On international coffee day – 29 September – the Business Environment Network looks at 2 new initiatives aimed at improving sustainability in the coffee sector.
Firstly, Nestle Nespresso has launched an ambitious $600 million program aimed at sustainable sourcing, aluminium recycling and reducing its carbon footprint.
Through The Positive Cup initiative, the company hopes to source 100% of the permanent range of Grand Cru coffees through the Nespresso AAA Sustainable Quality Program. Farmers will be given assistance to achieve certification standards through a new Sustainable Development Fund and long-term partners Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade.
In its goal of becoming a 100 per cent carbon neutral company, Nespresso is undertaking what it calls ‘carbon insetting’. Essentially this involves the company rolling out an extensive agroforestry program within its own supply chain.
Partnering with the Pur Project and Rainforest Alliance, Nespresso will offer farmers technical assistance to implement agroforestry practices, free locally-produced seedlings and a cash incentive per tree planted. The agroforestry program will help coffee farmers reduce their climate impacts through improved agroforestry practices that ‘inset’ the company’s operational carbon footprint and increase farm climate resilience.
Nespresso says this concept “integrates socio-environmental commitments at the heart of a company’s business activities and networks”. It has already undertaken a pilot in the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala with 50,000 timber and fruit trees planted. The goal is to have 10 million trees planted in the AAA value chain by 2020
The second initiative is the launch of the first range of Fairtrade biodegradable coffee capsules by Oxfam. The capsules are not only Fairtrade certified and organic, but also reduce the environmental and waste impacts often associated with capsules.
Instead of being made from aluminum, like most coffee capsules, the new Oxfam range is made using biodegradable plastic, meaning that even if the capsules are not recycled they will naturally break down in landfill.
Read the full story: Two key initiatives for International Coffee Day
See also: Nespresso's 2020 goals aim at coffee-led sustainability evolution
