Meet RENACER Coffee Training School: 2022 Sustainability Award Winner, Project Category

RENACER Coffee Training School by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) 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.

Since 2004, the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) has been proud to recognize outstanding work in the field of sustainability with its annual Sustainability Awards. The awards acknowledge the efforts of extraordinary individuals, businesses and organizations that have created projects or business models that expand and promote sustainability within the coffee world. The Project category award celebrates innovative projects that advance the coffee sector’s pursuit of sustainability.

The 2023 winner of the Sustainability Award in the Project Category is RENACER Coffee Training School by Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

Photo courtesy of RENACER Coffee Training School by Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

SCA Sustainability Director, Andrés Montenegro, asked the RENACER team a series of questions about their achievement, and the future of Sustainability in coffee.

Here is what they said:

What does it mean to you to win this award?

CRS introduced the idea of Blue Harvest at an SCA event ten years ago to promote sustainable practices in coffee farms and mils that protect and restore land and water sources in the coffeelands of Central America. Since then, we have worked with partners across the coffee industry to build innovative and enduring trading partnerships to ensure farmers receive fair prices for their coffee. We launched the Renacer coffee school in El Salvador in early 2019 to train farmers in cost-effective farm renovation, based on Blue Harvest regenerative farming practices.

The SCA Sustainability Award recognizes the impact of Blue Harvest’s approach to regenerative coffee farming to restore land and water resources while improving coffee quality and increasing incomes of farm families in the coffeelands. 

This recognition is motiving for all partners involved in Renacer and Blue Harvest, including the Renacer team, farmers, producer organizations, millers, exporters, importers, roasters, NGO partners, and the donors supporting this work. It is a recognition of the success of partners in producing great coffee, restoring land and water resources, and building transparency in trading partnerships.

For farmers and their communities, this award is an opportunity to highlight to others how applying good farming practices can both improve the environment and increase household incomes. It’s a validation of the results they have seen in their own farms and families. We welcome anyone in the coffee industry to join our movement!

We hope this recognition by SCA motivates many more Salvadoran coffee producers to invest in renovating their farms, based on the principles and practices taught at the Renacer school. 

How is sustainability different in 2022 than it was when RENACER / Blue Harvest was established?

Our understanding of sustainability has evolved and matured through our experience with Blue Harvest and Renacer. When we first started Blue Harvest, our focus was on making a “project” sustainable, working with a limit set of producers and coffee companies. Now, we recognize that sustainability requires (a) Promoting processes that are adaptive, long-term, and scalable; (b) Creating a network, or ecosystem, of diverse partners, where each partner collaborates toward a shared mission; and (c) Transformingsystems, i.e., markets, to ensure that everyone involved in a value chain can sustain their businesses and be profitable. When all these elements come together, we can contribute to a truly sustainable economy, where diverse partners are intentional about creating good jobs and protecting the environment.

From the perspective of CRS, as a development agency, we have a better understanding of our role to support farmers and other supply chain partners. As an NGO, we do best when we act as facilitators of processes, playing the role of a catalyst, building trust amongst diverse partners. When our partners’ businesses thrive (e.g., farms, mills, and roasters), then it’s possible for these businesses to create jobs that pay living wages, while also protecting the environment. 

Photo courtesy of RENACER Coffee Training School by Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

How do you hope to see the coffee industry continue to evolve in pursuit of sustainability #makecoffeebetter for all?

For decades, the coffee industry has been at the forefront of sustainability, through innovative projects and partnerships. In many ways, the coffee industry has set the bar for many other industries. However, we know that sustainability remains at the margin of the overall coffee industry, not the core. Most farmers and farmworkers are poor, and most farms and mills do not apply sustainable practices. A lot more must be done to put sustainability at the core of business models for all coffee businesses – focused especially on two fundamental elements: to generate jobs that pay living wages and protect the environment.

Our local Renacer and Blue Harvest partners hope to see more transparency and collaboration in the coffee industry going forward, where farmers play a role as genuine partners with other supply chain actors, where value is ultimately reflected in the wellbeing of families, social cohesion, and a healthy environment.

We believe strongly that a true transformation of the industry requires fundamental changes to the market, which is why we also support initiatives like the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide. 

Ultimately, our hope is that Blue Harvest and Renacer will both serve as models for the transformation of the coffee industry, in line with SCA’s mission.  

Inspired?

Keep up to date with RENACER, and all the amazing work they do, on their website.

About The Sustainability Awards

The selection process for the 2023 Sustainability Awards was led by a committee of staff and volunteers, including  previous SCA Sustainability Award winners. Learn more about the Sustainability Awards, including this year’s Project Category and Individual Category award winners, as well as previous winners here.

The 2023 Sustainability Awards are generously supported by TricorBraun Flex.