MILAN – The Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) presents the 2022 Sustainability Award Winners, recognizing excellence in sustainability across the industry. The 2022 Sustainability Awards consist of three categories: Individual, Business Model, and Project, recognizing outstanding work in the field of sustainability and promoting sustainability within the coffee world while inspiring others to initiate similar endeavors.
A committee comprised of SCA staff and previous SCA Sustainability Award winners have reviewed the finalists in each category announced in January, and selected the winners.
Winners will be formally recognized for their achievement at Re:co Symposium, April 6-7, 2022 in Boston, MA.
The 2022 Sustainability Award winners are:
- Business Model: Caravela Coffee
- Project: Coffee Circle – Jimma Agro-Biodiversity Project, Ethiopia
- Individual: David Browning, Chief Executive Officer, Enveritas
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.
SCA Chief Sustainability and Knowledge Development Officer Kim Elena Ionescu states, “In addition to celebrating this year’s winners for the work they have done in the name of coffee industry sustainability, we also recognize the resilience of the business models and partnerships that underpin their work. Many sustainability commitments – both corporate and personal – have been challenged over the past two years, but these winners have found ways to adapt and remain true to what’s most important to them.”
Project winner: Jimma Agro-Biodiversity Project, a project by Coffee Circle
Since 2010 Coffee Circle has been working closely with independent farmers and cooperatives in the Jimma zone in Western Ethiopia to help preserve the local agro biodiversity and improve living conditions by, among other things, providing access to clean drinking water.
These are essential to the local livelihood and to secure the future of Specialty Coffee. Website: www.coffeecircle.com
Business Model winner: Caravela Coffee
Caravela is a diverse company by nature. They have a presence in 11 countries around the world with export and import operations, and more than 200 people making up their team. They are made up of individuals from 14 different nationalities; they have many different mother tongues, cultures, races, accents, backgrounds, and educational experiences, and because of these they hold different opinions, points of view, and perspectives that propel them and the industry toward a more inclusive and sustainable future. Website: www.caravela.coffee
Individual winner: David Browning, Chief Executive Officer, Enveritas
David has worked to support smallholder farmers and their families in the developing world for the past 19 years. His efforts have helped over a million people enjoy the benefits of higher incomes, greater education, improved access to healthcare or cleaner water.
His teams’ work has been recognized by global leaders including multinational CEOs, philanthropists, Silicon Valley investors, the media, the White House, and renowned academics. The innovations his teams have created and/or scaled have included international development practices, environmental processing, waste-water management, public-private financing innovations, and most recently the use of artificial intelligence to reengineer sustainability verification and global deforestation detection.
The impact of David’s work can be traced to taking a strong analytical rather than ideological lens to problems, letting facts and hypotheses drive towards solutions, and creating an environment where teams across many disciplines can innovate and achieve what was not previously possible.
About the Sustainability Awards
The Sustainability Awards recognize individuals, businesses, and organizations that have created innovative projects or business models shown to expand and promote sustainability within the coffee world while inspiring others to initiate similar endeavors. Learn more at sca.coffee/sustainabilityawards.
