Coffee News Roundup

Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending December 25th

Fionn Pooler

Dec 26, 2020 — 4 min read

A snowman-themed mug and Hario V60 brewing device in close up in front of a Christmas tree

Hello and Happy Holidays from the Pourover. This week’s Roundup will be a short one, for obvious reasons. I hope everyone is safe and well and enjoying the weekend.

Alright, let’s look at the news.

Sustainable Coffee Challenge Sets 2025 Climate And Labor Goals - via Daily Coffee News

Is this greenwashing or not? Hard to tell.

On the one hand, this latest announcement from the Sustainable Coffee Challenge sets actual goals for its 168 partners, which include some of the biggest coffee companies in the world. The goals themselves are laudable, if a bit wishy-washy.

Some of these targets include removing 1.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 “through increasing sustainable production on existing coffee farmland.” There are shorter-term goals as well, including increasing smallholder production, protecting labor rights and “establishing living income and wage benchmarks for most of the world’s coffee-growing countries”, all by 2025.

On the other hand: the partners involved include such enormo-companies as Nespresso, Starbucks, McDonalds, Keurig Dr Pepper, Dunkin, and Jacobs Douwe Egberts. These are global, multi-billion-dollar corporations, most of whom have. . . let’s just say a less than stellar record when it comes to sustainability and labor rights.

Many of the commitments involve lofty goals, such as “100% Responsibly Sourced Coffee” pledge from Keurig, JDE, and Nescafé, without a clear explanation of what that means. I might be missing something, but I couldn’t find an actual definition of what “responsibly sourced” entails.

It’s obviously good that these gigantic corporations are committing to something, I just wish it was clearer what that something is.

Read the full story here.

More Headlines

Luckin Coffee Agrees To Pay $180 Million To Settle SEC Fraud Charges

This Full-bodied Guitar Is Built Out Of 5,000 Coffee Beans

The Week In Coffee Unionizing

Congrats to the workers at Wonderstate Coffee in Milwaukee’s Third Ward, who last week successfully voted to form a union.

While the union covers just six employees, it is notable as Milwaukee’s first unionized coffee shop. It will also help protect current and future workers as Wonderstate looks to shut down the location for an undetermined length of time, “citing concerns about COVID-19.”

“While the closing affects what the union will look like over the next few months, the union will still be present for future employees and we are excited they will be able to benefit,” organizer Molly Kiefer told Fight Back! News.