BONN, Germany – In the latest move to promote transparency and to drive the purchase of sustainable coffee worldwide, the Global Coffee Platform (GCP) has recognized five sustainability schemes as equivalent to the GCP Coffee Sustainability Reference Code (Coffee SR Code), 2nd party assurance. The recognition of schemes from companies Louis Dreyfus Company, Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, Mercon, and Volcafe, represents critical sector alignment necessary for coffee sustainability.
The Global Coffee Platform recognized five sustainability schemes as equivalent to the GCP Coffee Sustainability Reference Code
Since GCP released the Equivalence Mechanism, 2.0 in November last year – a process which saw the tool being strengthened with stricter sustainability and operational criteria – schemes have been aligning their systems to become equivalent to the Coffee SR Code.
This code is a sector-wide reference on the foundations of sustainability in economic, social and environmental dimensions for green coffee production and primary processing worldwide. GCP’s Equivalence Mechanism also entails assessment against a set of operational criteria that ensures a credible and effective system for implementation and includes governance, standard-setting, assurance, data and claims requirements.
According to Annette Pensel, GCP Executive Director, the global platform “applauds the swift action by these GCP Member companies to step up and align through the Coffee SR Code and GCP Equivalence Mechanism”.
“This commitment to the use of a common language and the increasing openness to transparency is a critical feature to understand, advance and accelerate coffee sustainability.”
As part of the equivalence process, GCP requires that sustainability schemes share publicly not only the scope, objectives and strategies of their schemes, but also their sustainability criteria and a general overview of their assurance structure and activities. While certification schemes have long made this information public, this is a first for private-led schemes.
