At Watermark, we are committed to running our business in a way that minimises our environmental impact. As a person who has always been deeply interested in the natural world, I feel that our business has an opportunity to do more than just minimise our environmental impact in a way that is meaningful, transparent, and measurable.

Buoyed on by the success and response to our Woodland Coffee initiative, launched in 2020, I felt that I wanted to do a project that involves my love of the sea and marine life. After 3 years, which involved a lot of research, planning, scrapping plans, starting over, more research, negotiating, refinement of ideas, the output of this process is Green Ocean Coffee.

Getting to this stage has not been straightforward. The idea behind Green Ocean Coffee is simple. For each bag of Green Ocean Coffee purchased 1 square metre of seabed will be restored to promote the development of oyster and seagrass reefs in Clew Bay Co Mayo, Ireland.

Apart from amazing coffee, this is a truly wonderful project on so many levels. The oceans play such an important role in regulating the earth’s temperature and in absorbing atmospheric carbon. Seagrass and shellfish play a pivotal role in sequestering carbon at a speed which is unrivalled by the rainforest or anywhere else in the natural world. A heathy coastal habitat is critical in decarbonising food production and provides a focal point for tourism that benefits everyone.

We have had tremendous help from our friends in Ocean Divers, namely Monica Schaefer, Willie Siddel and Brian Murphy, Geoff Robinson in BIM and of course Alex Blackwell and Michael Mulloy of Clew Bay Oyster Co-Op. Their enthusiasm and knowledge have helped make Green Ocean Coffee a reality.

David Lawlor, CEO