SCAA’s 2007 Sustainability Award Winners

Poabs Organic/Biodynamic Estates (Producer, India)
Award Category: Sustainable Business Practice and Sustainable Projects
Poabs Organic/Biodynamic Estates is an exemplary model for sustainability. It’s an example of a holistic, self-sustainable, bio-diverse eco-system. Workers and their families benefit from housing, education, fish and dairy farms, and medical care. Coffee is planted under a double canopy of shade with much of the original jungle trees intact. As a result, the bird-life on this estate is an ornithologist’s delight. There are 52 dams constructed in the estate to conserve water. Walls have been constructed to prevent soil erosion. Also, Poabs Organic Estates is one of two organizations worldwide certified “Biodynamic” by Demeter-International of Germany. They are certified organic by the USDA National Organic Program, Naturland (Germany) and by Skal International (Netherlands). Poabs Organic/Biodynamic Estates also conforms to ISO 9001:2000 and JAS (Japan Agricultural Standards) standards. Their tea and spices are fair-trade certified by the Fairtrade Labeling Organization (FLO).

Selva Negra Coffee Estate (Producer, Nicaragua)
Award Categories: Sustainable Business Practice and Sustainable Project
Wastewater from coffee processing is a major environmental issue, which can cause damage to rivers, wildlife, and the drinking waters of whole towns. At Selva Negra, the company treats and uses its coffee byproducts from the coffee processing facility. This includes the pulp, husk and the wastewater. Over the last decade, Selva Negra has been processing wastewater through a cleaning process that, as a byproduct, creates methane gas. Selva Negra also utilizes the pulp as an integral part of its compost production. The estate produces more than four million pounds of compost a year.

International Paper Company & Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Allied and Roaster, United States)
Award Category: Sustainable Business Partnership Resulting in a Sustainable Product
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and International Paper Company partnered to bring to market the first paper hot beverage cup made from fully renewable resources. Each year, consumers use 15 billion paper hot cups, a figure that is expected to grow to 23 billion by 2010, according to the 2005 Technomic Disposable Packaging Assessment. Conventional hot cups use a waterproof lining made from polyethylene (PE), a petroleum-based plastic that is not sustainable. The new ecotainer is lined with a corn-based material, polylactic acid (PLA), which is manufactured in a greenhouse gas neutral environment. It requires half the energy to produce and is compostable under proper conditions. By converting to the new cup, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters expects to consume nearly a quarter of a million pounds less of non-renewable petrochemical materials every year.

La Union de Cooperativas Agropecuarias Soppexcca (Producer, Nicaragua)
Award Category: Sustainable Business Practices
Soppexcca is a cooperative alliance of small coffee producers located in the city of Jinotega, Nicaragua. The organization is made up of 650 producers who are part of 15 cooperatives. Their mission is to provide business and organizational support for small coffee producers that are members of Soppexcca. They provide: group activities and community involvement for the children of coffee producers; food and school packages for members; the building of schools; low-cost pharmacies; the promotion of adult education; and reading programs. Forty percent of Soppexcca members are women and the women members produce 25 percent of the coffee that Soppexcca sells.