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HOME Farm to Cup What is Ethically Sourced Coffee?
Growing coffee is a complex process. There is much to consider on the path from farm to cup. Over time, Starbucks recognized a need to create guidelines to make farming more sustainable and ensure coffee quality. Working in partnership with Conservation International, Starbucks launched C.A.F.E. (Coffee and Farmer Equity) Practices in 2004. This holistic framework helps improve quality of life for farmers and other workers and supports their efforts all along the supply chain. The first program of its kind in the coffee industry, C.A.F.E. Practices is the cornerstone of the Starbucks approach to ethical sourcing. These guidelines provide comprehensive social, environmental, and economic criteria that if followed sustain and strengthen communities that grow coffee while maintaining Starbucks high quality standards, now and into the future. Today, 99 percent of Starbucks® coffee is ethically sourced and third-party verified, through C.A.F.E. Practices. Starbucks has a responsibility to the people who produce our coffee and the land on which it grows. Together, we’re bringing you the finest coffee and working to make the world a better place by caring for people, the planet and the coffee in your cup.
Ethical sourcing definitionEthical sourcing is an approach to sourcing and supply chains. Sourcing ethically means that when businesses purchase products from suppliers, they consider the impacts those products have on the people and communities who create them. Often, the further you go down the supply chain, the less visibility you have over ethical risks, like poor working conditions and child labour. So, it is important to have complete visibility and responsibility for each phase of your supply chain. For your product or service to be ethically sourced, it means meeting certain ethical standards – for example, that your organisation, your direct suppliers, and your entire supply chain have decent working conditions, good business ethics, and fair wages. Companies that prioritise sourcing ethically take responsibility for the impact that their business decisions may have on the people and communities of their supply chains. It is their due diligence to not only ensure that their business has a positive, rather than a negative, impact on the world, but that the businesses they source from do as well. How does it differ from responsible or sustainable sourcing?There is not an official, agreed-upon differentiation between the terms responsible sourcing, ethical sourcing, and sustainable sourcing. Many people use these terms interchangeably to mean that the products and services from each point of a supply chain have been obtained through ethical, environmentally sustainable, and socially conscious ways. However, the term ethical sourcing tends to have more of a stress on the social impact and humane working conditions within supply chains over the environmental side. Sustainable sourcing tends to emphasise the environmental impacts of a supply chain. Responsible sourcing is an umbrella term that refers to all aspects of both ethical and sustainable sourcing. Ethically sourced products vs. Fairtrade, organic, and cruelty freeA makeup product may be labelled as cruelty free, which usually means that they are not testing on animals to make the product, but that does not cover labour rights and the conditions that the human beings involved in making the products experience. It is important to know the difference between each of these labels, scrutinise what companies are saying, and hold them accountable for all kinds of ethical considerations when creating the products and services that you pay for. Here is what each of these terms mean and how they are typically used:
Organic has many different definitions depending on the product and the source. In the US, the label “organic” is governed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and it means that federal organic standards for the growing and processing of foods are met in terms of soil quality, animal raising practices, pest and weed control, and use of additives.[4] The EU has their own certification for the organic label.[5] Unlike ethical sourcing, the term organic never refers to working conditions or labour rights. Ethical sourcing legislationMany countries have established their own legislation for ethical sourcing, including the EU as a whole, the UK, Australia, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and California within the US. The UK became a leader in ethical sourcing legislation by establishing the UK Modern Slavery Act in 2015. The Act sets legal requirements for companies to identify, prevent and mitigate modern slavery in their own operations and supply chains. While the United States as a whole is far behind Europe in this sort of legislation, California passed the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act in 2010. This Act requires large retail sellers and manufacturers who do business in California to annually disclose their efforts to eradicate human trafficking and modern slavery from their supply chains. How businesses can source ethicallyWhat steps should businesses be taking to source more ethically? Ultimately it comes down to due diligence. Companies should assess their suppliers and look at the inherent ethical risks in their supply chains. For example, if you are buying palm oil, it is known that there are more environmental risks in that industry. If you are buying from a particular region or country that has less legal protection for workers, that is also an inherent risk. After identifying the parts of your supply chains that are ethically riskier, you can then focus on understanding the employment conditions and workers’ experiences at individual sites. You can do this with activities including risk assessments, questionnaires, on-site social audits like SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit), and surveying or interviewing workers. Once you have collected this data, you can take the results and identify the ethical issues at individual sites and use this information to create a corrective action plan to help your suppliers improve conditions for workers. How Sedex can get you started with ethical sourcingUsing technology to assist with your ethical sourcing program can help your activities be more efficient, which could save you money in the long run. Sedex’s tools and services allow businesses to understand and manage the risks of negative impacts within their supply chains. Here are some of the ways we can help you:
Interested in getting started with ethical sourcing? Contact us today[1] Fairtrade Standards from Fair Trade America [2] U.S. Food & Drug Administration on Cruelty Free Cosmetics [3] Eco Mundo on Using the Cruelty Free Logo in Europe [4] U.S. Department of Agriculture on the organic label [5] European Commission on the organic logo |