The sustainability landscape in the coffee sector

The Global Coffee Platform’s mission is to promote farmers’ prosperity, improved livelihoods and conservation of nature. GCP believes that sustainability is a shared responsibility. This is why GCP convenes and enables its members – coffee producers and their organisations, exporters, traders, roasters, donors, and NGOs – and partners to align and multiply their efforts and investments, collectively act on local sustainability priorities and critical issues, and scale successful sustainability initiatives across the sector. Through Collective Action Initiatives on pressing issues, GCP is increasing investments, efficiencies and local ownership to address sustainability gaps and inspire progress towards Sustainable Coffee Regions. GCP advances local action for global results in 10 countries representing over 70% of global production.

Donors/Partners:

All GCP members contribute to the activities of the organisation through membership fees. In addition, GCP counts IDH, BMZ & GIZ, Rainforest Alliance and ISEAL Alliance’s Innovation Fund as strategic co-funding partners. The complete list is available here: https://www.globalcoffeeplatform.org/membership/#global-map-of-members

Key activities:

GCP convenes public and private sector stakeholders to create a common understanding on the most critical sustainability challenges at producing country level. GCP enables local action by facilitating public-private collaborations through National Coffee Platforms and National Coffee Sustainability Curricula. National Coffee Platforms bring public and private sectors together to align on priorities, address the biggest local sustainability issues and multiply impact and farmer profitability through an improved enabling environment for sustainable coffee production. The GCP Collective Action Initiatives optimize private and public sustainability investments through local ownership, pooling resources, knowledge, and networks to collectively address sustainability issues in coffee production. GCP facilitates measurement of sustainability progress through common metrics and tools at local and global levels, and encourages its members to increase and report on their sustainable coffee purchases.

Signature projects/tools:

• Improving the Economic Viability of Coffee Farming (https://www.globalcoffeeplatform.org/resources/a-quick-scan-on-improving-the-economic-viability-of-coffee-farming)
• Brazil Platform & Sustainability Curriculum (https://www.globalcoffeeplatform.org/resources/curr%C3%ADculo-de-sustentabilidade-do-caf%C3%A9-csc)
• Kenya Coffee Sustainability Platform (https://www.globalcoffeeplatform.org/latest/2019/kenya-sets-aim-for-improved-farmer-profitability-with-launch-of-kenya-coffee-sustainability-manual#)
• Pre-competitive GCP Collective Action Initiative on Agrochemicals in Brazil, co-funded by major brands and Brazilian coffee organisations (https://www.globalcoffeeplatform.org/latest/2019/empowering-brazilian-farmers-through-gcp-members#newsheader)
• Global Coffee Data Standard (https://www.globalcoffeeplatform.org/latest/2019/a-common-language-for-sustainable-coffee-the-coffee-data-standard#)
• Vietnam Farm Data Pilot for sustainability measurement (https://www.globalcoffeeplatform.org/latest/2019/5-key-learnings-from-the-data-collection-pilot-in-vietnam)

Priority Countries and corresponding areas of activities:

Brazil: Labour conditions – Living Income – Access to inputs – Extension services – Producing country policies

Ethiopia: Gender, youth & indigenous peoples – Climate change – Access to inputs – Extension services – Producing country policies

Honduras: Labour conditions – Access to inputs – Extension services – Producing country policies

Indonesia: Climate change – Conservation – Access to inputs – Access to finance – Extension services – Producing country policies

Kenya: Gender, youth & indigenous peoples – Climate change – Access to inputs – Extension services – Producing country policies

Uganda: Gender, Youth & indigenous peoples – Climate change – Access to inputs – Extension services – Producing country policies

Vietnam: Climate change – Water conservation – Access to inputs – Access to finance – Extension services – Producing country policies

Since 2010, the initiative for coffee&climate (c&c) implements its vision to enable coffee farmers worldwide to adapt to climate change. With current commitments of coffee companies and public partners farming families the initiative directly supports coffee smallholder families and their communities to effectively respond to climate change and improve resilience.

Due to varying weather conditions, the extensive expertise of c&c encourages practical adaptation and further developing sustainable production methods which secure higher yields and return of investment.

Thus, c&c promotes a coordinated effort of dedicated members within the coffee sector. The aim is to enable smallholder coffee farming families to better respond to climate change in the short and long term by increasing their adaptive capacity and resilience.

Donors/Partners:

The initiative for coffee&climate (c&c) was established by a group of dedicated coffee companies in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The initiative has been coordinated and implemented by the Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS) since its inception.

The Funding members are Gustav Paulig Ltd, Joh. Johannson Kaffe AS, Löfbergs Lila AB, Neumann Gruppe GmbH, Tchibo, Fondazione Giuseppe e Pericle Lavazza Onlus. The Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) joined the initiative in 2012, also as member of the Steering Committee. Further partners have joined the initiative: Franck d.d, Tim Hortons (both in 2012), Ecom Coffee (2012-2015), Sustainable Coffee Program (SCP) composed of Nestlé, Mondelez, Olam, Jacobs Douwe Egberts and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) (2013-2016), Starbucks and Conservation International (2015-2019). Delta Cafés and Langen Kaffee have supported the gender component of phase II of the initiative.

Key Activities:

Train coffee producers and their trainers using the c&c methodology, test, consolidate and promote best climate adaptation and mitigation practices through the c&c toolbox https://toolbox.coffeeandclimate.org/, strengthen coffee communities by supporting them to develop and implement their own climate adaptation plans, build alliances of implementing partners to locally raise awareness of climate change.

c&c continues to identify, evaluate, and disseminate new expertise like the reduction of carbon emissions, the increase of the carbon storage potential and the generation of CO2 certificates, innovative technology like digital solutions and a landscape perspective. Generated experiences on gender and safe handling of agrochemicals are incorporated in all priority countries.

Signature Projects/Tools

• Through a ‘Training of Trainers’ format more than 800 local trainers have been qualified to make use of the coffee&climate approach and promote the implementation of coffee&climate practices.
• More than 31 community adaptation plans have been facilitated and implemented including topics such as zero tolerance for wildfire and deforestation, water source protection and natural resource management.
• More than 85,000 smallholder coffee families supported by 2019 to increase their resilience to climate change.

Priority Countries:

• Brazil https://coffeeandclimate.org/brazil/
• Guatemala and Honduras  https://coffeeandclimate.org/trifinio/
• Tanzania https://coffeeandclimate.org/tanzania/

A strong pre-competitive non-profit partnership of eight committed family-owned coffee companies working for a more prosperous future for farming families. The vision of ICP is to improve smallholder coffee farmers’ livelihoods by making them more competitive, based on sustainable practices.

This vision goes beyond implementing individual development projects; ICP’s objective is to contribute to establishing a fair and sustainable coffee sector in all coffee producing regions and countries, as indicated in the Theory of Change of ICP.

ICP works under a strategic partnership with the foundation Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung as the implementer of its projects worldwide and administrator of the organization.

DONORS/PARTNERS:

International Coffee Partners (ICP) was established in 2001 by the companies Lavazza (Italy), Löfbergs (Sweden), Neumann Gruppe (Germany). Paulig (Finland), and Tchibo (Germany), to “improve smallholder coffee farmers’ livelihoods by making them more competitive, based on sustainable practices.” Sharing their core values, these family-owned companies pioneered a highly innovative concept by forming a joint not-for-profit corporate venture. In the years since its founding, three additional family-owned companies joined as shareholders: Joh. Johannson Kaffe (Norway), Franck (Croatia) and Delta Cafés (Portugal).

Other international organizations like ADA (Austrian Development Agency) and SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) are contributing financially to support the long-term sustainability of ICP projects.

KEY ACTIVITIES:

The holistic livelihood approach of ICP encompasses the promotion of inclusive family businesses, strengthening of farmer organizations, rolling out of climate-smart practices based on the experiences gained in the initiative for coffee&climate, encouraging the next farming generation and mainstreaming gender equality in all interventions. In addition to coffee, diversification of production systems is emphasized as a means of stabilizing cash flows, ensuring food security, reducing risks and conserving natural resources.

ICP contributes technical assistance based on its core competencies, including project design, preparation, and implementation as well as monitoring through the implementing partners, Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung.

ICP offers professional coffee know-how and financing of specific components. National and international experts share their experiences according to specific requirements and ICP actively coordinates support from other dedicated partners such as donor organizations, NGOs, and governmental institutions.

SIGNATURE PROJECTS/TOOLS:

Since 2001 ICP has implemented 23 projects in 13 countries. 92,693 Smallholder Families directly benefitted as of December 2019.

• https://www.coffee-partners.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2019-ICP-Annual-Report.pdf

PRIORITY COUNTRIES:

Indonesia: climate change resilience, farms profitability, adoption of Good Agricultural Practices.

Ethiopia: farmer field schools, gender inclusion, youth engagement.

Tanzania: organizational development, empower farmers to strengthen their livelihoods among other important areas covered such as marketing and service linkages, climate-smart agriculture for coffee and food crops, gender equality and youth engagement.

Uganda: farmer organizations, technical extension, bulk marketing, value addition, linkages to buyers and service providers, access to finance (scaling of pilots), gender inclusion and youth engagement.

Brazil: access to markets, climate change adaptation, training activities including governance and leadership.

Trifinio: Improve the economic, environmental and community conditions of the coffee growing regions in the upper catchment area of the Rio Lempa. (International Coffee Partners, the Trifinio Commission and the National Coffee Institutes of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador).

SHIFT Social Impact Solutions aims to amplify connection and impact across the coffee value chain through improved transparency and collaboration in order to see a more equitable coffee industry, where producers are working with partners along the supply chain to create value and share the profits of the work fairly.

To achieve this vision, SHIFT works with forward thinking companies, organisations and institutions to implement programmes that increase profitability while creating more effective and sustainable supply chains, that lead to higher incomes and better livelihoods for producers. Their work includes developing programmes at origin, within the supply chain, and within the broader market that result in greater investment and sourcing communities.

SHIFT contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by working with companies to contribute to sustainable sourcing strategies that deliver targeted social impact for producers, industry and society.

Donors/Partners:

SHIFT implements projects through strong partnerships with local, private sector companies such as Great Lakes Coffee Uganda and Coffeelac DRC. Support for projects has been provided by GIZ, Keurig Dr. Pepper, Farmer Bros., MasterCard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity, Strauss Coffees and ELAN RDC.

Key activities:

SHIFT Social Impact Solutions develops living income benchmarks and productivity tools to gain a deeper understanding on the costs of production and of a decent living in different contexts, to help improve farmers’ livelihoods in an economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable way.

SHIFT works with coffee supply chain stakeholders (e.g. producers, export partners, roasters and financial institutions) to implement traceability solutions. Through the integration of technology and business process design, they focus on traceability and transparency systems that support better business decisions.

SHIFT partners with farmer organizations, exporters, roasters, NGOs and financial institutions to achieve greater impact in coffee growing communities through the design, management and communication of sourcing strategies and development initiatives. They provide support at origin to increase productivity, work to make supply chains more transparent and responsible, and spearhead consumer outreach, industry engagement and advocacy to cultivate ideas and develop partnerships.

Signature projects/tools:

• Sustainable Living Incomes in Uganda (https://www.shiftsocialimpact.com/ugandalivingincomes)
• Kalaamugosi Women’s Empowerment (https://www.shiftsocialimpact.com/kalaamugosi)
• MasterCard Fund for Rural Prosperity (https://www.shiftsocialimpact.com/mastercardfrp)

Priority Countries and corresponding areas of activities:

Brazil: Water conservation – Forest conservation & restoration – Sourcing policies – Technical assistance – Renovation – Access to inputs – Access to finance

Democratic Republic of Congo: Gender, youth & indigenous peoples – Technical assistance – Access to inputs – Access to finance

Mexico: Sourcing policies – Technical assistance

Rwanda: Gender, youth & indigenous peoples – Sourcing policies – Technical assistance – Access to finance

Uganda: Gender, youth & indigenous peoples – Labour Conditions – Water conservation – Forest conservation & restoration – Sourcing policies – Technical assistance – renovation – Access to finance – Standards/certification

Convened & facilitated by Conservation International, the Sustainable Coffee Challenge unites and urges the coffee sector and conservation partners across the industry to spur the actions and investments necessary to make coffee the first sustainable agricultural product in the world. Launched in December 2015, the Challenge focuses on increasing transparency, driving demand for sustainability across the value chain, and unlocking unprecedented action – individual and collective – necessary to address key challenges facing the sector.

Donors/Partners:

The Sustainable Coffee Challenge has over 150 partners from across the coffee sector, including coffee roasters and traders — ranging from mainstream to specialty — as well as NGOs, trade association, governments, donor agencies, certification bodies and others. The complete list is available here: https://sustaincoffee.org/partners/. The Challenge is made possible through financial contributions from key partners and strategic donors, including Starbucks, McDonald’s, S&D Coffee and Tea, SAFE Platform, UCDA, USAID, Walmart Foundation, and others.

Key activities:

A key pillar of the Sustainable Coffee Challenge is to define a common vision and set-out a collective journey towards a fully sustainable coffee sector by 2050. Partners rally around a set of 2050 goals and interim 2025 targets, which are focused and organized around 4 compass points, i.e. improving livelihoods + well-being, building resilient supply, conserving nature and strengthening market demand.  In addition, there is an overarching target related to securing 100 million tonnes of carbon by 2025 and upwards to 1.5GT by 20250.

In addition, the Challenge hosts a ‘Commitments Hub’ where all stakeholders publicly state and report their commitments towards sustainable coffee. This resource fosters greater transparency and allows to better leverage experience of others. The Sustainable Coffee Challenge also aims at showing how different pathways align towards common outcomes through a Sustainability Framework co-developed with the Global Coffee Platform.

Last, to spark more collaborative efforts on key coffee sustainability issues (e.g. labor, renovation & rehabilitation, sustainable sourcing, and forest conversation), the Challenge facilitates Collective Action Network. Through these networks, Challenge partners engage in a dialogue on key issues to share experience and lessons learned, identify knowledge gaps, develop resources and drive progress against collective, global targets.

Signature projects/tools:

• Annual Commitments Hub Report (https://www.sustaincoffee.org/assets/resources/SCC_2019-Commitments-Hub-Report.pdf)
• Sustaining Coffee & Forest in Colombia and Indonesia (https://www.sustaincoffee.org/mapping-and-monitoring-of-coffee-forests-group/)
• Renovation & Rehabilitation Guidebook (https://www.sustaincoffee.org/where-can-i-learn-more or https://www.sustaincoffee.org/farm-renovation-rehabilitation/)
• Sustainability Framework (brochure: https://www.sustaincoffee.org/assets/resources/SCC-SustainabilityFramework_Brochure_FINAL.pdf

For more resources, see: https://www.sustaincoffee.org/resources/ and for more info reach out to scc@conservation.org

Priority Countries and corresponding areas of activities:

The Sustainable Coffee Challenge has not identified priority countries. Current investments through its Collective Action Networks are being developed and/or implemented in respectively: Brazil (Labour conditions & worker rights); Colombia (R&R and mapping + monitoring forest and coffee); Indonesia (mapping + monitoring forest and coffee); and, Peru R&R + innovative finance models).

The Sustainable Commodity Assistance Network (SCAN) was formed to improve collaboration and cooperation among leading organisations and companies providing technical assistance related to sustainable production and trade. The objective is to improve the effectiveness and impact of the technical assistance programmes through needs-based and comprehensive, collaborative approaches. Initial focus was on sustainability standards and certification, but overtime grew beyond just standards to a more comprehensive approach to promote sustainability.

The SCAN identified priority needs areas and supported the establishment of national platforms in Vietnam, Peru, Tanzania, and Guatemala. The national platforms include the international SCAN members active in the country and the key private and public actors for the sector (primarily coffee) in the country.

Donors/Partners:

In its efforts, SCAN has been supported by USAID, HIVOS, SIDA SECO, IDB, IFAD, and McDonald’s USA.

SCAN is part of the suite of programs developed under UNCTAD’s Sustainable Commodity Initiative, which includes the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) and the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) – two programs with which SCAN continues to partner.

SCAN is partnering with CABI, CIRAD, Ecoagriculture Partners, Fairtrade (FLO), FAST, FiBL, Global Coffee Platform, IISD, ISEAL, Rainforest Alliance, SNV, Social Accountability International, Solidaridad, UNCTAD, UNDP, Rainforest Alliance and the World Agroforestry Centre.

Key activities:

The SCAN national platforms have produced comprehensive tool kits to offer trainings to farmers through multi-stakeholder consultation and collective work. These were implemented in pilot projects and made available for public access on ITC’s Sustainability Map (www.sustainabilitymap.org).They have continued to build collaboration among sector stakeholders, share knowledge and jointly provide technical assistance using the toolkits developed.

The SCAN coordination team has facilitated national level consultations with the coffee sector in Rwanda and the tea sector in Kenya, which led to action plans in both countries with an emphasis on collaboration, cooperation and technical assistance.

Signature projects/tools:

SCAN has had project in several countries, including in Peru, Guatemala, Tanzania, Vietnam, Kenya and Rwanda.

Those SCAN projects are now coordinated by the respective national platforms, as one of SCAN’s goals is to create self-sufficient national platforms.

Priority Countries and corresponding areas of activities:

Guatemala: Technical assistance – Standards/certification – Producer country policy – Consumer country policy – Water conservation – Labour conditions

Indonesia: Technical assistance – Standards/certification – Producer country policy – Consumer country policy – Water conservation – Labour conditions

Kenya: Technical assistance – Standards/certification – Producer country policy – Consumer country policy – Water conservation – Labour conditions

Rwanda: Technical assistance – Standards/certification – Producer country policy – Consumer country policy – Water conservation – Labour conditions

Vietnam: Technical assistance – Standards/certification – Producer country policy – Consumer country policy – Water conservation – Labour conditions