SCA launches Coffee Sustainability Program for industry to survive and thrive

The Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) has launched its 2019 Coffee Sustainability Program, designed to help the industry “survive and thrive” by embracing sustainability. The foundation course intends to educate people along the coffee supply chain regarding sustainability, transparency, and corporate responsibility. The program will cover major sustainability issues, base knowledge, its connection to power dynamics, current and historical events and practices, and other coffee projects. “The SCA Coffee Sustainability Program will help learners become more competitive in their existing lines of work as more and more companies, employers, and organizations crave greater integration of sustainability within their existing modes of doing business,” says Nora Burkey, Executive director of The Chain Collective. She adds that sustainability is vital in today’s coffee industry, as dedicated sustainability positions have increased, sustainability-focused companies have seen faster growth, and younger people’s desire to work for companies that match their values has increased. There are also many sustainability-related threats faced by the coffee industry. “Many of these threats have been building across generations but require action by this generation for the industry to have a viable future,” Burkey says. “As specialty coffee has gone mainstream, so have its thorniest issues, and with popular press articles regularly questioning the value that farmers derive from the product they grow, the labels used to communicate sustainability to consumers, and whether or not we’ll even have coffee worth drinking in 30 years, it’s reasonable to expect that anyone working in a coffee job needs a working knowledge of these issues.” The SCA says intermediate and professional level courses are coming soon. For more information, click here. Follow Global Coffee Report on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter for up-to-date news and analysis of the global coffee industry.