The Pledge:
A common code for transparency reporting in green coffee buying
Our Intentions
- Give any participant in the coffee supply chain the opportunity to sign on and help create a transparency movement.
- Help signatory individuals and companies create a “community of best practice” and set an example for the entire coffee industry.
- Avoid co-optation by non-committed actors by requiring participants to state the percentage of transparent coffees in relation to the total business volume.
- Signatory individuals and companies must commit to a goal of increasing transparency reporting until all coffees bought by an individual company are reported with all information stated in this Commitment.
Our Vision
- Ensure a sustainable supply of coffee by working towards a living income for producers so they will continue to invest in the future of their businesses.
- Transparent reporting enables actors along the supply chain to make informed choices. This will help the industry to raise prices paid to farmers and provide living incomes in coffee producing countries.
- Transparency about Free On Board (FOB) Prices is a first step. We encourage all companies and actors along the supply chain to make prices transparent at every step of the supply chain.
- Transparency is a tool to ensure that marketing claims are backed by actual facts.
Our Commitment
- We will create transparency data that is publicly available and easily accessible;
- state the producer/producer organization the coffee was purchased from;
- state the Free On Board (FOB) price paid for the coffee;
- indicate the quality of the coffee, for instance by using the SCA score in order to indicate cup quality;
- state the lot size (volume) of the coffee purchased;
- state the length of the relationship between producer/producer organization and buyer;
- state the percentage of transparent coffees in relation to the total volume of coffee (in lbs/tonnes) sold in the stated year.
Companies that sign this pledge publish the required information about at least one of the coffees they are selling. If the published information is called into question, companies that signed this contract agree to share a randomly selected number of green coffee contracts with other participants in order to verify information published in the transparency reports (peer review).
Our Signatories
Victoria, BC, Canada
Americus, GA, USA
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Howick, South Africa
Stockholm, Sweden
Hückeswagen, Germany
Chico, CA, USA
Cologne, Germany
Berlin, Germany
New York, NY, USA
Hildesheim, Germany
Bern, Switzerland
San Francisco, CA, USA
Stuttgart, Germany
Saint-Denis, France
Durham, NC, USA
Gateshead, United Kingdom
Highland Park, NJ, USA
Vienna, Austria
Odder, Denmark
Montreal, Canada
Carlsbad, CA, USA
Frederiksberg, Denmark
Melbourne, Australia
Langnau, Switzerland
Szczurowa, Poland
Burgebrach, Germany
Dresden, Germany
Villeurbanne, France
La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción, Guatemala
Olympia, WA, USA
Leysin, Switzerland
Americus, GA, USA
Edmonton, Canada
Berlin, Germany
Bremen, Germany
Rogers, OK, USA
Kiel, Germany
St. Georgen am Walde, Austria
Cape Town, South Africa
Au, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Hannover, Germany
Saarbrücken, Germany
Oakland, CA, USA
Münchenstein, Switzerland
Portland, OR, USA
Hamburg, Germany
Montreal, Québec, Canada
Sussex, UK
Copenhagen, Denmark
Wallisellen, Switzerland
Munich, Germany
Freiburg, Germany
Oslo, Norway
Gainesville, FL, USA
Hamburg, Germany
Bielefeld, Germany
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Melbourne, Australia
Weissach, Germany
Portland, OR, USA
Seattle, USA
Our Supporters
Authors of The Pledge:
Jonas Lorenz
Andreas “Pingo” Felsen
Meredith Taylor
Peter Dupont
Geoff Watts
Nadine Heymann
Alexandra Urban
Sebastian Simsch
Individual Supporters:
Sven Ostendorf – Germany
Laura LaPlante – United States
Eleonora Ignazzi – Italy
Thomas Riethmüller – Germany
Poh&KY, Lonely Crowd – Malaysia
Sadek Ghossein – Egypt
Ole Kristian Bøen – Norway
Zekeriya Kagan KAYA – Turkey