Americus, Georgia - Cooperative Coffees, a roaster-owned, green coffee importing cooperative, has won the Specialty Coffee Association’s 2020 Sustainability Award in the Business Model category. The award will be presented at the annual SCA Re:co Symposium on July 16th.

“Cooperative Coffees is honored to receive this award. O ur roaster-members dig deep to treat producer organizations as equal business partners in the prices they pay, the projects they support, and the consistent harvest-after-harvest engagement they show our origin partners. This award is a testament to the Cooperative Coffees’ community and a great way to celebrate our 20th year anniversary.” 

- Ed Canty, Coop Coffees’ GM

Sustainability is a cornerstone of Cooperative Coffees’ business philosophy.

The cooperative is a community of roasters. Wanting to do business differently, the founding members created an innovative importing model, incorporating transparent and fair trading practices to foster long-term relationships with farmers as partners in trade.

Cooperative Coffees believes coffee growing should be economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. The minimum price they pay producer organizations for fair trade, organic coffee is US$2.20/lb , with the average price in 2019 of US$ 2.55/lb. The importer and its roaster-members work closely with producer partners and allies to support regenerative organic agriculture practices, contributing to the health and sustainable development in producer communities, and strengthening direct relationships across the supply chain. Recent initiatives include Carbon Climate and Coffee: Moving the Needle from Cool Farms to Soil Carbon Premiums , a pilot project implementing the Cool Farm Tool, and the Carbon, Climate and Coffee Initiative , a “voluntary carbon tax” invested in producers’ environmental service projects.