In 1994 Dean Cycon had a hypothesis: that a business could be both for-profit and create meaningful change for indigenous communities in Asia, Africa and the Americas. He launched Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee to test his theory, and the resulting business model has won several awards. Cycon sat down with Carrie Saldo to discuss the western Mass business’s fair-trade business model. 

Disclosure statement: Deans’s Beans is a sponsor of WGBY.