Responsible Sourcing & Consumption
Coffee is a sought-after commodity, as it is estimated that 500 billion cups of coffee are consumed every year across the globe. Europe accounts for around 30% of global coffee consumption, making it a large and attractive coffee market. Europe has also the highest yearly consumption per capita in the world, even if consumption differs from one country to the other.
As ECF, we advocate for sustainable and resilient food systems that will develop and enhance the lives of coffee growing communities and encourage increasing consumers ethical, economic and environmental aspirations in order to embrace social responsibility and reduce their environmental footprint.
ECF and its members offer all their knowledge and experience from existing private sustainability initiatives in view of contributing to the consolidation of a global level playing field for the coffee sector.
At origin
We support and encourage dialogue and engagement with the international coffee community to ensure that conditions are in place to improve the wellbeing, livelihoods and economic success of coffee farming communities.
The coffee sector is involved in numerous private projects, certification and verification schemes and industry-wide voluntary initiatives. The European Coffee Federation and its members strongly believe that sustainability is a shared responsibility and are therefore active in the sector-wide dialogue launched to build consensus and find actionable solutions to drive long-term sustainability in the coffee sector.
We work together and in partnership with other stakeholders in the coffee chain to ensure that coffee is sourced and products are manufactured in a responsible manner. We act as facilitators between the different sustainability initiatives, fostering mutual learning from our actions and experiences, as well as contributing to Public-Private partnerships that are so valuable to ensure sustainability programmes’ effectiveness and efficiency.
Take a look at the various sustainability initiatives in the coffee sector.
At destination
We encourage continuous improvement of the environmental performance of coffee products, including by promoting the use of more sustainable packaging throughout the product’s life cycle.
Together with our members, we collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders, from those that source the raw materials to those that dispose of post-consumer waste to gather qualitative information to understand the sector’s performance and to minimise its footprint.
We seek new ways of improving resource efficiency and strive to reduce the environmental footprint of our products through research and innovation. We promote waste reduction in the food chain and a circular economy for coffee. We are committed to identifying efficient, responsible and sustainable solutions for the collection and recycling of coffee single serve units extracted by beverage systems.
We maintain regular discussions to ensure an evidence-based dialogue with EU and national decision-makers on policies targeting packaging and related items used to serve food & drink.