Pitch for Sustainable Coffee

Pitching Coffee Sustainability is a Difficult and Complicated

For starters, pitching sustainability is a double-edged sword.

1. It’s needed badly — Good for pitching!
2. It’s expensive, and too easily dismissed as idealistic … or silenced by greenwashing — Bad for pitching!
   

That’s just the start. There are many more complexities to pitching sustainability projects and coffee is no exception. This is something I can speak to from experience.

The most important part of my role as an “eco-entrepreneur” is growing awareness for a sustainable coffee program. I help out in whatever way I can, and its far from what some might imagine as being a romantic coffee dream job. The program is located in Honduras, known to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world with the highest femicide rate. Talk about un-romantic! Add the fact that, as one of the largest coffee producers in Latin America, it has some of the most tropical forest area to lose — and has indeed lost a great deal of it in the last 10 years.

Given it’s tenuous location and political environment, the Yoro Model, (which represents the best chance for sustainable coffee production and forest restoration in the area, and perhaps even in Latin America!), must contend with a number of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Using broad strokes here, these include:

In the producing country…

1. Poverty & inequality
2. Government corruption
3. Capitalistic economic forces
   

In the consuming countries…

1. Consolidated, speculative marketplace
2. Lack of government regulation
3. Small fish in a big ocean
4. Consumer ignorance of the issues
   

A plan for achieving sustainable coffee, requires a significant cash injection to lay the groundwork (just like with any other major international development project). This particular program, which boasts more than two decades’ worth of development throughout Latin America, includes innovation of solar-powered coffee dryers supplied by carbon neutral coffee farms. In short, it is a major undertaking.

Sustainable Development Projects Require A Lot of Upfront Funding

The partners originally needed $15M (this was years ago now), but have only so far managed to invest a total of around $5M. One of the key obstacles is that very few investors have been willing to risk their money going to such a “untrustworthy” place (i.e. referring to Honduras’ history of government corruption). There was some renewed hope for the project’s ‘”take-off” a few years ago, as the partners celebrated news of approved funding for their $7.5M solar-powered coffee drying facility. However, the release of that funding has been held back, for a variety of reasons (all having to do with banking issues and politics), and has still yet to break ground.

Since the original need was for $15M and only $5M trickled in over the course of many years, it would be accurate to say that the program has been on life-support since day one. The good news is that hard work, coffee sales, and small but constant development grants allow the partners to continue conducting the research and development required to prove their model.

My role can be broadly defined as “communications” and I tend to spend my time working on the project writing letters of outreach for funding support. These are tailored letters and the recipients carefully chosen. But the general pitch is this:

Imagine coffee producers (growers) and consumers (home coffee-drinkers and businesses, like roasters and importers) connecting to solve the two most critical root issues in coffee:

1. Stopping the deforestation, and
2. Paying growers a stable, and fair price

This is what the Yoro Model is achieving at a small scale! … And with the funds to complete the project, it could grow quickly to become financially positive and truly sustainable.

Am I Crazy to Even Try?

You might be thinking it. She’s one of those idealists. And I wouldn’t blame you. Yet, as I type this, I’m listening to the newly released IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, and the world’s top scientific leaders are making public pleas that exactly match the objectives of this sustainable coffee program. So suffice it to say that I’m feeling rather justified in my pursuit.

The UN Secretary General addresses the world: “The goal and the pact is to limit the global temperature rise by 1.5 degrees, but according to current commitments emissions will increase to almost 14% over the next decade … Nearly 1/2 of humanity is living in danger zones now … This leadership is criminal … Renewables are needed for energy security and green jobs … Scaling up investments will be essential for survival …”

Shifting away from the “legacy” coffee trade won’t be easy or favorable for all parties. There are always those benefiting from current circumstances to consider. But shifting towards coffee that restores forests, at whatever cost, might be worth some serious consideration as an effective climate mitigation tool … and to secure our high elevation coffee supplies for the future. Plus, it has the potential to create green jobs en masse in impoverished countries at such critical time.

With so much potential for good, the barriers to sustainable coffee are frustrating and de-motivating to say the least! When you’re working against a really strong current, it’s easy to start thinking that the whole world is short-sighted and fueled by greed.

I lament: Why must sustainability require such depth? — Deep thinking, and at this point, deep pockets.

… But, but, but if we can fund rocket science, what’s to stop us from funding forest restoration?

Hope Always Prevails

As one can imagine, the outreach I do comes with a heavy dose of silence, or even worse, automated responses. I’ve learned that disappointment comes with the territory. And yet …

Break time. Mmmmmmmmm. Coffee. My sacred daily ritual. I take a step back. Read a book, a post, a tweet. Remind myself I’m not alone. We are many of us. People who are active in pushing creative solutions and seeking deeper connections. People who long for change, even if all they can contribute right now is posting on their social media feeds about it, or telling another person about something new they learned. These things do help.

A lot of us drink coffee and never dream of giving it up. I identify as a coffee-lover that recognizes we may not all enjoy this “equal access” to great coffee some day, and I don’t want to feel guilty about contributing to that world today. My contribution is pitching sustainable coffee for the future.