Investment Proposal Draft

TO:              Professor Clark Hansen, CEO, AMDP

FROM:        Yakira Matisonn

DATE:         March 1, 2019

SUBJECT: Investment Recommendation Memo

Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee

Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee (LTHC) was founded in 2005 by Jonathan Golden. Their mission statement is “craft beautiful coffee, Create purposeful work, Cultivate flourishing communities.” This Atlanta based coffee shop has locations in Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Massachusettes and prides itself on its handcrafted specialty coffee. With that, their coffee has placed in the top 5% of specialty coffee in the industry. What sets it apart from the rest is that all of their coffee beans are cultivated in Kivu, Rwanda. They took over an old coffee set up which wasn’t paying its employees on time. Now, under the workship of LTHC, these Rwandan employees thrive off of their income from coffee cultivating which provides for their livelihood and important factors such as paying for their children's’ tuition. Their employees receive wages, education, healthcare, and clean water.  

While LTHC does a commendable job by providing sustainable employment for this village in Rwanda, where they cultivate succulent and strong coffee, they also have what they call the Do Good Initiative which is part of their non-profit part of the business. They realized that the village where their beans are grown is very remote with limited access to health care. LTHC now raises money to provide fully staffed clinics in these villages so that the residents don't have to spend days traveling to seek medical attention. In addition, they also have the Nziza Collective which supports 200 of their women who prepared and cultivated some of their best coffee but were victims of abuse.

By investing in LTHC not only would you be dipping your toes into some of the best coffee in the industry, but you’d be supporting hundreds of Rwandan employees and their families, fighting against domestic violence, and providing healthcare to thousands of people in these secluded villages.

Triple Bottom Line:

A Triple Bottom Line (TBL) measures a company’s regard for social and environmental issues while ensuring economic success. The TBL is broken down into the three following categories:

1. People: the way in which the company interacts with its customers, employees, suppliers, and the entire business community.
2. Planet: the commitment of a company to limiting waste and resource expenditures to minimize its environmental footprint.
3. Profit: the effects of businesses showing concern for their environmental and social impact, which results in the willingness of customers to pay a higher price for goods.

In today’s business world, many consumers deeply care for business ethics by which a company will perform their duties. If their personal values align with the company's endeavors, such as having equitable and fair labor agreements and being eco-friendly, they are more inclined to support the company.

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Corporate Social Responsibility:

A company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an approach to business that encourages accountability to the environment, stakeholders, and the rest of society. Having a CSR keeps the company’s mindful of their social, environmental, and economic impact. It prompts them to take actions in their business that incorporate these three categories and benefit or aid them.

Social Enterprise:

A social enterprise is an organization that finds an issue, be it environmental, social, or economic, that it cares about, and building a business model geared toward fixing this issue. Although the goal is not profit, but rather to solve or better the issue, earning a profit is part of the success factor of a social enterprise.

Carbon Footprint:

A carbon footprint is the total emission of greenhouse gases, measured in unit quantities of carbon dioxide, caused by all of the business’ activities. Being aware of one’s carbon footprint and working to reduce it supports a healthier environment and limits effects on the greenhouse effect and global warming.