We know that having the best coffee also means having the most sustainable coffee possible. And it’s not just our coffee – we’re making sure that all the products we buy are sourced sustainably and responsibly.
We have a responsibility to ensure sound social, ethical and environmental practices within our supply chains. That’s why we are committed to carrying out all our procurement practices in the most sustainable and responsible way possible.
By working with our suppliers, sustainable practice experts, we've developed and implemented policies for human rights in the supply chain, plus sustainable production for our most important commodities.
We'll make sure that the human rights of people involved in supplying our products and services are respected and upheld.
We'll ensure that all products are sourced sustainably and animal welfare standards are maintained, without negatively impacting the environment.
As a business, we are dedicated to inspiring the world to love great coffee. However, we know that we only have the chance to achieve this ambition because of the people who work in our organisation, the people who create our products, and of course the people who buy them. People form the core of our business and we’re committed to making sure that human rights are protected across our own business as well as our supply chains.
We don’t tolerate any form of slavery, forced labour or human trafficking – within our own business, across the operations of our franchisees and business partners, suppliers and wider supply chain.
All Costa Coffee procurement is subject to compliance with our Costa Coffee Supplier Guiding Principles which set out our minimum standards and the basic principles of co- operation that we require of all suppliers and business partners. These requirements are based on core international labour organisation conventions, the ETI base code and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Our Modern Slavery Statements give us the opportunity to share the progress we are making in the area of human rights. You can read about our work in 2018/19 here.
We take care in how we source our coffee beans, as well as our other key commodities including crops (such as soy, cocoa and palm oil) and animal derived ingredients (such as eggs, meat and dairy).
We are working hard to ensure we set the right sustainability standards across the ingredients used in our food range to protect human rights, the environment and animal welfare. Where possible, we source commodities to recognised global standards.
We are committed to collaborating with our fantastic suppliers to ensure that all palm oil and palm oil derivatives used in our own brand products are sourced sustainably.
We consider The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to be the most comprehensive palm oil certification system globally. That's why we're committed to supporting palm oil and palm oil based products that are RSPO certified and have been proud members of the RSPO since January 2020.
Although we’ve made some great progress, we know that there is still more to do. We will continue to work closely with both our UK and international suppliers and partners to continue improving our business’ supply of sustainable palm oil over the coming months.
Check our progress at www.rspo.org.
We've made a global commitment to use only cage-free eggs in our products by 2025. In the UK, whole shell eggs used in our savoury food range is already 100% free range and we’re making good progress with our suppliers to ensuring that the eggs used as an ingredient in our sweet food also move to 100% free range, with the aim of meeting the target in 2021.
In our international markets, our teams are working with their respective suppliers to meet our global commitment and we look forward to being able to report on progress in 2020/21.
We understand our customers expect us to ensure responsible animal welfare standards in our supply chain. Over and above this however, we believe that having good animal welfare management is the right thing to do and should be an integral part of our sustainability approach.
We recognise our responsibility to work with suppliers who are also committed to best practice in animal welfare management and to support continuous improvement in welfare standards. We're currently in the process of updating our global policies for animal welfare and look forward to sharing more details soon.
Learn about how we support our charity, the Costa Foundation, to improve the lives of those working and living within some of the world’s most remote coffee-growing communities here.
Some of the images used on this page can be credited to the Rainforest Alliance.
