Overall Sustainability and Social Responsibility Messaging

•  Segafredo Zanetti states on their website that their "constant drive to excellence in product quality, efficient service and a friendly atmosphere makes a real difference in the experience of our customers."
•  Segafredo Zanetti is part of the Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group, and while they have no sustainability and social responsibility efforts detailed on the brand website, they do have that data on the company website. It is important to note that because of this fact, this is where the data for this project will come from.
• Likely due to the fact that the brand website has nothing on it that surrounds sustainability or social responsibility, Rank a Brand has given it an E ranking. This is their lowest possible sustainability score, and "Segafredo has earned it by communicating nothing concrete about the policies for environment, carbon emissions or labor conditions in low-wages countries. For us as consumers, it is unclear whether Segafredo is committed to sustainability or not."
• The company, (not the brand itself) states that "sustainability has always been at the core of Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group and our flag brand Segafredo Zanetti increased its own commitment with environmentally-friendly features into his latest products and campaigns."
• The ‘Fondazione Zanetti Onlus’ was established by the Zanetti family to help achieve the group’s humanitarian aims.
• The Nossa Senhora da Guia plantation in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil ensures a fair wage for employees. 
• Their 2018 Results can be viewed here. An excerpt of it is: "New projects were launched also in other markets, to catch new trends, with increasing attention paid to the sustainability issue: compostable capsules, which have recently been awarded the title of product of the year in France, one of the most mature markets for the coffee sector; fairtrade, rainforest and organic products; and the important non-GMO certification obtained by our plantation in Kauai, Hawaii."

Campaign Messaging: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• Segafredo’s compostable capsules (compatible with Nespresso) debut in Austria has been supported by an extensive marketing campaign, which was awarded within a National competition.
• Vienna’s trams and Salzburg’s buses displayed Segafredo ’s compostable capsules advertising, strengthening brand recognition and sustainability commitment. 
•  Segafredo is a thirty-year-old brand that has enjoyed a high recognition level recognition in Italy and elsewhere. However, the company had not marketed or advertised its brand identity for a long time, and this was reflected in brand awareness among consumers. The design agency, Break Design, focused on creating a new, strong identity that would enable consumers to relate to the brand again.
• In 2019, Segafredo Zanetti France launched 100% biodegradable and compostable capsules; last January, the product was awarded “product of the year” in France. Furthermore, the Group is about to introduce other innovative solutions on the market in the coming months. Despite scanning, nothing could be discovered about what these innovative solutions might be.

Campaign Visuals: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• Campaign visuals for the campaign called Segafredo New Identity, can be accessed here.
• Campaign visuals for Segafredo’s compostable capsules can be viewed here.

Logo

• Their logo can be viewed here.

Partnerships: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• In April 2018, The Sustainable Coffee Challenge partnered with Massimo Zanetti Beverage Co. The Sustainable Coffee Challenge aims to make coffee the first globally sustainable agricultural product.
• In order to bolster its position in Brazil, Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group (MZBG) has acquired coffee company Café Pacaembu through its Brazil-based subsidiary. While not a partnership, but instead an acquisition, this was deemed interesting enough to include in this report.
•  JavaCycle in Faribault and Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA (MZB) in Virginia have forged a new partnership, which will turn agricultural waste into a sustainable product worth real cash. The companies involved are hopeful the venture will eventually lead to millions of dollars in revenue and many new jobs.

Recent News: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group has obtained two prestigious awards in France. The San Marco Biodegradable capsules has been awarded with the Elu Produit de l’Année logo. Additionally, Segafredo Zanetti Espresso was elected by the French magazine Capital for the third time in a row as “Best Café Brand”, ranking first on a panel of companies including Starbuck’s.
• A best practice in the industry comes from Kauai Coffee, the largest coffee plantation in the United States, with over 4 million coffee plants on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, owned by the Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group. Kauai has in fact become the world’s largest drip irrigation coffee company, with over 2,500 miles of drip tubes, a system that allows water to be saved and recycled in the fields.
• The Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group has reported consolidated revenues of €217.7 million (about US$244.8 million) for the first quarter (Q1) of 2019. "We also launched new projects in other markets, in response to new trends and with an ever-increasing focus on sustainability: from the bio-compostable capsules, product of the year in France, to the renewed range of products Segafredo that will soon be available in the Italian market. Based on the current results and the outlook, together with the strategies implemented, we confirm our forecasts of profitability growth for the current year,” Chairman and CEO Massimo Zanetti says.

illy

Overall Sustainability and Social Responsibility Messaging

• For illy, "quality and sustainability are an inseparable pair: only the truly excellent is sustainable, and anything worth sustaining must be excellent."
• They further state on their website that "The heart of this commitment is a belief that also serves as operating philosophy: that the continuous pursuit of quality sets into motion a virtuous cycle that creates value for all parties involved, from coffee farmer to the consumer’s cup."
• illy states that they "pursue economic sustainability by sharing the generated value; social sustainability through personal growth; environmental sustainability thanks to their respect for the ecosystem."
• In 2011, illy became the world’s first company to earn the Responsible Supply Chain Process certification from DNV (Det Norske Veritias), one of the world’s foremost, independent industrial process arbiters.
• In 1996, illy was Europe’s first coffee company to earn the highly-regarded ISO 9001certification, attesting to adherence to strict quality requirements throughout its production system.
• illy earned ISO 14001 certification in 2003, an international standard, applicable to all types of enterprise that establishes a management system’s effectiveness in monitoring the environmental impact of company activities.
• illy earned EMAS registration 2004, by voluntarily agreeing to continuous reductions in the environmental impact of its industrial activities.
• Their mission statement, found on their website states that "Our mission, passion and obsession is to delight all those who cherish the quality of life, through our search for the best coffee nature can provide, enhanced by the best available technologies and by our search for beauty in everything we do."
• Under values, the company maintains that those are based on: "Ethics. We create and share superior stakeholder value over time through our commitment to improvement, transparency, sustainability, and people development. Excellence. We aim to inspire throughout all illy touch points in our value chain from bean to cup by creating extraordinarily good and beautiful experiences and products as well as by working efficiently and with a sense of urgency in our quest to always satisfy our customers’ needs and wishes."
• Their code of ethics, as well as their organization model, can be downloaded for viewing on this page, by scrolling to the bottom.
• Their latest sustainable value report from 2018 can be read here.

Campaign Messaging: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• The campaign "Live Happilly" can be viewed here. Please note that the spelling is theirs, and not ours for "happilly", as this is designed to highlight the company name "illy". This ran in North America in September 2019. "Billboards featuring Bocelli’s unmistakable image adorned the financial district, San Francisco International Airport and select Bart stations." It was filmed in black-and-white, and the spot tells the story of Illy through values shared by artist and brand.

Campaign Visuals: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• The campaign visual can be accessed here.

Logo

• The illy logo can be viewed here.

Partnerships: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• To build its global presence, illy is now looking for a retail partner in the US to help launch illy coffee bars in the world’s largest coffee market.
• Andrea Illy, third generation heir of the Illycaffè dynasty, last year struck an alliance with investment group JAB Holdings to produce and distribute Illy coffee capsules. Being in the coffee sector, where issues such as sustainability have become a concern, has shaped his view on maintaining control of his company. However, globalization and increasing competition in the coffee sector has forced Illy to adapt. Staying closely held does not work anymore. Co-opetition is his new mantra. Part of that adaptation has been the deal with JAB, which allowed Illy coffee capsules to be produced and distributed in supermarkets globally, something that Illy could not do alone.

Recent News: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• In this article/video, Andrea Illy, chairman at Illycaffe, explains how the company is addressing climate change by employing new agricultural tactics as it aims to become carbon-free in 2033.
•  In this article, illy describes how they have long term established partnerships with educational institutions and industry organizations in support of continuing career development to develop a graduate-level course of study in the sustainable production of coffee. Students can earn a master’s degree in coffee economics and science by completing the course of study, done in collaboration with the universities of Udine and Trieste.
•  This article provides an interview with illy CEO, Massimiliano Pogliani. He discusses many things, but specifically references quality, transparency, and sustainability of the product and of the brand.
• In early 2019, illy was recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the 2019 World's Most Ethical Companies. 
• illycaffè Chairman Andrea Illy, reminds industry to think about the future in 2019, in this article.

Union Hand Roasted Coffee

Overall Sustainability and Social Responsibility Messaging

• Union Hand Roasted Coffee states on their website that their mission is to spread the joy of specialty coffee.
• They are also quite clear on their website about why they settled on the name "Union": "We call ourselves Union because we couldn’t make great coffee without our partners—the farmers that grow the exclusive gems we share with you. In return, we pay them a fair price so they can invest in their farm, families and workers. We work with our partners long-term, towards constantly improving the quality of coffee and livelihoods. We call it Union Direct Trade, and we’re proud that we were one of the first roasters in the UK to trade directly with coffee farmers."
• "Union is founded on the principle of marrying high quality specialty coffee with responsible sourcing, making coffee better for everyone from drinkers to farmers."
• Their code of conduct can be viewed here. 
• In 2017, the company won the Gold Recycler Award by their recycling partner First Mile, being one of their top 10 recyclers out of 20,000 customers.
• Some things Union does surrounding sustainable operations are: their print materials are made from recyclable, FSC-certified materials, all the coffee grounds from their barista training facilities are recycled into bio fuel, and they encourage cycling to work for their roastery employees, supported by a Cycle Scheme. All these and more, can be viewed here.

Campaign Messaging: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• On the 10th April 2019, Sustainable Sourcing Manager at Union, Pascale Schuit, accepted the SCA Sustainability Award 2019 in Boston on behalf of the whole Union team for their work in Yayu, Ethiopia, on preserving one of the last remaining wild coffee forests. This work also focuses on improving livelihoods and incomes in the area, as well as protecting the biodiversity of the forest.
• An advertising campaign from 2018 titled Union Hand-Roasted CoffeeClub, had a tagline of "Freshly hand-roasted specialty coffee, direct from farmers to your door", and can be viewed here.

Campaign Visuals: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• There are no campaign visuals for the past 12 months for sustainability and social responsibility.

Logo

• Their logo can be viewed here.

Partnerships: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• There have been no partnerships for the past 12 months for sustainability and social responsibility.

Recent News: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• An article titled "Why two coffee entrepreneurs believe quality and ethics go hand-in-hand" can be read here. There is also a video that can be viewed.
• Though this has nothing to do with sustainability or social responsibility, this was provided for added value and interest. The article "Union Hand-Roasted Coffee releases Cold Brew Concentrate" can be read here.
•  Edita Chodarcevic, head of coffee education, at Union Hand-Roasted Coffee, is quoted as saying: "We have always been about ethical and sustainable sourcing and we don’t compromise on that. That is what still makes us specialty, despite being bigger than some other roasteries out there", in this article.

Overall Sustainability and Social Responsibility Messaging

•  Nestle owns Nespresso, but it is immediately obvious that the parent company is allowing the brand to have a distinctive voice of it own surrounding corporate responsibility and sustainability. This is noted most on the Nespresso brand website.

•  Nespresso has forgone an "about" page and has simply both a recycling section and a sustainability section on their website home page.
• According to their sustainability page, Nespresso's key message is "sustainability is a core value that you uphold every time you drink Nespresso. Cup by cup, you are helping us recycle aluminum, sustainably produce coffee, and protect the environment."
• In 2003, Nespresso partnered with the Rainforest Alliance.
• Nespresso has had a partnership with the Fair Labor Organization for many years.
• Nespresso has built strong bonds with Fairtrade International. 
• Nespresso has a long term partnership with TechnoServe. TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. Nespresso partners with them to work together in different places like Africa, Colombia and even Cuba.
• This video, which is just under 3 minutes, explains Nespresso's commitment to recycling.
• This video, which is just over 1 minute, explains what happens to recycled capsules.
•  This link contains the annual status update on achievements towards Nespresso's sustainability ambitions and goals for 2020.

Campaign Messaging: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• Nespresso has its own YouTube channel where it houses all its campaigns and can be found here.
• Nespresso has done a series of videos in 2019 on the "Reviving Origins" campaign, covering Zimbabwe, Colombia and Puerto Rico.
• A compilation of George Clooney-centric ads can be found here. These are not surrounding sustainability or social responsibility, but this is being provided as added value.

Campaign Visuals: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• The visual for the 2019 limited-edition release of the Nespresso RE:CYCLE Vélosophy bike, made from recycled Nespresso capsules can be viewed here. While not a campaign, this was provided for added value.
• The campaign visuals for Reviving Origins can be viewed here, here here, here, here, and here. The search string to find all the content can be used again by clicking here.

Logo

• Their logo can be viewed here.

Partnerships: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• In the summer of 2019, in partnership with PUR Projet, Nespresso USA began our first wave of planting shade seedlings in the La Giorgia region of Costa Rica.
• "The Nespresso #MySmallStepsSweepstakes has been launched by Brandmovers and Nespresso in association with the 2019 limited-edition release of the Nespresso RE:CYCLE Vélosophy bike, made from recycled Nespresso capsules. The #MySmallStepsSweepstakes is designed to drive consumer awareness of Nespresso's recycling initiatives and the use of Nespresso's free capsule recycling service as a way to reduce environmental waste."

Recent News: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• An interview with Guillaume Le Cunff, president and CEO of Nespresso USA—and also CEO of Nespresso Sustainability Innovation Fund can be accessed here.
• In 2019, Reviving Origins was launched by Nespresso. It is a program to help restore "high-quality coffee production in coffee-farming regions that are under threat due to political conflict, economic hardship or environmental disaster."
• Nespresso launches capsule recycling program in China.
• As part of its commitment to sustainability 
• , Nespresso recycles its used aluminum coffee capsules into metal that is then used to create Caran d’Ache ballpoint pens and Victorinox pocket knives.

Overall Sustainability and Social Responsibility Messaging

•  Starbucks makes it quite clear on their website what their sustainability and their social responsibility messaging is. They state that as a company, they have made sustainability a priority since the inception of the company.
• Their approach to reducing their environmental impact, for them, means looking at all areas of their business and understanding how they intersect, and how they can "integrate new solutions to create meaningful and sustained change." This means ensuring they have greener stores, greener cups and packaging, greener power, and looking at climate change and what they can do as a company to make a difference.
• The most recent Global Social Impact Report from Starbucks is for 2018, and can be accessed here. This report reflects their "aspirations and marks their progress as a company in the areas where they can make the biggest impact — leading in sustainability, strengthening communities and creating opportunities."

Campaign Messaging: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• Starbucks spent 245.7 million U.S. dollars on advertising during its fiscal year ending in September 2019. This is a decrease in their global advertising investments compared to 2018 as in that year they spent nearly 15 million dollars more on marketing its products and services.
• Starbucks Corporation announced that it is raising $1 billion via a sustainability bond to support farmers who ethically source coffee. It's the company's largest bond to date and follows two previously issued sustainability bonds in 2016 and 2017.
• "We are very pleased to see that our new sustainability bond attracted significant investor interest and was oversubscribed," Starbucks CFO Patrick Grismer, said in a press release. “Our intent is that, by issuing a sustainability bond, we're providing investors an opportunity to participate in our sustainability efforts, and our hope is that this inspires others to pursue more sustainability-related investing opportunities."
• Last year, Starbucks launched a campaign to improve employee mental health. Mental health services are not an innovative thing for Starbucks. Starbucks has long offered inpatient and outpatient mental health care, "as well as six free visits with a mental health provider through its Employee Assistance Program."
• In 2018, Starbucks started trying out a program that allows selected employees to spend 50% of their workweek at a nonprofit that is local to them.

Campaign Visuals: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

•  In 2018, the silver IPA Effectiveness award for social strategy went to Starbucks. It has been reported that these campaigns returned almost £4 in additional profit for every £1 invested. Since then, Starbucks has not slowed down the pace on social media, with an assortment of powerful social campaigns contributing to its continued growth in global markets.
• Right at the start of 2019, Starbucks launched ‘Starbuck Stories’. This is a content website that shines a spotlight on storytelling related to the brand’s social impact. It also shares this content on its related social media channels, including Twitter and Instagram.
• In 2019, the ‘Extra Shot of Pride’ campaign generated high levels of interest and engagement on social, in celebration of the launch of Starbucks rainbow-colored reusable cups across the US and Canada. This is an example that was shared on Twitter.

Logo

• The Starbuck logo can be accessed here. 

Partnerships: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• United Way's recently announced national partnership with Starbucks will help drive meaningful community engagement in and outside of their stores. Starbucks plans to have 100 stores up and running by 2025 in underrepresented neighborhoods across the country as part of the expanded Community Store program, working with nonprofits, like the United Way, as well as civic leaders to bolster economic growth.

• “Starbucks partnered with Conservation International, an environmental nonprofit organization, to develop C.A.F.E. Practices (Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices),” according to Stanford University research. “The goal was to contribute to the livelihood of coffee farmers and to ensure high-quality coffee for the long term. If Starbucks were able to overcome the issues it faced with a widespread implementation of C.A.F.E., the initiative could go a long way towards improving the sustainability of its coffee supply chain while at the same time improving Starbucks’ image as a socially responsible corporation.” While this is not a new partnership, this was included as it was part of this recent article.

Recent News: Past 12 Months for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

• For thirty years, Starbucks has tried to solve its cup problem. In 2018, Starbucks pledged itself to the NextGen Cup Challenge, partnering with other food companies and brands for assistance. This contest is simply one part of Starbucks broader search for a solution.
•  After pledging last year to phase out plastic straws from all of its locations by 2020, Starbucks announced plans to test recyclable and compostable cups. The coffee chain aims to “double the recycled content, recyclability and compostability, and reusability” of its cups and packaging by 2022.
•  Throughout the latter part of 2019, Starbucks tested what it called "greener" cups. Tests were done in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, and London on cups that "will be both recyclable and compostable in those municipalities' facilities," according to the company.
• Starbucks, in an effort to prove that their reputation for being socially responsible, is broadening its effort to put more coffee shops, and therefore create more jobs, in poor neighborhoods.
• On Monday January 6th, 2020 Starbucks provided a new mental health benefit to its employees. Effective immediately they will all have free access to a meditation app called Headspace. “As of today we’ve added Headspace to our suite of comprehensive benefits and resources to support our partners, as research shows many mental health-related benefits of meditation,” the company wrote Monday on its website. Employees "can sign up for a free Headspace subscription and have access to hundreds of themed sessions and easy guided meditations on everything from stress and sleep to focus and anxiety.”
•  Starbucks is debuting a new feature in their app to allow consumers to find out if their coffee was brewed with ethically sourced beans. "The new “bean to cup” tracker was announced in March but is set release early in 2020." This "new technology is in collaboration with Microsoft as the entire Starbucks app uses Microsoft Azure. Starbucks is testing the blockchain technology in collaboration with farms in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Rwanda."