The B Corporation Best For The World 2019 list is out, and we are PROUD to be among the top 10% of all B Corps in the Community category. This honor recognizes the significant impact of our direct partnerships with coffee farmers and their communities, through our People-Centered Development program. In addition, this recognition also acknowledges how we've built this level of care for community, both global and local, into our business model.
We became a Certified B Corporation last October. It hasn't even been a year, and we are thrilled to have been named a Best For The World honoree!
Ranking in the top 10 percent of all 3,000 B Corps for their positive impact on their community, we earned this honor because of our direct, long-term relationships with our suppliers (read: our coffee farming partners!), as well as our meaningful involvement in the coffee farming communities. Not to mention the support we give to our local Western Mass community, and state-wide activism on worker's rights and GMO labeling.
We were also assessed on our practices and policies around community development, including whether our coffee is inherently designed to solve a social issue - which it is, and has been from the beginning! These include access to basic services, health, education, economic opportunity and the arts. We've made this Best For The World list thanks to our unique and collaborative People-centered Development projects in the coffeelands.
“We design and fund People-Centered Development projects in each community we work with, based on the communities’ chosen priorities. This award-winning approach focuses on the real needs of local communities for the ecological, economic and social necessities of life that are often disrupted by conventional development assistance. This is all in direct partnership with the farmers who know better than anybody else how to help themselves.”
~ Dean Cycon, Founder/CEO
International Community Development Projects (past and present) include the following - all of which were identified as priorities from the coffee farming communities themselves!:
- Reforestation in Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Sumatra (over 350,000 trees planted to date!)
- Gender Equity
- Clean drinking water and irrigation systems in Ethiopia
- Food sovereignty
- Youth in agroforestry in Guatemala
- Water conservation
- Children's literacy in Nicaragua
- Combating the climate crisis
- Cervical cancer screening and treatment in Ethiopia
- Conserving critical endangered orangutan and migratory bird habitat
and many more!
Thanks for all your continued support - together, let's see what we can do next year!
