Certification and verification approach for green coffee
Third-party certifications
Third-party certifications are an established and reliable way to demonstrate that a company or a product complies with recognized sustainability standards, for example on fair labor practices or environmental performance. They offer a consistent framework for evaluating sustainability performance across industries and regions, making it easier for consumers and stakeholders to compare products.
For coffee farmers in the origins, third-party sustainability certifications — such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, and Organic — can offer a range of economic, environmental, and social benefits:
1. Better Market Access and Premium Prices
Certified coffee often fetches higher prices or price premiums, especially in specialty and ethical coffee markets. This can improve farmers’ income stability and reduce reliance on volatile commodity prices.
2. Training and Technical Support
Farmers typically receive training in sustainable farming practices, including:
Soil and water conservation
Shade-grown techniques
Integrated pest management
Climate adaptation strategies
These practices can lead to higher yields, better quality beans, and lower input costs over time.
3. Improved Working Conditions and Community Benefits
Many certification schemes require:
Fair labor practices
Safe working environments
No child or forced labor
Some, like Fairtrade, also include community development premiums that cooperatives can invest in schools, healthcare, or infrastructure.
4. Environmental Stewardship
Certified coffee farms are often required to:
Protect biodiversity and wildlife
Prevent deforestation
Reduce chemical use
Promote agroforestry
This helps preserve ecosystems and ensures long-term soil and water health — essential for coffee’s future.
5. Stronger Farmer Organizations
Certification often encourages farmers to organize into cooperatives, which can:
Strengthen bargaining power
Improve access to finance and inputs
Facilitate knowledge sharing
6. Resilience to Climate and Market Shocks
By promoting diversified income sources, better planning, and sustainable land use, certification can help farmers become more resilient to climate change and economic disruptions.
Paulig sources both Rainforest Alliance certified coffees as well as coffees dual certified as Fairtrade and Organic.
Coffee from verified partnership programs
Paulig also sources coffee through carefully selected, verified partnership programs that are developed and driven by our origin-integrated long-term partners, who have an in-depth understanding of the key challenges and opportunities of coffee cultivation in the local context. By sourcing from supply chains participating in these partnership programs we can support a wider range of farmers and farming communities, especially family farmers and other small-scale farmers, in their journey towards more formalized and improved farming practices.
Paulig has vetted selected partnership programs of established key suppliers and approved these as programs meeting Paulig’s requirements (incl. alignment with the Paulig Supplier Code of Conduct). These sustainability schemes have also been independently assessed as meeting the requirements of the Global Coffee Platform Equivalence Mechanism and are recognized as 2nd party assured sustainability schemes.
The Global Coffee Platform’s Equivalence Mechanism is a framework developed by the Global Coffee Platform to assess whether a scheme can be considered equivalent to the Coffee Sustainability Reference Code , a sector-wide reference on the foundations of sustainability in economic, social and environmental dimensions for green coffee production and primary processing worldwide.
The Global Coffee Platform’s Equivalence Process evaluates whether a sustainability scheme meets both the Coffee Sustainability Reference Code and a set of operational criteria (including governance, standard-setting, assurance, data and claims requirements). This helps to ensure that recognized sustainability schemes have a credible and effective system for implementation. Aligning efforts and using a common language allows the coffee sector to better understand sustainability and identify which schemes meet at least baseline practices of sustainability in a credible and effective manner. In addition, the Code addresses ongoing challenges in the coffee sustainability landscape as well as key emerging concerns such as climate change, diversity, equity, and inclusion.