Cooxupé implements its own Sustainability Protocol
Entitled “Gerações”, the Protocol brings guidelines to the cooperative and its members towards providing coffees that respect the society and the environment, and it brings financial benefits
Committed to producing and supplying Brazilian and international markets with sustainable coffees, Cooxupé has been implementing, since May 2022, its own Sustainability Protocol entitled “Gerações”. It presents guidelines and levels for either the cooperative and its members might be integrated to the current scenario: that longevity and quality of coffee are deeply connected to an economically sustainable production system, in harmony with the environment and associated producers, their families and employees.
By these means, Cooxupé and its members are going to adopt the best practices in order to ensure resilience, enhance labor conditions at farms, and, consequently, to produce coffee with social responsibility. In this direction, Cooxupé’s Sustainability Protocol introduces requirements and commitments that must be accomplished by the cooperative and its members.
Cooperativism and ESG
Cooxupé’s President Director, Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo, remarks that cooperativism supports ESG practices by essence, in line with social, environmental and governance principles, as noticed in the cooperative’s daily practices.
“Currently the entire chain linked to the production of sustainable and traceable coffees is aimed at meeting the demands of domestic and international markets. In 2022 we complete 90 years of cooperativism. It means nine decades of care and efforts for everyone to grow up and develop in a sustainable manner. ‘Gerações’ Protocol was born to ensure that our associated families stay in the market with productivity and responsibility. This also confirms our steadiness, credibility, and commitment with the society.”
Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo – Cooxupé’s President Director
Gerações to all producers
Cooxupé is composed by more than 17 thousand associated families. It actually brings together producers that greatly vary in amount of production, geographic location, experience, goals, activities, and resources. Thus, in terms of ‘Gerações’ Protocol, the cooperative aims to serve all its members. Therefore, in spite of their differences, each one of them will be able to reach the highest accessible level of sustainability. In order to guarantee transparency in the processes, the Protocol brings four different levels of sustainability.
• Level 1: Conscious of Sustainability;
• Level 2: Involved in Sustainability;
• Level 3: Practicing Sustainability;
• Level 4: Excellence in Sustainability.
Each of these levels assembles groups of indicators. In this regard, the members must comply with the minimum commitments with sustainability (Level 1), increasing such commitments in order to evolve to other levels.
“The protocol also presents indicators for Cooxupé to provide members with all needed support to evolve, implement sustainability, and meet the final objective of reaching the highest Level 4, demonstrating excellence in sustainable practices.”
Alexandre Vieira Costa Monteiro – Cooxupé’s head of ESG.
Sustainability Protocol and technical assistance
Cooxupé’s Superintendent of Development of Members, José Eduardo Santos Júnior, celebrates the fulfilment of an old dream: the cooperative taking a protocol of sustainable practices to its members, in a manner that everyone can participate in the new era of coffee production.
“The new moment concerns all aspects involving the producer, not only in the field (regarding coffee production), but with the environment and with people concerning the activity. For all of this to work out it is quite important that we have intense team work inside the cooperative, engaging all departments. Producers must be conscious that nothing is going to be the same. It won’t be possible to sell coffee without sustainable practices. So, we must give them the way to do it. And Cooxupé’s technical assistance will play a key role for all of this to come true.”
José Eduardo Santos Júnior – Cooxupé’s Superintendent of Development of Members
Sustainability Protocol for world market
Cooxupé’s Commercial Superintendent, Lúcio Araújo Dias, outlines that the cooperative has been long noticing certain world coffee market demands: for people to be certified, to take better care of the environment, and to follow a series of rules in order to match minimum requisites of productive systems to produce coffee according to these rules.
“In intense contact with this world, we’ve felt Cooxupé needed to have its own protocol. It is extremely important, and it will require great commitment and engagement from all employees and members, because we must produce coffee within certain conditions, knowing that our product will be consumed by demanding people, concerning food conditions.”
Lúcio Araújo Dias – Cooxupé’s Commercial Superintendent
Transparency and Credibility
‘Gerações’ Sustainability Protocol has been developed by Cooxupé, with support from SCS Global Services (SCS), a global certification entity for third-parties with more than 40 years of experience in environmental, sustainability and food quality certification. In order to guarantee total transparency and credibility, the cooperative and its members will be visited and undergo verification process by third parties to ensure the commitment of producers to the different levels of sustainability, as well as to verify the engagement of Cooxupé in supporting its members.
“We are amplifying our responsibility and commitment to produce coffees with better quality, traceability, and safety for the consumers. We also intend, thereby, to capitalize a little bit more in each farm of our members, but, above all, to enable safety to our farmers production so they may feel comfortable while saying that they are contributing to the sustainability of our planet.”
Osvaldo Bachião Filho – Cooxupé’s Vice-president Director
Sustainability Protocol on demand
Lúcio Dias concludes that farmers need to produce according to either market and consumer demands, for today and to the future.
“This is the main focus of ‘Gerações’: to generate actions to enable people to do the best possible. This program bears a Brazilian name. It is strong to tell the world that we know what and how to do in order to produce high quality products with great responsibility. In return, we want fair prices and added value by delivering sustainable coffees. By these means we intend to generate in the consumer a desire for buying coffees grown by our members and prepared and shipped by Cooxupé. This is the very purpose for the sustainability protocol to exist.”
Lúcio Araújo Dias – Cooxupé’s Commercial Superintendent