🌱 What about your workers? Pact Coffee prioritise their farmers, so here are 6 certifications to help you do the same.
Featuring Brewgooder, Nopla, Minor Figures and more...
Happy Friday!
This week we’re focusing on workers. We look at Pact Coffee, who boldly campaign about slavery in the coffee supply chain. We cover:
Pact Coffee brings a premium quality of life to those who grow the premium beans we love.
What about your workers? 6 certifications your company can look for in its supply chain, beyond B Corp.
In case you missed it: Cotswold Fayre x City Harvest: Inside a Perfect Partnership
Don’t forget - submit your favourite brand initiatives to be included in our 2021 countdown! We’re looking for the best environmental initiatives and campaigns by consumer goods brands this year.
> Good News This Week
🎯 Brewgooder have partnered with Social Bite to tackle hunger, by offering customers the choice of adding £5 meal vouchers with every order. As part of Social Bite’s Festival of Kindness, they have also turned their delivery boxes into food bank donation packs.
🎯 Nopla closed their £10 million Series A round. Nopla ‘make packaging disappear’ and have previously worked with partners like Rubies in the Rubble.
🎯 Minor Figures, who are already carbon neutral, are doubling the amount of carbon offset on all webshop orders in December.
⭐️ Mindful Chef introduced carbon labels to their recipe kits, a category first. Each recipe was put through a full life cycle assessment, conducted by ClimatePartner. Mindful chef aims to be net zero by 2030.
⭐️ M&S launched its first clothing rental trial with Hirestreet. This move is part of M&S’s mission to move to a more circular economy, as part of its goal to be a Scope 3 net zero business by 2040.
⭐️ Little Mistress revealed the first stage of its 3 year strategy to bringing eco and plant-based fabrics to the frontline of its collections. Part of this includes 10% of the new line being made from 100% Lenzing Ecovero (a sustainable alternative to viscose).
> Click on each link to read more.
> Brand Spotlight
Pact Coffee brings a premium quality of life to those who grow the premium beans we love.
The British-based company started in 2013 on a journey to make coffee ethical for those at the start of the supply chain. The coffee industry has been rife with human rights violations, leading to slavery becoming an unfortunate norm. Investigations by Reuters have found that even the biggest names in the industry suffer from slavery in their supply chains. Despite efforts from governments and these corporations to address growing labor violations, they continue to fly under the radar of even the biggest labor and environmental auditors.
Pact Coffee is part of a growing breed of roasters who aim to improve labour practices and wages for producers. Pact has done this by building meaningful relationships with those at the start of the supply chain. These direct relationships have cut out the questionable middlemen who blur labour violations and cut margins. Pact’s business strategy has led to increasingly competitive compensation for producers, at a rate of at least 25% higher than the Fair Trade base price. Pact also aims to empower women in the industry, having purchased 35% of its coffee last year from female producers. The rapidly growing company is creating impact at scale - last year alone they sourced coffee from 124 farms, across 9+ origins, to deliver 21 million cups of coffee across the UK.
Consumers can learn about their impact directly through Pact’s social media. The origin story of the coffee beans in a Colchester cupboard can be traced to a specific farmer in Brazil, who is using their fair wages to provide new opportunities for their family. This authentic style of marketing can both win over consumers and make them advocates for change. Looking ahead, Pact plans to create a carbon-neutral roastery and transition into fully recyclable packaging to lessen its impact on the global environment.
The coffee industry is just one of many where labour violations go under the radar. With the conscious consumer increasingly voting with their wallet, it is in every companies’ best interest to make a pact against unethical labor practices.
Want to learn more? Check out Pact Coffee’s Transparency Report, Sourcing Policy, this article on being a Female Coffee Farmer, and a UNEP Report on Coffee's Impact.
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> Quick Take
What about your workers? 6 certifications your company can look for in its supply chain, beyond B Corp.
The rise of B Corps - companies that adhere to a set of ESG standards - has taken the world by storm, with over 3,500 companies meeting the specifications across over 70 countries. To qualify for B Corp status a company must receive a minimum score on an impact assessment, adhere to transparency guidelines, and modify its existing legal documents to have a balance of purpose and profit. Governance is key to both the success and integrity of these B Corps. A board of directors who can oversee business development without compromise of ethics is key. For publicly traded companies, activist investors and regular shareholders alike can vote out decision-makers who don’t adhere to the established ethical guidelines. For private companies, the transparency and impact assessments from third-party organizations are essential for integrity.
Whilst the benefits of being a B Corp are well disclosed, we want to shine a light on other certifications which can help you make sure your supply chain is socially responsible.
One of the most common certifications is Fairtrade, which covers labour and environmental standards. Similarly, the Rainforest Alliance Certification requires social, economic, and environmental sustainability standards to be met and tested by third-party auditors.
Other certifications focused on protecting your supply chain workers include:
SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit) covers ethical working conditions across a supply chain. It is the most widely used social audit in the world.
MADE IN GREEN by OEKO-TEX® is a traceable product label for all kinds of textiles and products. It verifies that an article has not only been tested for harmful substances, but that it has also been manufactured using sustainable processes under socially responsible working conditions.
Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) is a label that ensures its farms and products meet the highest standards in the world for soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker fairness - the three pillars of ROC.
STeP by OEKO-TEX® focuses on textile and leather production, and it’s goal is the long-term implementation of environmentally friendly production processes, social working conditions and optimum health and safety.
Conscious consumerism hasn’t always been met with proactive action by companies. Earlier this year, Nestle was taken to court in the United States by a group claiming the company had perpetuated the slave trade in the cacao industry. The end legal result was in the company’s favour, as the court ruled they can’t be sued as the cacao farms are technically a separate entity from Nestle. Nestle’s legal team would go on to argue if slavery occurs in an industry, the traffickers are the ones at fault, not the companies who conduct the business. In the US, and many countries, products made with slave labor are not permitted for import, but enforcement has been inconsistent. Ultimately, it’s up to brands to strive to do better, and up to consumers to hold them responsible. Start today by checking your supply chain’s certifications.
Interested? Read on:
Why Companies Are Becoming B Corps - Harvard Business Review
Exxon Board Defeated by Activist Investors - New York Times
The Path to Supply Chain Transparency - Deloitte.
> In case you missed it
🌱 Cotswold Fayre x City Harvest: Inside a Perfect Partnership
Featuring Cotswold Fayre, City Harvest, Tesco, Olio, and more
> Follow up with…
Article: Where Is the New Roadmap for Business and Human Rights Taking Us?
Campaign: Who Made My Fabric?
Podcast: How redefining boundaries drives performance, w/former Unilever CEO Paul Polman - Masters of Scale
Event Series: Climate Con 2021 (replays available)