The history of Smart & Green
After an 18-year career in consumer marketing, I felt the need to embark on a whole new adventure. This adventure had to make sense and I really wanted to develop an ecological product.
I realized that many recipes from yesteryear had been forgotten by our society while they worked! I remembered my grandmother throwing coffee grounds into the fire of her wood-burning stove. Indeed, coffee grounds are an easy fuel to light with a high calorific value.
So I decided to develop an ecological product with recycled coffee, and make a circular economy product!
Back in 2011, I had my idea to realise an easy-to-use product. I had to make a compact and solid product, with a long combustion and pretty flames well distributed on the log, which lights easily and does not smoke... It took me 3 years to find the right process.
So I finally registered a patent for the log and the fire-starters in 2014: each product makes it possible to recycle the coffee grounds of around 150 coffees, the average consumption of a French person during about 40 days.
Smart & Green was launched!
We collect the coffee from capsule recycling companies and manufacture in Champagne Ardennes. From the first months we won a gold medal at the Concours LĂ©pine !
In 2018 I had the chance to cross paths with the company Cèdre , leader in Ile de France in the collection and recycling of office waste, including coffee grounds.
Cèdre is also an Adapted Company with more than 55% of its employees being disabled.
By partnering with Cèdre, Smart & Green took on a new momentum that year, perfectly in line with its initial project: the coffee grounds collected by Cèdre could be entirely recycled in the manufacture of products!
Logs and fire-starters are now made by Cèdre 's disabled employees . I have also set up my workshops in their premises and this synergy is very exciting.
I am happy to be able to offer you today my natural and ecological products on this e-commerce site:
👉 the ecological log
👉 the classic ecological fire-starter
👉 the super-powerful ecological fire-starter
I am delighted to be able to write the rest of my story with you!
Valerie Grammont
Founder of Smart & Green