Cafe de Costa Rica to become first coffee-growing region to focus on environmental sustainability

Cafe de Costa Rica is committed to becoming the first sustainable coffee-growing region in the world.

The announcement came during the International Coffee Week, which brought more than 500 coffee industry professionals together last month.

"With growing exports towards the United States, Europe, Japan and Korea, Costa Rican coffee producers share the determination to efficiently respond to international demand by providing sustainable coffee beans all the while managing climate variables," Ronald Peters, Cafe de Costa Rica's executive director, said. "Our coffee production is an integral part of the history and identity of Costa Rica, and we are excited for our country to be the pioneer in taking measurable steps towards more sustainability." 

Cafe de Costa Rica is planning on implementing a Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action, which will consist of reducing greenhouse gasses and putting in place agronomical and energy-saving technologies that will focus on protecting the ecological aspects of the region, while continuing business growth.

"By choosing to be 100 percent environmentally and socially responsible, Cafe de Costa Rica is improving producers' economic and social livelihood, an ideal that we share with both our clients and consumers," Peters said. "The commitments we have made will maintain employment for up to 150,000 jobs during the harvest period, having a positive impact on the standard of living of more than 400,000 people."

NAMA will be monitored by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is in Warsaw, Poland. The precedent set forth by Cafe de Costa Rica will set the bar for other coffee-growing regions.

"Cafe de Costa Rica's NAMA aligns with the country's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2021, and we have an opportunity to drive this change, in which the coffee industry from cradle to cup, should responsibly assume," he said.