Eight Companies Give $1.5 Million to Kickstart ‘GCP 2.0’ Sustainability Initiative

“coffee plant in its infancy” by Monica Nuñez is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Eight of the world’s largest coffee companies have contributed US$1.5 million to the nonprofit Global Coffee Platform to kickstart a new phase of coffee sustainability work under the name GCP 2.0.

Designed to advance prosperity among smallholder coffee farmers and advance the economic sustainability of the global coffee sector as a whole, the GCP 2.0 initiative is expected to involve local collective actions in coffee-producing countries involving local stakeholders, government collaboration and corporate funding.

The GCP, an NGO that grew out of the 4C Association through a restructuring in 2016 and maintains a baseline sustainability reference code, counts some of the world’s largest coffee roasting and trading companies among its membership. The group described the $1.5 million investment as a first round of funding in the GCP 2.0 initiative.

Eight GCP member companies contributed to the $1.5 million funding round.

“GCP has demonstrated that change beyond supply chains is possible when GCP member companies work with our NGO and government partners through collective action,” GCP Board Chair Carlos Brando said in an announcement from the group today. “This pre-competitive collaboration is crucial to generating adequate level of investment and change. No one company can be effective by itself. Collective action is essential to not just ensuring compliance but also accelerating measurable sustainability at scale.”

The companies behind the $1.5 million investment are JDE Peet’s, Melitta Group, Mother Parkers’ Coffee & Tea, Nescafé, Nespresso, Ofi (formerly Olam Food Ingredients), Rabobank and Westrock Coffee Company.

Said GCP Executive Director Annette Pensel, “This targeted co-funding by our membership kickstarts our work, catalyzing transformational change around living income, climate adaptation and sustainability for over one million coffee farmers around the world.”

Does your coffee business have news to share? Let DCN’s editors know here.