Announcing the finalists for the 2023 SCA Sustainability Awards
The Specialty Coffee Association is proud to announce the finalists for the 2023 Sustainability Awards, recognizing excellence in sustainability across the industry.
The 2023 Sustainability Awards consist of three categories: Individual, Business Model, and Project, recognizing outstanding work in the field of sustainability that promotes sustainability within the coffee world while inspiring others to initiate similar endeavors. The projects, business models, and people receiving these awards are not only dedicated to confronting the enormous challenges facing the specialty coffee industry—from climate change to gender inequality—but also collaborating across geographies, cultures, and value chain roles, and sharing the lessons they have learned for the benefit of the entire coffee sector.
A committee comprised of SCA staff has selected the finalists in each award category after receiving 16 Project, 27 Business and 14 individual submissions. Previous SCA Sustainability Award winners will now help select the winner in each category. Winners will be announced in March 2023, and recognized at Re:co Symposium, April 19 - 20, 2023.
The 2023 Sustainability Awards are generously supported by TricorBraun Flex.
2023 Sustainability Award Finalists
BUSINESS MODEL
Primavera Green Coffee
Primavera Green Coffee is a coffee exporter and importer specializing in excellent coffees from Guatemala, along with new coffees from other origins such as Colombia. Founded by a fourth generation coffee grower, the business strives to reward farmers for high quality coffee and to create equitable long-term partnerships with producers. Primavera keeps economic, environmental, and social sustainability at the heart of its operations - from a dry mill powered by solar energy to an innovative profit-sharing program to reward producers for special lots as well as for membership in cooperatives. Their annually published Sustainability Report serves as a model for the industry, sharing transparency information and value chain insights across all aspects of sustainability. Roasters around the world trust Primavera for its commitment to sourcing beautiful coffees from producers who are compensated fairly, with respect for the environment and for the farming communities that rely on coffee production.
Endiro Coffee
Endiro Coffee is a fully integrated tree-to-cup coffee company, with a vision to end child vulnerability globally through coffee. The company was born in Uganda, where they grow and process coffee, operating 16 coffee shops. In 2017, the company expanded operations to the USA where they now have a cafe and a full-scale roastery and coffee import company. In 2022, Endiro Coffee opened its first coffee shop in Kenya. Since its founding, Endiro Coffee has supported a variety of compassion and transformation projects and is committed to continuing this practice.
Black Baza Coffee Co.
Black Baza Coffee Co. was founded by Dr Arshiya Bose, an Indian conservationist and human geographer who completed her PhD on the political ecology of coffee production and certifications from the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK. After over a decade of carrying out academic research and numerous peer-reviewed publications on sustainability and coffee, Arshiya decided to change directions from research to on-ground action. Her inflection point was a conversation with an 80-year-old coffee grower in Kodagu, India. This wise lady asked if anything useful would come out of a PhD and in that moment Arshiya knew that an academic career, however prestigious the institution, would not be sufficient. Arshiya founded Black Baza Coffee Co. with the mission to enable smallholder coffee growers to enjoy secure and stable livelihoods and to empower them to conserve biodiversity and local ecosystems on coffee farms. Black Baza works with 650 smallholder coffee growers across the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India. The organisation invests resources, time, and manpower in grassroots action and participatory research with coffee growers, most of whom are marginalised indigenous communities. The organisation leads research into co-creating bottom-up farming practices for regenerative agriculture that go beyond any conventional certification. The biodiversity-friendly farming practice champions vulnerable smallholder growers and indigenous communities who have been co-existing with wildlife in the forest for millennia and strengthens their farming practices such that they might resist pressures to intensify. The organisation guarantees a buy-back of coffee at much higher than available market prices and uses all sales to reinvest in the community’s capacity building, quality improvement and good governance of producer institutions. Black Baza is also a specialty coffee roastery based out of Bangalore, India.
Steeped Coffee
Steeped Coffee is an environmentally and socially conscious company that is committed to transform the single-serve coffee industry with its patent-pending Steeped Brewing Method. Brewed similarly to tea, the Steeped Method delivers craft specialty coffee in fully sustainable single-serve brew bags – no pods, no plugs, no plastics required. As a B-Corp and Benefit Corporation with carbon neutral certification, Steeped is on a mission to ensure our sacred coffee rituals go unnoticed by future generations. Steeped’s brew bags, with their simple appearance, masks years of environmentally conscious innovation. Made from renewable plant-based materials, both the inner bag and outer pack are certified commercially compostable. The precise-portioned servings ensure consumers only brew what they use, eliminating needless waste. . Through their commitment to learning, innovating, and reducing operations footprint, Steeped has kept over 4,000 lbs of plastic pods out of our oceans and landfills. Steeped has found a way to produce a product that is not only an environmentally friendly single-serve coffee option, but is also a simply delicious cup with a hearty flavor. In order to create long-lasting change within the single-serve coffee industry, Steeped has partnered with over 450 roasters to license their technology so they can reduce their environmental footprints as well. Steeped proprietary brewing method and fully compostable packaging, is furthering a mission towards a more eco-conscious industry one cup at a time.
Bellwether Coffee
Bellwether Coffee is on a mission to empower everyone to sustainably source and roast incredible coffee. Founded in 2013, Bellwether created the world’s first all-electric, zero-emissions coffee roasting system. Its technology allows the best of craft coffee to be recreated by anyone, anywhere in the world, with the touch of a button. Bellwether’s community of roasters and growers works for create a better future for the entire coffee industry–one that is sustainable for the environment, equitable for farmers, and accessible to all communities. Bellwether’s hope is to bring a better future for the coffee industry through its sustainable technology and social impact initiatives. Over the past year, Bellwether has made great strides as a pioneer in the sustainable coffee industry with 3 new innovations and the deployment of a social impact initiative - the Bellwether Series 2, Bellwether Hub & Bellwether On-Demand, and recent partnership with Fairtrade International to further its Living Income Pricing Program.
Dean's Beans Organic Coffee
Dean Cycon spent over a decade as an indigenous rights and environmental lawyer before bringing those skills to the coffee industry by co-founding Coffee Kids with Bill Fishbein in 1988. Yet after designing and managing the development arm of Coffee Kids for 5 years, Dean decided that charity wasn’t enough – until businesses changed their fundamental operating principles there would be no meaningful impact on the lives of the farmers. He founded Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee in 1993 with the mission of using specialty coffee as a vehicle for positive social, economic and ecological change at origin. The company is a for-profit, B Corporation certified social enterprise, pioneering direct trade and community development in the coffeelands since 1993. We purchase 100% Organic and Fair Trade coffee, as well as Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center Bird-friendly® coffee where available. Dean’s Beans maximize the benefits of these tools, what really sets us apart from other roasters is our direct People-Centered Development Program. Their People-Centered Development program (PCD) is an innovative approach to direct trade in the coffee industry. They partner directly with coffee cooperatives to engage in a respectful, facilitated dialogue that identifies the impediments to development in each community. Once development priorities are identified by the farmers, the company works with the entire community to design a project that addresses each roadblock. These programs are designed to be managed by the farmers or coop themselves, which creates a true sense of ownership by the farmers, ensures the long-term viability of the project, and prevents another level of hierarchy on top of the farmers.
PROJECT
Project D.I.R.E.C.T. by Farmer Brothers
Project D.I.R.E.C.T. is a sourcing model based on data and an annual third-party performance monitoring as the foundation to scale up sustainability by having the coffee growers as the core of the model. It is a model that unlocks the true potential of communities by connecting with their emotions and skills. Lecture style trainings and conventional technical assistance where the coffee grower is only seen as a recipient of knowledge has been replaced by a model that prioritizes peer to peer learning and direct involvement. In this way Project D.I.R.E.C.T. has transformed the mindset of coffee producers to believe that productivity is not only measured as the coffee produced by unit of area, but instead as the biomass, products and services that can be produced on the farm. It is a coffee farming model that empowers coffee growers to produce their own food as a mean to be sustainable on the long run while reducing costs of production and respecting the environment where the coffee plants thrive. It is a model to foster vibrant and viable communities that creates a secure and long-term supply of high-quality coffee.
The Cooperation On Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project
The Cooperation On Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project is a four-year initiative (2019-2023) that is working in collaboration with private sector actors and other stakeholders on the development, testing, and refinement of tools and best practices for the proactive prevention of labor issues in the Latin American coffee sector. Through the development and implementation of the tools, online training modules, and pilot projects, the project aims to: Improve the adoption and successful implementation of ethical and sustainable sourcing practices in coffee supply chains; Promote acceptable working conditions in the coffee sector by strengthening the knowledge and capacities of key actors in the supply chain; and Promote the elimination of child labor and forced labor in the coffee sector. With the support, collaboration, and leadership of our partners in the region, the COFFEE Project works as a hub for dialogue, learning, and the development of tools and best practices for the identification, prevention, and remediation of labor risks. The key elements of the project are: The creation of a Socially Sustainable Sourcing Toolkit (S3T), based on USDOL’s Comply Chain model, in order to aid private sector stakeholders in improving labor conditions in the Latin American coffee sector Trainings and guidance on labor issues and the implementation of the S3T in coffee supply chains Pilot projects in Brazil (on ethical recruitment), Colombia (on improving workers' incomes and wellbeing, and Mexico (on capacity building), during which selected tools and innovative practices will be tested and refined
NKG Bloom by Neumann Kaffee Gruppe
NKG Bloom is a permanent initiative of NKG to ensure the long-term viability of green coffee supplies by providing smallholder farmers with the opportunities and resources they need to run their farms at full potential and enter a pathway out of poverty. Participating farmers are smallholders (they farm fewer than 30 hectares of coffee) and farmer organizations largely comprised of producers with fewer than 30 hectares. They commit to work in collaboration with our dedicated NKG Bloom teams to run their farms as businesses and to improve upon prioritized social and environmental practices. Financing is often the core bottleneck faced by farmers. Through a multi-year effort, NKG created a unique, risk-sharing credit solution with four lending organizations, DFC – U.S. International Development Finance Corporation; IDH: The Sustainable Trade Initiative; and European banks BNP Paribas and Rabobank. The resulting $25 million Smallholder Livelihoods Financing Facility makes it possible for farmers to quickly and easily borrow funds as needed and avoid many of entrapments of poverty. NKG Bloom prioritizes the financial sustainability of these smallholder coffee businesses, without which we won’t have the diverse industry we know today. The lack of secure livelihoods is also often the root cause for social and environmental issues we face in coffee value chains. NKG Bloom is implemented through NKG export companies, which employ dedicated teams of agronomists and other experts to work side-by-side with farmers, assessing their needs and providing unique service packages to each participant.
RENACER Coffee Training School by Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
RENACER is a coffee school in western El Salvador that trains farmers and farm managers on cost-effective practices for coffee farm renovation, tree management, and harvesting. RENACER students include small-scale farmers and farm managers from cooperatives as well as larger farms. RENACER also supports farmers to market their coffee through various market channels, including facilitating direct marketing (roasters to farmers) and an innovative export-service-provider model, where RENACER partners help facilitates contracts between farmers, millers/exporters, and importers to ensure farmers receive an equitable share of the value of coffee. RENACER has a coffee cupping lab, where farmers can have their coffees evaluated by certified cuppers and where farmers can learn to understand how to increase the value of their coffee. RENACER started in 2019 as a project and continues to expand as a collaboration between NGOs, private companies, . RENACER has been supported primarily by RAICES program (www.raices.sv) and is now funded through a combination of grants, scholarships (for students), and service contracts from multiple donors. RENACER represents a sustainable impact model that scaled an NGO-supported project into a viable, long-term market-based partnership. Nearly all technical staff (12 staff) employed by RENACER are young people (younger than 25) and increasingly students that attend RENACER include youth and young professionals.
The Technological Park of Innovation in Coffee and Coffee Farming by TECNiCAFÉ
TECNiCAFÉ It is the first open and global (coffee) science and technology park in the world. Since October 2015, TECNiCAFÉ promotes transformative innovation in the world of coffee through networking and strategic alliances. TECNiCAFÉ, through a systemic exercise of technological surveillance, competitive intelligence and sectorial prospective, carries out concrete entrepreneurial actions in the development of products and co-products of the coffee ecosystem, with high differential value in international markets; initiatives that are supported by its partners: the government of Cauca, the National Federation of Coffee Growers, the coffee growing community with a gender focus such as the Association of Women Coffee Growers of Cauca AMUCC and highly recognized national and international companies in the coffee industry and from agri-food sectors such as Supracafe Colombia, Supracafé S.A., Multiscan Technologies and from the coffee educational sector such as the Coffee Quality Institute CQI; energized the quadruple helix of progress, consolidating an inter-institutional coffee innovation nucleus, which manages a cluster of social and productive innovation in High Quality Coffees on the Popayán city plateau; generating an inclusive, equitable and fair model in the global value chain; with which we work jointly to rebuild the social fabric; from communities that have been in the midst of the conflict and under the pressure of illegal economies; This is how peace and reconciliation are definitely built, supported by science, technology and innovation in the territory; for progress, well-being and community prosperity.
Low-Carbon coffee value-chain project in Kenya by Moyee Coffee, Agriterra, Fairchain Foundation, KDCU, KALRO (Consortium)
oyee Coffee, The Fairchain Foundation, Agriterra, Kipkelion District Cooperative Union and Kenya Agriculture Livestock and Research Organization (KALRO) have formed a consortium to develop a low-carbon coffee value-chain in Kericho, Kenya. During coffee production, 40% of the GHC emissions come from the production and use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Another 40% comes from the rotting of the cherry once the coffee bean is removed. The other 20% includes all other production activities, incl. transport to western markets. Therefore, this project aims to develop bio-solutions as an alternative for synthetic inputs. Furthermore, the coffee cherry will be used to develop a high-value compost specifically optimized for coffee trees. This initiative consists of three elements to support 7,200 smallholder farmers to transition from traditional coffee farming model, consisting mainly of mono-culture coffee and the application of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides to a regenerative farm model. The three main pillars are: Developing a bio-solutions production facility at Kimologit FCS, producing bio-compost, bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticides produced from local waste materials, to be sold as an affordable alternative to synthetic fertilizer and pesticides. Implementing a Model Farm and Regenerative Coffee Strategy, developed by Renature. Developing a coffee roasting facility at Origin in Nairobi. This should lead to: Improving farmer income, improved food security and improved resilience against climate-change related shocks for 7,200 smallholder farmers in the Kericho, Kenya.
INDIVIDUAL
Ricardo Oteros Sánchez-Posuelo
General Director of SUPRACAFÉ S.A., President of the CaféMundi Foundation. Member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Madrid Business Confederation (CEIM) and President of the CEIM Sectorial Commission. Speaker and Trainer in the world of coffee in various schools: Basque Culinary Center, "Fuenllana" in Madrid, Courses for Sommeliers and MaestreSala of the "Cámara de Comercio e Industria de Madrid"
He has been a visionary in global coffee production, where he has implemented strategies that allow the achievement of the SDGs, supporting the productive systems of women coffee growers in the department of Cauca, Colombia for more than 20 years, supporting the value aggregation of women's coffee, contributing to the generation of productive, logistical, food security and knowledge transfer capacities.He has been a person who bet on inclusion models in the coffee value chain through innovation and environmental, economic and social sustainability in which women, youth and vulnerable populations have been his target (for) support.
David Griswold
CEO and Founder, Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers
In 2022, Griswold led his company to earn the highest score among all coffee firms for sustainability according to the assessment of B Lab, the certifying agency of the B Corporations program. Sustainable Harvest’s score of 151.4 is among the highest rank among all the B Corps 6,000 certified companies. (Out of a 200-point system, 80 points are the minimum required to be certified, and average businesses score around 50 points.) In 2018, he received the Leadership Medal of Merit Award from Coffee Quality Institute Individual for his decades of investment in training farmers in coffee. In 2017, he co-created the Question Coffee program, a coffee brand managed and owned by women coffee growers which became the leading and award-winning roasted coffee brand from Rwanda. In 2015, he co-developed the Most Valuable Producer (MVP) producer program that has trained hundreds of producers through online and in-person events in all areas of coffee production and market access. In 2013, he partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies to build the largest gender program in the coffee industry, impacting 40,000 women in DRC and Rwanda (2013-2020). In 2012, he received the G20 Summit Inclusive Business Winner in Mexico. In 2010, he was invited to the Clinton Global Initiative to present on the Gombe Goodall Tanzania Coffee Biodiversity and Chimpanzee Conservation project. In 2002, he co-created with Jorge Cuevas the Let’s Talk Coffee global gathering of all the supply chain stakeholders, which has lasted for 20 years (2003-2023). In 1997, he developed the transparent multi-stakeholder Relationship Coffee Model, later featured by Stanford University and Cornell University as an alternative sustainable business model for coffee.
Jose Rivera
Origin Coffee Lab
José Rivera is the founder and Commercial CEO of Origin Coffee Lab (OCL), an exporter in Cajamarca, northern Perú. His goal was clear from the start: not only to raise the reputation of Peruvian coffee in the world market but also to improve farmers' living conditions through sustainable practices. José was born and raised in the same area OCL is based in. His grandparents started growing coffee trees in San Ignacio, and his father also ran a coffee cooperative in the area. He has quite literally gone through every step of the coffee market chain. From picking coffee cherries on his parent's farm while learning the inner workings of coffee cooperatives, to working as a roaster and cupper both in Lima (Perú) and in the US, to now, managing his own export company. José received coffee training at Intelligentsia in the US and then landed a position at Metric Coffee in Chicago, where he was in charge of buying green coffee and roasting the beans for 5 years. It was there that he realized the extremely low reputation Peruvian coffee had among buyers. However, he was confident of its potential and decided to step up to the challenge. He started by submitting a Peruvian coffee to Good Food Awards and made it to second place. That sparked the conversation of what would become the renaissance of Peruvian coffee in the world. His colleagues started appreciating and buying coffee from Peru. But he knew he needed to further empower coffee producers back home so José and his wife (and work partner) Mariagracia, left their life in the US and moved back to Cajamarca. Origin Coffee Lab was established in 2017 with a direct-trade approach. What started with 4 people, now has become a full-fledged coffee company with 23 employees, working with over 360 partner producers. His biggest role is to teach the value of coffee to farmers who do not know the value of the coffee they grow and to encourage them to produce better coffee with long-term sustainable benefits. Through a focus on increasing producers’ profit margins and comprehensive farmer training (both in sustainable process techniques and business models), José is able to help the coffee communities he grew up in and make truly lasting changes.
Grayson Caldwell
Head of Sustainability & Impact at Bellwether Coffee
Grayson Caldwell is the Head of Sustainability & Impact at Bellwether Coffee. With over 10 years of experience working in sustainable development and a Masters in Public Administration in Development Practice from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, Caldwell has dedicated her career to improving livelihoods. At Bellwether, Grayson spearheaded the development of an industry-first pricing model to pay coffee producers prices based on living incomes. She has developed partnerships across the industry, including Sustainable Harvest and Fairtrade International, to move the needle on farmer outcomes. Grayson has quickly become a thought leader in the coffee industry on equitable pricing, being featured across industry publications, presenting at Re:co, and sitting on panels. In addition to her role at Bellwether, Caldwell is the Environmental Sustainability Coordinator for the SCA. Prior to joining Bellwether, Caldwell worked with Hunter College NYC's Food Policy Center, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, the Peace Corps, and nonprofits TechnoServe, Hot Bread Kitchen, and Ashoka.
Mahdi Usati
Owner and head of coffee processing at Mahdi Coffee House & Chairman of the Gayo Cuppers Team
Mahdi is uniquely committed to the equitable development of the Sumatran coffee industry. He has led the development of the Gayo Cuppers Team to become a premier educator of coffee professionals in Indonesia, providing training for tasks along the supply stream from quality assessment to barista skills and services to producers that help to verify their coffee quality. As a coffee processor, he has demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to quality and level of investment in his processing partners. In a market where links between farmers and processors are weak, with very little vertical coordination because downstream actors don’t trust their suppliers to maintain their relationships, Mahdi has chosen to develop strong relationships with farmer groups and village-level collectors to ensure that they produce coffee to his specifications to ensure his ability to produce high-quality coffee using traditional processing methods. His relationships are so strong that some of the collectors in his network continue to supply coffee to him even when better-financed exporters connected to the big international coffee traders swoop in and temporarily inflate the market. The Gayo Cuppers Team is an independent organization that provides training on coffee sensory, roasting, and brewing. Certified members of the cuppers teams are also coffee Quality Control experts who provide cupping results and feedback to farmers and processors for an affordable price. Having this resource led by local people and available to anyone is a huge shift from the usual model of coffee knowledge and education being concentrated in urban areas and with price thresholds that would not be accessible to most people involved in coffee farming. Madhi has grown this organization and cultivated an environment of professionalism as well as excitement around coffee that invigorates young people and is helping to ensure that coffee provides prosperous livelihoods in Gayo. He is also a generous teacher and is often invited all over Indonesia and neighboring countries to teach about coffee processing, quality, tasting, and roasting. His classes are primarily in Bahasa Indonesia which ensures that more Indonesians (especially in rural areas where Bahasa Indonesia is a second language) have access to training and information about their coffee.
Andre Hamboer
Owner/operator of Tuang Coffee
Andre is a visionary in taking a practical, hands-on approach to ensuring value goes back to farmers in Flores, one of the most remote coffee growing regions in Indonesia, and is a model for making small, thoughtful changes to the current system to ensure that farmers have a decent standard of living, that coffee is affordable but also valued, and innovating (often on his own dime!) to find creative ways to add value and ensure good returns for farmers. Andre has demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to making the Indonesian coffee sector stronger through quality improvement and meaningful farmer engagement. Andre started his company, Tuang Coffee, after a career in law, seeing that Flores’s unique geography and coffee history should make it more, not less, valuable than Sumatran coffee. He realised that to do this, he would need to sell the coffee for more than the current market would bear, so he simultaneously launched his business as both a cafe/roastery, to sell coffee to retail consumers in Jakarta, and as a processor, to pay more for coffee cherry and to create better quality products from coffee grown in his home village. Andre’s coffee has been on the world stage, in Mikael Jasin’s 2019 and 2022 World Barista Championship routines that placed 7th in the world. But it’s not this super high quality coffee that makes his approach and operations a model for sustainability. During the early stages of the pandemic when coffee prices were crashing, Andre continued buying from the villages he had built supply relationships with, including the lower-quality cherry they separated out at the end of each picking. He carefully processed and dried that coffee as well, and roasted it and ground it into powder and packaged it for local markets and grocery stores, the “tubruk” style that has been the Indonesian version of “instant” coffee (with the super fine grounds settling to the bottom) that has helped keep revenues steady and his staff employed.
