Team & workplace
The people who make it
Roasters, baristas, trainers and technicians. Every bag of our coffee is roasted and packed by our own team at the roastery in Fife.
Our impact / 2026
Great coffee.
Better choices.
Coffee connects people, places and livelihoods. Here is what we are doing, what we can show, and where we still have work to do.
A milestone, not a finish line
We're a Certified B Corporation™
We became a Certified B Corporation™ in May 2026. B Lab assesses the whole company: how we're run, and how we treat our team, our community, the environment and our customers. It certifies the business, not individual products.
That means it doesn't make every coffee we sell sustainable, and it isn't permanent. We have to keep meeting the standard and recertify every three years.
- Certified
- May 2026
- B Impact Score
- 88.980 is needed to certify. Shown on our official B Corp profile.
What we're working on
From farm to Fife to you
Climate change is already changing where coffee can grow. That makes every step between the farm and your cup worth looking at: how we buy, how we roast and what we send it out in.
One widely cited study estimates the global area suitable for growing coffee could fall by about half by 2050: Bunn et al. (2015), Climatic Change 129.
Sourcing
You can see where it came from
Our single-origin bags tell you where the coffee came from: the country, the farm or producer, the altitude, the plant variety and how it was processed. We buy speciality-grade green coffee and roast it ourselves.
Next, we want to show more of how we buy: who we buy from, how long we've worked together and how we agree a price.
Roasting & energy
Roasted in Glenrothes
We roast, pack and send out our coffee from our roastery on Cavendish Way in Glenrothes, Fife. Keeping it under one roof means we see every step.
Our roaster runs on gas, and that is where most of the roastery's direct emissions come from. We're gathering the data to measure it properly before we make any claims about reducing it.
Packaging & reuse
The hardest part to get right
Coffee needs packaging that keeps it fresh, which makes the bag one of our hardest problems. We no longer ask customers to post used bags back to us.
Instead, take your empty Modern Standard coffee bags to a soft plastics recycling point.
People & community
The people behind the cup
Our team, the people who grow our coffee and the causes we back all belong in this story. We only list partnerships we can show are current.
Diversity
Female-founded and LGBT+ owned
Modern Standard was founded by Lynsey Harley in 2015, and we're proud to be a female-founded, LGBT+ owned business. We believe diversity makes a team stronger, and that being your true self at work is part of how we do great work.
Each year our Pride coffee raises money for Switchboard, the LGBT+ helpline.
1% for the Planet
1% of our sales, every year
As a whole-company member of 1% for the Planet, we commit 1% of our annual sales to environmental nonprofits. These are the organisations listed on our 1% for the Planet profile:
On our doorstep
Bees, trees and beaches
Behind the roastery we keep five bee hives, home to around 6,000 bees, with a wildflower meadow to feed them. Each hive gives us about 10kg of honey a year. Our team gets out to plant trees with the John Muir Trust and to clean up Elie beach in Fife, and grows vegetables in raised beds at the roastery.
Limited editions
Coffees that raise money
Some of our limited-edition coffees raise money for a cause that fits the moment. Our wholesale customers help by serving them too.
Progress and next steps
Progress should be visible
A short, dated record of what we can show, what we're tracking and what comes next. We only add a number here when we can say where it came from.
What we've done
- May 2026
Certified B Corporation™
First certification, with a B Impact Score of 88.9.
- March 2026
1% for the Planet: certified for 2026
Whole-company member. This year's certification was confirmed on 2 March 2026.
What we're measuring
- From May 2026
Our B Impact baseline
Our first certified assessment scores us across governance, workers, community, environment and customers. We'll report how those scores change when we recertify.
What we're working on
Roastery energy use
Measuring the gas and electricity used at Glenrothes, with a clear scope, before we set a reduction target.
Clear packaging advice
Confirming what our bags are made of and the right way to dispose of them in each part of the UK.
Our lowest-scoring area
Customers scored 2.6 points in our B Impact Assessment. We're looking at what B Lab measures there and what we can improve.
Evidence
Check our working
Great coffee for everyone. That only means something if you can check what sits behind it, so here is where our claims come from.
Choosing coffee for your café, office or hotel? We'll talk you through how we work.
Talk to our wholesale team