Sustainability Isn’t Just A Buzzword

Ratio coffee makers. Beautiful, yes. Technical, yes. Sustainable? Also yes!

When we were designing our flagship machine, the Ratio Eight, we pushed ourselves to see what kind of true creativity was possible. Producing a coffee maker whose technical design could outpace any other brewer on the market in making a consistently stellar cup of coffee was a challenge in its own right. Making that brewer elegant and beautiful–an object you’d want to display on your countertop, rather than hide away–was also a challenge.

But functionality and design weren’t our only objectives. We wanted to build something of quality, something lasting, not landfillable. To capture it in a buzzword, we were after sustainability. 

For the Ratio Eight this meant foregoing cheap plastics, and instead using materials like borosilicate glass, precision metal parts, and hand-finished hardwoods. We followed suit with the Six, which also uses glass supply lines and has precision cast stainless steel parts. In both models, the electronics are designed to pull electricity only when the machine is actually brewing, cutting down on energy use. 

All aspects of the Eight and the Six were designed with intention and sustainability in mind. Where other manufacturers choose fasteners or clips to reduce cost, we chose hardware (like screws) that can be reused over and over again, so our machines can be disassembled (by our trained technicians) for servicing, even long after our 5-year warranty has passed. Anything that can’t be refurbished is recycled whenever possible.

Rather than go the plastic pod route, we chose to make our filters compostable–or, even better, reusable. When we added pre-ground, dosed coffee to our menu, we made sure that that packaging was also compostable, even the one-way valve added for freshness. We’re big fans of traditional filter coffee and the community that coffee can create. It turns out, packaging waste is minimized when you make a full carafe for 2-4 people instead of going for the single-cup pod option.

In 2023, we’re working on plans so that all of our outbound shipping is carbon neutral. 

Why are we doing all of this? Well, it’s really quite simple: the world is a beautiful place, and we’re committed to doing whatever we can to make the world–and all our moments in it–just a bit more beautiful.