Cooperating With “Open Cards”—The Role of Small Intermediary Businesses in Realizing Sustainable International Coffee Supply

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Despite improvements, international food supply in general and coffee supply in particular continue to cause significant greenhouse gas emissions, economic inequities, and negative impacts on human well-being. There is agreement that dominant economic paradigms need to change to comply with the sustainability principles of environmental integrity, economic resilience, and social equity. However, so far, little empirical evidence has been generated to what extent and under which conditions sustainable international coffee supply could be realized through small intermediary businesses such as roasteries, breweries, and/or retailers. This case study reports on a collaborative project between a small coffee brewery and its customers in the U.S. and a small coffee roastery and its suppliers in Mexico that demonstrates how sustainable coffee supply could look like and explores under which conditions it can be realized. A research team facilitated the cooperation using a transdisciplinary research approach, including field visits and stakeholder workshops. The project (i) assessed the sustainability challenges of the current supply and value chains; (ii) developed a vision of a joint sustainable coffee supply chain; (iii) build a strategy to achieve this vision, and (iv) piloted the implementation of the strategy. We discuss the project results against the conditions for sustainable international coffee supply offered in the literature (why they were fulfilled, or not). Overall, the study suggests that small intermediary coffee businesses might have the potential to infuse sustainability across their supply chain if cooperating with “open cards.” The findings confirm some and add some conditions, including economic resilience through cooperation, problem recognition, transparency, trust, and solidarity across the supply chain. The study concludes with reflections on study limitations and future research needs.

Original languageEnglish
Article number663716
JournalFrontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Volume5
Number of pages14
ISSN2571-581X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15.07.2021

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Jörn Oldenburg

Publications

  1. Aí é orixá!
  2. Dynamic tensile properties and microstructural evolution of extruded EW75 magnesium alloy at high strain rates
  3. Determinants of materiality disclosure quality in integrated reporting
  4. Economic analysis of trade-offs between justices
  5. Zeit-los im Studio?
  6. Where you search is what you get
  7. Forschendes Lernen implementieren durch Design-Based-Research
  8. Exports and Profitability
  9. Rapping against Old and New Nazis: Bejarano and Microphone Mafia’s Multidirectional Musical Memory Work
  10. Assessment of Degradation of 18 Antibiotics in the Closed Bottle Test
  11. KMU-Finanzierung und Basel II
  12. Fast Car
  13. The 6-month effectiveness of Internet-based guided self-help for depression in adults with Type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus
  14. Neue Technologien in der Umfrageforschung
  15. Antibiotics in the Aquatic Environment
  16. Verwaltungsrecht
  17. Ansätze einer Systematisierung von Energiegenossenschaften
  18. A.3 Altersbezogene Unterschiede bei der Interaktion mit einem Virtual-Reality-System
  19. Stille Wasser sind kalt
  20. Visual Accounting
  21. Beihilfen im Agrarsektor
  22. Freie Berufe im Wandel der Arbeitsmärkte
  23. Kurzgeschichte
  24. The artificial intelligence of sense.
  25. Verhaltenswirkungen des Controlling
  26. Social network changes and life events across the life span
  27. Entrepreneurial remixing
  28. Adopters build bridges: Changing the institutional logic for more sustainable cities
  29. Der Nachhaltigkeitsprozess der Universität Graz - analysiert durch das Grazer Modell für Integrative Entwicklung
  30. Managerial Ideologies as Rationalizers
  31. § 63 Geheimhaltung und Datenschutz
  32. 'Summoning art to save the city': A Note