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Nespresso created Nespresso AAA Sustainable Qual-
ity Program in attempt to provide insight and recommenda-
tions to enhance long term sustainability strategy. The
strategy is based on reviving high quality coffee production
in South Sudan and other African countries as well as in-
cluding more and more cooperatives and smallholder farms
to improve coffee traceability to farm level. By 2016, more
than 70,000 farmers across 11 countries have joined the
program, representing more than 80% of the company’s
total coffee supply. Meanwhile, Illy, as a part of UNIDO,
will invest approximately $2.6 million in the Ethiopian
coffee sector in a project called “Improving the Sustain-
ability and Inclusiveness of the Ethiopian Coffee Value
Chain through Private and Public Partnership”. Small roast-
ers might not have these budgets, but they could show that
they are more involved, know more about the issues and might be much more attractive and it can even raise
care more than a big anonymous organisation.
questions that baristas are always happy to answer.
Coffee Shops Providing materials There are a lot of coffee
magazines offline and online in the market: Coffee
There are some more straightforward reasons for Tea&I, Fresh Cup, Barista Magazine, Roast Magazine,
any café owner to care about this. If high quality ara- DRIFT, Standart, Sprudge, PDG and so on. As digital era
bica becomes scarcer, it will become more expensive. gave us more ways to express our thoughts, there are
Good waste and energy management significantly also big number of blogs like Barista Hustle, Dear Coffee
lowers your monthly costs, which leaves more money I Love You, Jimseven etc.. And do not forget about more
for the coffee. Cafes might also use biological milk traditional way of getting the knowledge, which is books:
and tell customers they pay the farmers well, have there are many books written on coffee by professionals
vegan dishes, but it’s hard for costumers to distinguish from all over the world, like James Hoffmann and his
between good practices and bad ones. A lot of spe- “World Atlas of Coffee”, “God in a Cup” by Michaele
cialty roasters and shops look similar and communi- Weissman, “The Curious Barista’s Guide to Coffee” by
cate the same things: high standards and quality. This Tristan Stephenson and many many more.
makes it hard for someone who wants to choose the As modern specialty coffee culture might seem a
most sustainable product. If everyone started caring little bit snobbish, coffee media is something that
as much about the problems at origin as they do about popularize it among customers and bring the industry
quality, sustainable innovation in coffee could go a lot closer to the public. Coffee books and magazines in the
faster. If a coffee shop owner will explain what stands shop might be an asset in letting your customers know
behind all the programs like FairTrade, this way, not more about what you do, share these great stories form
only are customers able to choose the product that they the origin countries and making people understand why
want to support, it sets an example for companies. It coffee is important for many.
could create a ripple effect when customers start to
demand the same standards at other places as well. There
are different ways of attracting attention and empower-
ing the customer:

Adding knowledge to a coffee shop Starting
with the most obvious one, visual side of a cafe. Have
you ever seen walls in Starbucks? They usually have
graffiti, doodles or some slogans about coffee, how it is
made, where it is from etc.. It is a great way to tell
people everything you want without being annoying.
Yes, baristas want customers to understand how special
this coffee is and what an amazing story there is behind,
but if a person just wants a cup of coffee, they just want
a cup of coffee, and educating someone might just spoil
coffee experience. That is why simple mural on a wall

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