There are empires that have been built around coffee. It’s one of the most popular beverages in the world, however the coffee market presents a huge amount of inefficiencies on a social, economical and environmental level.

As many coffee producing countries are facing high levels of poverty, coffee farmers are considered amongst the most vulnerable social groups.

Lack of resources in tools and transportation: isolation of many coffee farmers isn’t allowing them to have easy access to the necessary tools or even the possibility to transport a harvest.

Gender inequality: Female coffee farmers don’t have the same level of access to tools compared to male farmers.

Child labour: children are usually being used as cherry pickers on plantations.

Besides the social aspect, coffee production is one of the industries with the highest environmental footprint.

• Agriculture drives 80% of tropical deforestation and coffee farming requires huge amounts of resources.

• Processing, importing and exporting coffee are impacting the environment in numerous ways.

• Polluted processing water enters the local waterways and can cause disease or death in plants, animals, and humans.

Sustainability should be put in the heart of coffee production, and an ethical approach is more important than ever in order to ensure that we can enjoy our favourite beverage free of guilt.