Manifesto For The Future Of Coffee

By 2030 every farmer we buy from will have the skills, support, and power to earn more than a living income.

By 2030 every farmer we buy from will have the skills, support, and power to earn more than a living income.

We’ll always pay decent prices for our coffee, listening to our growers rather than the market. We’ll carry on supporting local cooperatives by paying extra money for things like Fairtrade and organic farming. We’ll get relevant local people to help us understand what a living income looks like in each country we buy from. And we’ll make sure that everyone in the supply chain gets the same treatment – including people like hired seasonal workers, who often get missed.

Young people are seeing for themselves that coffee farming is unfair – a lot of effort for very little money. So our growers don’t have anyone stepping up to support and carry on their work. There’s also too many things that stop women earning their own living and having real power and influence in their working lives. So that’s halving the number of possible future farmers. We’ll be proactive in making sure both women and younger people get the education and support they need to be meaningfully involved in the coffee business.

Keeping their farming knowledge up to date and learning new skills often takes time and money our growers don’t have. We’ll make sure they can get the knowledge they need to grow their business, protect their farms against climate change, and make their work sustainable – whether that takes training in micro finance, technology, sustainable agriculture, or new markets. We’ll also keep supporting local cooperatives so there are more opportunities for growers to share their knowledge and experience with each other.

By 2030 we’ll have made enough changes to the way we run our business that we’ll have cut our own carbon footprint in half.

We’ll work to only use renewable energy – in both our offices and our roastery. We’ll make sure as much as possible of the coffee we buy is farmed organically (right now 59% of our coffee is organic and we’re always pushing for more). And we’ll use our partnerships with local cooperatives to give all our suppliers the information and support they need to make and meet their own environmental goals.

It’s almost impossible to never use new materials. But we can make sure that what we do use sticks around as long as possible and is either recycled or returned to the earth when it finally gets to the end of its life. So we’ll be relentlessly inventive in making every part of our supply chain more sustainable – from how our coffee is grown, processed, and moved to how it’s packaged, sold, and drunk. And through our leadership in groups like the British Coffee Association we’ll work to bring our whole industry along with us.

We want the coffee we buy to have been farmed in a way that protects and benefits the environment, as well as making things better and fairer for farmers. But it’s not our job to tell growers how to do theirs. That’s why we haven’t written our own guidelines on sustainable agriculture – we support the Fairtrade Sustainable Agriculture Policy, which has been written with and for local farmers. Our job is to make sure growers have the money, training, and support they need to switch to the sustainable agriculture practices in the policy. And to do that through groups like cooperatives, so other farming communities around them can be supported to do the same.

By 2030 our approach to business will be so successful that instead of just breaking from the coffee pack we’ll be leading it in this new direction.

Talk is cheap. Making this manifesto a reality is what will prove that our approach to business isn’t just the right thing to do – it actually works. Then there’ll be no excuse for other coffee companies not to adopt it. So we’ll be open about what we learn and keep sharing evidence of how the things we’re doing are making a tangible difference for everyone in the coffee game.

The challenges we’re tackling aren’t only faced by farmers. They’re big global problems. So we’ll keep partnering with – and learning from – others working to solve them. Together with voices like the British Coffee Association and the Better Business Act we can make sure more companies see the results of working this way and commit to the same approach.

We’re already a certified B Corp and we’ll do everything it takes to stay that way. We’ll also try to up our score every time we’re assessed. We check over our ethics and environmental policies regularly, so they stay relevant – and we’ll make sure that every part of our supply chain (including our own business) lives up to them. We’ll also be open about how the reality matches up to our targets.

By 2030 the work we do and the ideas we share will have motivated 15 million people to do at least one thing to make their life more sustainable.

We don’t expect everyone to care as much about this manifesto as we do. So we’ll focus on making sure the simple act of drinking coffee has a decent impact on the world. That takes a lot of hard work and smart thinking. So whether it’s how our coffee tastes, how we keep it fresh, or how our customers get rid of the packaging when they’re done, we’ll always be looking for a better way to do things.

We’ll put time, money, and thought into our brand so that people stop and take notice. Once we’ve got their attention we’ll use it to clearly explain the problems the coffee industry is facing, what we’re doing about that, and how they can get on board. That way living and buying sustainably becomes something more people understand and actually want to do. And as well as sharing our ideas in informal, public spaces we’ll get involved with formal education too. We’ll help shape university business programmes so that the next set of people who run and own companies will be more likely to do that in a way that puts people and planet before profit.

Manifestos don’t make change – people do. So we’ll stay focused on giving them practical ways to make a difference. Drinking our coffee will be one of them. But we’ll also point them to other purposeful products they can buy, simple lifestyle choices they can change, and campaigns they can give their voice to. And we’ll work with and shout about other groups trying to help people live more sustainably.