Nespresso establishes new partnership with Fairtrade International

Global leaders in sustainability and long-time brand ambassador George Clooney have joined Nespresso as part of the company’s first Sustainability Advisory Board (NSAB). The NSAB is made up of experts and thought leaders in the area of sustainability, including the President of the Rainforest Alliance, Tensie Whelan, and CEO of Fairtrade International, Harriet Lamb, the company said in a statement. At the inaugural NSAB meeting in Lausanne, Nespresso announced two major new initiatives in Africa: the expansion of the AAA Program in Ethiopia and Kenya and a program to re-establish coffee supply from South Sudan. In Ethiopia and Kenya, Nespresso will expand the AAA Program, which is now in its 10th year, to include more smallholder coffee farmers and will partner with local governments and TechnoServe to improve coffee sustainability at farm level. The company will also launch community development programs that address key socio-economic challenges in the coffee growing communities and support farmer welfare. The partners expect to double the amount of coffee sourced from the region to 10,000 tonnes by 2020 through the extension of the program to smallholder farmers. This significant expansion of the AAA Program will build upon the strong success of the program in Latin America and its recent expansion to India. The South Sudan project, in cooperation with TechnoServe and George Clooney, will revive high quality coffee production in the country to contribute to economic development and create supply. It is expected that thousands of smallholder farmers will benefit from the initiative. As part of the program, Nespresso plans to be the first company to offer coffee from the country following its independence. Nespresso’s CEO, Jean-Marc Duvoisin, also joined with Harriet Lamb and representatives of five Fairtrade certified cooperatives in Caldas, Colombia to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to pilot the AAA Farmer Future Program. The program responds to the need of farmers to guard against the risks of price volatility and other factors contributing to instability in the sector. Specifically, the program aims to introduce social welfare provisions to benefit farmers and their families, including health and accident coverage and retirement planning. As part of the initiative, Nespresso will market coffee from the AAA farmer cooperatives in the region and certified Fairtrade. Nespresso also announced continued investment in bringing all its farmers into the AAA Program and increasing the number of farmers who obtain Rainforest Alliance certification, building on the strong results of the Program over the past 10 years. In addition, it announced an expansion of its agro-forestry program, in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance and Pur Projet, to optimise the carbon footprint of coffee farming. The program will help farmers step up their investment in agro-forestry and will seek to create carbon credits and drive new revenue streams. The members of the NASB are Peter Bakker, President World Business Council for Sustainable Development; George Clooney; Polly Courtice, Director of the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL); Luis Genaro Muñoz, President Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC); Daniel Katz, Chairman and Founder of the Rainforest Alliance; Harriet Lamb, CEO Fairtrade International; Tristan Lecomte, Co-founder, Pur Projet; Julia Marton-Lefevre, CEO International Union for the Conservation of Nature; Bruce McNamer, President & CEO, TechnoServe; Lawrence Pratt, Director of the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS) at INCAE Business School; Reza, National Geographic photographer, eyewitness, creator of the Soul of Coffee photo exhibition; Paul Rice, President & CEO, Fair Trade USA; Auret Van Heerden, President & CEO, Fair Labor Association; and Tensie Whelan, President of long-time Nespresso sustainability partner the Rainforest Alliance.