Sustainability
The communities
In our Group, we are driven by a deep sense of responsibility towards the communities in which we operate, from those that produce the coffee to those supported by our various companies in their respective countries.
This is why we have drawn up a structured programme of activities to engage with them, aiming to create shared value and generate a positive social, economic and environmental impact.
Coffee is a product of the land, and the people who grow it are the starting point in the supply chain from bean to cup. We have always seen producer communities as vitally important and we are running a series of projects to promote their social and economic growth through sustainable agriculture, because we are convinced that coffee culture is a driver of development, as well as a way to help build a new and more balanced relationship with the environment.
The Lavazza Foundation
The non-profit Giuseppe e Pericle Lavazza Foundation, set up in 2004, now has 33 active projects in 20 countries across 3 continents, benefiting over 180,000 people who grow coffee.
The Foundation supports the autonomy of local communities by valuing women’s work and involving the new generations. It promotes good agricultural practices to improve crop yield and coffee quality and proposes the introduction of technological tools designed to counter the effects of climate change.
The projects also focus on product diversification to combat soil impoverishment, and on reforestation to help preserve the ecosystem. Local actors are engaged to perform the work, increasing the involvement of coffee growing communities and building relationships of trust between the subjects involved.
In 2024, we produced “Beans of Impact,” a documentary that traces the many projects developed in the Foundation's first 20 years through the voices of those who brought it to life, those who work on it every day, and the many partners who contribute.
Each bean represents a life touched, a story waiting to be told.
¡Tierra!
This project from our global brand Lavazza was launched in 2002 to support social and economic development in local communities by promoting good agricultural practices in coffee plantations. Initially developed in small communities of growers in Colombia, Honduras and Peru, ¡Tierra! has been expanded over the years to other countries, involving entire coffee-growing families firsthand in the initiative.
In the startup phase, we decided to support storytelling around the project by using the artistic language of photography, as expressed in the insightful images of Steve McCurry. The photographer has captured the genuine humanity of the people who grow coffee and their families, portrayed in moments of everyday intimacy. The result is a reportage that describes the start of an incredible journey.
In some areas, we have also made it possible to produce high quality coffee for the La Reserva de ¡Tierra! washed arabica blend, sourced from 100% sustainable agriculture and certified by the Rainforest Alliance, an international NGO that fosters the introduction of environment-friendly agricultural practices and ensures decent living conditions for the people who grow coffee.
The variety produced in Colombia is an example of the impact that this programme has had on local communities, as it contains coffee from the Meta region in the foothills of the Andes where coffee growing was abandoned for years because of the internal armed conflict. The project has helped over nine hundred families to return the plantations to activity with sustainable techniques, giving these communities greater economic security and independence.
Coffee&Climate
Since 2010, the Lavazza Foundation has been a founding member of the initiative for Coffee&Climate (C&C), which aims to study the impact of climate change on productivity and coffee quality, testing and proposing sustainable agriculture solutions for small producers.
The project is a pre-competitive partnership between various coffee industry players, actively involving coffee producers, agronomists and training personnel. Since 2010, more than 800 people have qualified as C&C solution trainers and over 90,000 small business owners have taken part in training programmes in four countries: Central America, Brazil, Tanzania, Vietnam.
A Cup of Learning
Our commitment to our communities is also pointed up by the A Cup of Learning project designed to spread coffee culture, offering the chance to turn a passion into a profession. The training programme is for young people seeking employment opportunities in the world of coffee and offers two learning paths: one addressed to green coffee, with a focus on sensory analysis, processing techniques, the story of the beans, creating blends, coffee tasting and the evaluation of products according to their origin; and the other, ‘Essere Barista’ (Being a Barista), to the world of espresso coffee, offering the best tools for learning to be a barista.
The professionals in our Group are involved firsthand in the project, providing their experience in training programmes organised in producer countries or at Lavazza Training Centers. Since 2017, over 600 people have received training to learn the skills needed to begin work in 16 countries: Italy, Dominican Republic, India, Albania, Haiti, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Ivory Coast, Honduras, Ecuador, USA, Australia, France, Germany and the UK.
Community focus across the supply chain
Underpinning the relationship with suppliers are our founding values: Authenticity, Passion for Excellence, Responsibility, Inventiveness. They are at the heart of the Group Code of Ethics which, along with the Code of Conduct for Suppliers and the Code of Behaviour for Employees, contains the guiding principles to which all our brands aspire. Our Group also subscribes to the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact, promoting respect for human and worker rights and, specifically, rejecting all forms of forced labour and child labour, at the same time as fostering environmental protection.
In 2017, we also decided to strengthen our storied partnership with Save the Children by subscribing to the Children’s Rights and Business Principles that promote respect for children’s rights in day-to-day business activities. In 2021, our partnership celebrated its 20th anniversary, a period during which various projects have been implemented to promote child well-being.
TOward 2030.
What are you doing?
In order to spread the culture of sustainability, we have chosen to use various different visual languages to stimulate the awareness and involvement of the communities we work with directly. One of the most important projects is TOward 2030. ‘What are you doing?’, developed in partnership with the City of Turin and featuring works of street art inspired by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.
The works by international artists were created in strategic points of the city to spark debate and engage with local people, and young people in particular, by using the power of art to communicate with them, not least through the name of the project.
The question What are you doing? is a provocative invitation to remember that everyone has a duty to protect the planet. As a result, Turin was the first city ambassador of the Sustainable Development Goals, representing a best practice that can be replicated all over the world.