is to the north of the Imperial Palace and represents the birthplace of a number of prestigious universities, which means it has a rich history of hosting intellectuals. Mr. Tase’s initiative to wholly renovate and leverage an older building as a focal point for sustainability is an ingenuous means of putting the area as a whole on the cutting edge of the future. His proposal allows us to tap into the rich heritage of the neighborhood and simultaneously make something totally novel. As such, Mr. Tase has our full support,” say Mr. Sawada, Director of Commercial Leasing, and Mr. Shibata, Head of Urban Planning at Yasuda Real Estate Co.
As of September 2021, the projected tenants for the Kanda SDG Connection building are as follows:
1st and 2nd Floors: Think Coffee Japan No. 1
The atrium connecting the first and second floors will be central to replicating Think Coffee’s sublime ambiance. In addition, the entire building will use 100% renewable energy, something that not even Think Coffee NYC has fully implemented. Operations will be leveraged to defend human rights within the supply chain, reduce environmental impact, and protect biodiversity.
3rd and 4th Floors: Co-working Spaces by Kanga
Kanga – derived from the Japanese word for “Think” – will produce co-working spaces on these floors. Rooms fitted with state-of-the-art soundproofing are perfect for online meetings, while larger rooms are excellent for co-working. Kanga is produced in collaboration with Comany Inc., an Ishikawa-based company on the cutting edge of soundproofing and partitions.
5th and 6th floors: Education and Childcare (Projected)
Currently earmarked for childcare and educational spaces in which the next generation can learn about the importance of sustainability.
The Kanda SDG Connection project will rise to meet the challenge presented by every goal, and serve as a nexus from which to both experience and partake in the impacts offered by the Sustainable Development Goals.
Think Coffee Japan seeks to deliver benefits not just to Tokyo, but to the rest of Japan and across the globe. It seeks what Mr. Tase calls MSEPS (Maximum Sustainability Effort Products and Services), a fully sustainable world.
“I invite one and all to experience quality coffee from sources you can trust in the sublime ambiance just like that offered by Think Coffee NYC, where you can cause social change without even knowing it. We want to serve as the leading edge in ensuring a more sustainable future for all,” says Mr. Tase.
The expansion of Think Coffee to Japan represents a major leap for sustainability. We thank you for your support, and very much look forward to having you join us!
