CANTON, Mass., USA – Dunkin’is launching a new program called the Dunkin’ Drive-To Sustainability Program, committing to 100% responsibly sourced coffee by 2025. “To fuel our sustainability goals, we’ve partnered with like-minded organizations” says the company on its site. “Together we’re working to support the regions where our coffee grows, and make a difference in the lives and livelihoods of coffee farmers and producers.”
The Dunkin’ Drive-To Sustainability Program is comprised of three pillars: Verification, Partnerships, and Improvement. As part of the first pillar, the company is partnering with Enveritas, a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded to overcome systemic barriers that prevent the application of proven solutions for ending poverty among smallholder coffee growers.
By leveraging their Coffee Policy and third-party verification with Enveritas, they aim to improve standards with U.S. roasters and international licensees, audit their U.S. coffee supply chain to ensure policy compliance, and track key performance indicators toward continuous improvement efforts.
Here’s just a sample of what Dunkin’ is doing under their pillars of Partnerships and Improvement:
- Supported the planting of 450,000 trees in coffee growing regions of Honduras and Guatemala in 2021 with a donation to One Tree Planted, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to helping the environment by planting trees in countries around the world.
- Trained farmers and farmworkers in Honduras through the Farmworker Training Project alongside the Louis Dreyfus Company. This project enhanced our suppliers’ abilities to make improvements on sustainability issues.
- Boosting coffee sustainability through agricultural science as a leading sponsor of the nonprofit World Coffee Research (WCR). A percentage of sales from every pound of Original Blend coffee beans sold to Dunkin’ franchisees for use in Dunkin’ restaurants go to WCR.
- Since 2018, they ’ve been a part of The Sustainable Coffee Challenge, a collaborative effort led by Conservation International to make coffee the world’s first sustainable agricultural product.
- To empower women in coffee, they’ve supported providing coffee suppliers in Guatemala and Colombia with access to Equal Origins’ Virtual Learning Journey.
- Over the next three years, alongside global agri-business company Olam Food Ingredients (OFI), they’ll help 350 coffee farming families in Santa Barbara and Comayagua, Honduras become more economically sustainable and better environmental stewards through trainings and improved crop yields.
