More than 800 participants have contributed to international coffee association Global Coffee Platform’s (GCP) revision of its Baseline Coffee Code, which is designed to guide sustainable practices within the coffee industry.
GCP is rewriting the code to better encompass all parts of the coffee supply chain. Input was provided from over 29 countries with 358 participants from coffee producing countries.
Feedback was collected through global webinars, workshops, and online surveys.
Rick Peyser of Lutheran World Relief describes the approach as “thoughtful”, leading to rich conversations with accurate representations from across the coffee supply chain.
“As a participant, this approach quickly enabled me and all members to get to know each other and share our thoughts in a constructive and supportive environment,” says Peyser.
Mary Petitt, GCP’s North America Ambassador says that the revised Baseline Coffee Code is not presented as measured targets.
“Rather they are meant to help engender realistic target-setting and encourage sector participants to generate effective data to measure change and meaningfully evaluate sustainability challenges and opportunities,” says Petitt.
GCP’s Roaster & Retailer Reporting, which seeks to encourage sustainable coffee buying, is one example that demonstrates how GCP is trying to increase transparency, accountability, and reliability within the coffee industry.
“I hope fellow sustainability champions across the sector will engage with the freshly-revised Code to support our shared responsibility to foster a sector in which all partners, especially coffee farmers and their families, are prosperous,” Petitt says.
Feedback for the code ran from 1 March to 30 April. GCP’s project team, Technical Committee, and Advisory Task Force will now work on a final draft to present to the GCP’s Board for approvals.
The updated Baseline Coffee Code is expected to be released later this year, available through the GCP website in various languages.
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