Brewing a sustainable future: a firm-level analysis of sustainability initiatives in the coffee sector

Meta Leonie Boller (), Christine Bosch (), Kathleen Heinzel (), Athena Birkenberg () and Christian Krupitzer ()
Additional contact information
Meta Leonie Boller: University of Hohenheim
Christine Bosch: University of Hohenheim
Kathleen Heinzel: University of Hohenheim
Athena Birkenberg: University of Hohenheim
Christian Krupitzer: University of Hohenheim

Environment Systems and Decisions, 2025, vol. 45, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Abstract The coffee industry has long relied on third-party certification as their approach to sustainability, driven by customer demand and changing consumer behavior. Today, multiple forms of sustainability engagement have developed in the industry. This study uses a machine learning approach to analyze the engagement in sustainability initiatives of 100 firms active in the German market. Results reveal that company size and value chain position influence choice and engagement intensity in sustainability initiatives. A complementary literature analysis on policy recommendations to promote sustainability engagement in the coffee industry revealed a fragmented and insufficiently granular picture to address the diverse needs of stakeholders. While company characteristics significantly influence their choice of sustainability initiatives, policymakers often adopt generic approaches that do not reflect these nuances. Future research could extend this approach to deepen understanding or validate findings of policies for sustainable transformation in the coffee sector to other critical crops.

Keywords: Sustainable coffee value chains; Sustainability initiatives; Sustainability policy; Web crawling; Machine learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10669-025-10047-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:envsyd:v:45:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10669-025-10047-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/10669

DOI: 10.1007/s10669-025-10047-w

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment Systems and Decisions from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().