Sustainability

At Pelican Rouge Coffee Roasters sustainability is an integral part of the way we do business. We developed a structured approach to work towards a sustainable future in collaboration with our associates, clients and supply chain partners. Together we have committed ourselves to four strategic pillars, targeting the key areas in which we can make a positive impact.

coffee-plantation
coffee-plantation

PRODUCT CERTIFICATES

We recognize our responsibility to the environment and local communities. That is why we can proudly say that our coffee is approved by well-known certification programs and is grown by independent farmers. Our goal is to have all purchased and roasted coffees certified according to 1 of the certifying programs by 2025. All our Pelican Rouge branded coffees are yet certified.

RAINFOREST ALLIANCE COFFEE

The Rainforest Alliance Certification Program is a set of practical, yet ambitious farm and supply chain requirements, which was developed over a two-year consultation period with farmers, companies, NGOs, governments, and researchers around the world. The certification program focuses on protecting land and forests in ways that advance the rights and prosperity of rural communities—and vice versa.
 

Some of the main advances of the Rainforest Alliance Certification Program:

  • Environmental Advances: The Rainforest Alliance (RA) Certification Program fosters climate resilience from the ground up, protects the world’s forests, promotes climate-smart growing techniques, on-farm vegetation, and carbon storage that can help farmers adapt to and prepare for impacts.
  • Social Advances: Certified farms and processing facilities are required to set up internal oversight committees to advance in human rights protection. If human rights abuses, especially related to gender inequality are identified, committee members implement the RA Remediation Protocol and follow up with close monitoring.
  • Economic Advances: Many farm workers do not earn enough to meet their basic needs—even if paid the minimum wage. That’s why the Rainforest Alliance advocates for a living wage that focuses on rural prosperity by covering life daily expenses—food, water, housing, clothing, health care, education—with enough left over to put away some savings.

FAIRTRADE COFFEE

Fairtrade Certified Coffee is produced in accordance with rigorous environmental, economic and social standards as well as audits by an accredited third-party auditor, FLOCERT. More simply, having the Fairtrade Mark means that the farmers and workers that grew coffee are getting a fair deal, the farms are prioritizing workers’ rights and following set environmental standards.

The Fairtrade Standards are:

  • Economic standards for manufacturers to more equitably distribute the benefits of trade. These include things like paying the Fairtrade Minimum Price as well as the Premium, requiring traceability of the product through record-keeping as well as transparency in trade relations.
  • Social standards prevent exploitative child labor or any discriminatory employment practices at the cooperative level. It covers working conditions (such as having employment contracts), the ability for workers to organize and democratic voting as part of their membership.
  • Environmental standards aim to minimize producers’ impact on the planet, while still meeting geographical realities and their business growth. It bans the use of dangerous pesticides and GMO seeds, protect natural resources and encourage eco-friendly cultivation as well as incentivizing organic farming through an increased Premium and Minimum Price.

ORGANIC

The “organic” label, which also serves as an official European certification, is applied to products grown without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers. In the Netherlands, the SKAL foundation checks whether companies that carry this quality mark meet all the requirements set for organic cultivation and processing. To be eligible for the label, all parties within the coffee production chain must have organic certification. That includes farmers, traders, roasters, packers and wholesalers, but not retailers or catering businesses.

Company certificates

Ecovadis

Pelican Rouge Coffee Roasters has been awarded a gold rating by Ecovadis for the 6th year in a row! Ecovadis assessed the sustainability performance of Pelican Rouge Coffee Roasters in four key areas, namely “Environment”, “Labour and Human Rights”, “Ethics” and “Sustainable Procurement”. With this result Pelican Rouge Coffee Roasters belongs to the top 5 of 60,000 active companies working with this programme.

Ecovadis is a sustainability platform that promotes transparency and sustainability in the global supply chain. For more information go to:    www.ecovadis.com

ISO 9001 & 14001

We are a ISO 14001 certified company. ISO 14001 is the international standard with requirements for an environmental management system. The environmental management system is used to develop an environmental policy that is appropriate for the organization and to guarantee its implementation.

CO2 Performance Ladder

The CO2 Performance Ladder is a CO2 management system that consists of 5 levels. Up till level 3, an organisation that obtains a certificate on the Ladder reduces its own carbon emissions within the organisation and all its projects. From level 4 and 5, the organisation also aims to reduce CO2 emissions from the business chain and sector. An organisation that is certified on a certain level (and all previous levels) adheres to the requirements of the CO2 Performance Ladder. These requirements are based on four angles, namely:

coffee-beans-mobile.png
coffee-beans-mobile.png