The San Francisco Airport just opened the fully-remodled Terminal 2, and sustainablity is what this beautiful terminal is all about! Today's guest blog post comes from our partners at Equator Coffees & Teas, whose Fair Trade coffees are featured in their brand new Terminal 2 storefront:

Frequent fliers seeking fairness with their jolt of caffeine no longer have to fire questions about the origin of their brew at bewildered baristas, nor leave their ethics at the security gate.

A state-of-the-art Equator Coffees & Teas coffee bar is the first kiosk travelers will see as they approach Napa Farms Market, an upscale marketplace of artisanal local foods and beverages and a centerpiece of the nation’s greenest airport terminal. All Terminal 2 purveyors were specifically vetted for their sustainability credentials, with quality ingredient sourcing being one of the main considerations.

For more than 16 years Equator Coffees & Teas has been committed to operating a transparent, direct supply chain through both Fair Trade purchases and direct grower relationships. Today 35% of Equator’s coffees are Fair Trade Certified™, including Sumatra, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Brazil, and Nicaragua, which are featured in the blends at Terminal 2.  Equator was one of the first Bay Area Fair Trade licensee roasters, signing up for the Fair Trade model back in 1999.

Prior to opening its full-service retail coffee bar in Terminal 2, Equator was a coffee insider’s best-kept secret, working quietly under the radar to supply excellent coffee to a diverse collection of cafés and restaurants around the Bay Area and beyond. Pascal Rigo’s La Boulange bakeries, Arizmendi worker-owned cooperatives, independent cafés, such as Atlas Café in San Francisco’s Mission District, and some of the country’s finest restaurants including Jardinière, The French Laundry, Per Se, and all of chef Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistros and bakeries are Equator customers. In 2010 Equator was honored by its peers as Roast Magazine’s Roaster of the Year for its blend of sustainability, quality, and innovation.

Equator’s visibility at SFO means that both committed Fair Trade travelers and jetsetters looking for a great cup of coffee will have the opportunity to taste how a commitment to quality, fairness, and excellence translates in the cup. 

Having visited many coffee farms around the world since founding Equator in 1995, Equator co-founders Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell know that coffee farming is hands-on, difficult work and that extreme poverty among coffee farmers is pervasive. When they learned that the farm they had purchased had workers already living on the property, their first task was to ensure the workers had a comfortable, clean, and healthy living environment. They recently completed construction of permanent worker housing that is eco-friendly, spacious, dry, and equipped with clean-burning Onil cookstoves—all with the intent of improving the workers’ quality of life.

“Investing in the people & communities producing the coffee, is an important step for roasters. Great coffee requires careful attention to every detail from seed to cup…by people. Fairly traded coffee is about viability: coffee farmers who struggle with the daily business of living are less able to care for the land properly and nurture the coffee crop.” - Brooke McDonnell, Equator Co-Founder

In the ideal future, good food will always be produced in ways that enhance the environment and positively impact communities. Terminal 2 at SFO is showing a world of travelers the way forward with its mission to promote local, artisanal, responsibly sourced and produced foods. Equator’s history of promoting social responsibility and sustainability in all of its practices makes it the perfect fit for Terminal 2. Next time you’re flying, stop in and sip for yourself.