By Kim Elena Ionescu The creation of the Sustainability Center is a milestone for the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) and for the entire specialty coffee community. We know from surveys, volunteer leaders, and everyday experience that this community is full of passionate, knowledgeable, active people who pursue sustainability every day and at every stage …
As part of its mission, SCA is actively involved in sustainability and looks to its members to take leadership roles in sustainable practices within the specialty coffee sector. With this in mind, the Sustainability Award was created in 2003 to promote, encourage and honor the efforts of those serving as role models through sustainable projects in …
By Kim Elena Ionescu Almost eight years ago, a piece of trivia about boiled potatoes completely changed the way I prepared my coffee (not to mention a bunch of other foods). A colleague of mine approached me at the lunch table, and related having heard that heating the water to boil a potato required more …
By Russ Kramer Specialty coffee customers expect the best. It’s the current state of the industry. The end user demands complex, distinctive flavor in every cup. It is important for our industry to understand that producing great coffee requires selecting coffee fruit from the “grand crux” producing regions of the world, and controlling their transformation …
By Nora Burkey One of the most inspiring conversations I had this year was inside of a small room at the Georgia World Conference Center with Michael Sheridan, Kim Elena Ionescu, and Carla D. Martin, where we discussed the issue of coffee farm workers. Malian Lahey, a coffee farm owner in Hawaii, stood up to …
By William Garde In the winter of 2009, I was in South Africa with a missionary—little did I know the short trip we were about to take would change my career path. Piling into the Land Rover, we soon passed a sign that read “Zimbabwe.” Only ten years had passed since I had visited Zimbabwe, …
By Katherine Nolte Gender equality is a human aspiration, not a women’s initiative. Imagine a world where opportunities are free from stereotypes associated with being masculine or feminine. Imagine a world where the work of a stay-at-home dad is valued equally to a career as a roaster-owner, VP trader, or senior finance professional. Imagine a world …
By Miguel Zamora Defining what “sustainable coffee” means has been a challenge for the coffee industry. This is also an opportunity for all of us working in coffee: to define what we mean with sustainability in coffee and communicate this to our customers and consumers, while channeling our resources towards true “sustainability”. In reality, answering …
By Kim Elena Ionescu, SCAA Director of Sustainability Coffee buyers, farmers, traders and baristas are becoming more aware of the important role that farm workers play in the quality coffee trade. The Sustainability Council of the SCAA identified that farm worker vulnerability is a key threat to our industry and began to focus on this …
By Meredith Taylor Water management is a difficult issue to address in coffee-growing regions because many of the impacts tied to water pollution and shortages are often downstream from their causes—both literally and temporally. While the issues around water as it relates to coffee are complex, they fall into two basic, overlapping categories: having enough …