4C commits to further support farmers and companies to address the carbon footprint of coffee production and supply chains. We aim to do this by expanding the reach of its 4C Carbon Footprint Add-On Certification and further improve its implementation continuously to reach more coffee producers and supply chains.

The Add-On is based on a verified calculation of the status quo of emissions from coffee cultivation, processing and transport and sets out detailed plans for introducing tailored measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Mitigating the effects of climate change is crucial for sustaining livelihoods as well as biodiversity in coffee-growing regions.

Aiming at increasing sustainable and deforestation-free supply chains through analysis of satellite images and biodiversity databases worldwide, 4C Services commits to support the Global Risk Assessment Services [GRAS] land use tool to add important coffee producing countries. This will increase the capacity of the GRAS tool to map land use change, deforestation, areas of high biodiversity, protected areas and other environmentally important data including alert information. Today, June 2019, the GRAS tool includes data for 9 coffee producing countries. The target is to increase the number of coffee producing countries up to 25 until 2021.

Update

February 2021

4C´s target of having 25 coffee producing countries covered by the satellite image risk assessment tool GRAS until the end of 2021, has not only been achieved but also surpassed. Today, February 2021, there are 29 coffee producing countries in the tool, which makes the 4C risk assessment procedure of identifying deforestation areas and biodiversity endangered regions within its certification process even more credible and reliable. With this, our initial commitment is fully met, while 4C continues to improve and enhance its risk assessment procedures to assure sustainable supply chains to 4C system users.

Diving deeper into specific pressing sustainability issues and aiming at how to better address them, sharing and promoting best practices throughout the globe, 4C commits to launch three additional voluntary certifications to its core 4C Code of Conduct certification by the end of 2021.

These are:

• 4C Food Security,

• 4C Gender Equality,

• 4C Climate Friendly.

They will provide 4C certified coffee with an extra assurance in the respective topic beyond the core sustainability requirements of 4C, increasing understanding of the problem on the ground and bringing awareness to them in the consumer markets, triggering positive change across social, environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability.

With these three new additional certifications, 4C supports the Challenge´s 2025 target of strengthening market demand by providing increased certification requirements to its core code, and by offering an even wider range of compliance possibilities for roasters and retailers to source coffee which has been sustainably produced. Furthermore, they also contribute with impact to the resilient supply, well-being & prosperity, and nature conservation targets.