We’re Working to Preserve the Future of Coffee

Together with RGC Coffee, we’ve reimagined our commercial relationship as an engine for change to amplify our efforts to improve climate resilience, farmworker protections and farmer income. This blended financing model includes multi-year volume commitments, targeted investment from KDP and leveraged funding provided by cooperatives via their Fairtrade premium fund. This package delivers measurable benefits aimed to improve farmer income, soil health or biodiversity within communities in our coffee supply chain.     

A prime example of this model’s success is a program focused on improving incomes of smallholder, indigenous coffee farmers in Caldas, Colombia who belong to a group called La Vereda. Over three years, the combination of KDP’s purchase volume commitment, a preferred price and targeted investment has led to an overall average increase in net household income of 130%, compared to a 2021 baseline for this group of farmers.

This unique collaboration is an example where procurement practices are paired effectively with targeted investment to deepen and accelerate impact at origin. We hope to inspire others to learn from our journey and replicate this model, adding to a body of learning around income improvement approaches.

Since 2014, KDP has partnered with CRS to implement the Blue Harvest Regenerative program. The project aims to improve the climate resilience of coffee farming communities in Honduras and Nicaragua by working with farmers to implement practices that restore soil fertility, build soil structure, improve rainwater infiltration and reduce water contamination.

Beyond individual farms, Blue Harvest Regenerative promotes conservation of critical natural landscapes. Leveraging its network and strong reputation, the team collaborates with a wide array of local government agencies and organizations to contribute to the restoration and protection of water resources and to help improve water security for coffee farming households and downstream communities.

Over the years, our partnership has made significant headway to achieve our targets of training more than 8,000 smallholder farmers on water-smart agriculture practices across over 40,000 acres of farmland, while also conserving 120 million liters of water and providing 145,000 people with improved drinking water. This scaled approach to restoring coffeelands across Central America serves as a replicable model of connecting farm-level improvements with broader landscape protection.

For 13 years, KDP has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with World Coffee Research in a partnership helping to secure coffee’s future. As a founding member of WCR, we’ve invested $4.6 million in the organization as of February 2025 to tackle the pressing challenges facing coffee and its farmers worldwide.

The convergence of climate change and rising production costs are forcing farmers to make tough choices — sometimes abandoning coffee altogether.  Together, we’re engaged in decade-spanning research projects that elevate innovation, develop climate-resilient coffee varieties and promote sustainable farming practices.

And with our Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Monique Oxender serving on WCR’s Board, we’re pioneering collective action. This collaboration across the coffee industry lets us create impact far beyond what we could achieve alone, leveraging WCR’s scientific expertise and global relationships to address systemic challenges in coffee.

For example, WCR launched a speed breeding program in 2024 which will deliver 100 new arabica varieties by 2030, unlocking unprecedented levels of genetic diversity in coffee.

We believe there is power in convening the right partners over the long-term. This partnership serves as an example of elevating unique assets and capabilities and remaining steadfast in our commitments for long-term results.

Behind every cup of coffee are the hands that harvested it. That’s why KDP partners with RGC Coffee on the Las Manos del Café program in central Colombia. Because we know that environmental sustainability is inextricably linked with economic security.

The Las Manos del Café program aims to address a critical gap in protections for farmworkers and their families – the development and implementation of tools specifically designed to elevate well-being and socioeconomic livelihoods. With our support, the program provides essential services that help to transform lives – from medical access and safety measures to insurance and savings programs, infrastructure improvements and entrepreneurship training.

Aligned with the International Labor Organization’s Decent Work Agenda, this holistic approach doesn’t just aim to improve individual well-being; it seeks to reshape the entire relationship between workers and farm owners.

Since 2022, KDP’s support has enabled nearly 700 farmworkers to access services and financial benefits that would otherwise have been out of reach.

The Café Selva Norte project, led by ECOTIERRA, supports sustainable coffee agroforestry in Peru by offering micro-credit and technical assistance to smallholder farmers and cooperatives, ultimately helping to restore productive agroforestry systems, preserve existing forests and enhance both coffee production and quality. The project generates VCS-certified carbon credits through activities like reforestation, which sequester carbon and contribute to climate change mitigation while improving farmer livelihoods.

In 2024, KDP Canada voluntarily purchased nearly 2,900 carbon credits from ECOTIERRA, offsetting emissions equivalent to KDP brand Van Houtte Coffee Services’ Scope 1 emissions for 2023, including those associated with coffee roasting and VHCS’ vehicle fleet⁶. Revenues from the sale of these credits are partially returned to farmers, generating positive livelihood impact and additional regenerative efforts and investments.

 Moreover, this project demonstrates how KDP is learning through an alternative approach to purchase carbon credits and contributes to conservation within coffee growing regions of the world.

KDP and Root Capital have long partnered to support coffee cooperatives to scale and strengthen their operations and become engines of impact in their communities. 2025 is the year we mark our partnership’s 25-year anniversary and $10 million commitment.

Through the years, our partnership has evolved in an effort to help meet the needs of KDP’s coffee suppliers including supporting farmers through the coffee leaf rust crisis, low market prices, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change impacts.

Today, we are working to de-risk and help fill a lending gap for those small- and medium-sized, rural coffee cooperatives that are often excluded from traditional lending systems. Enabled by partners like KDP, Root Capital delivers financial and critical advisory services to help them grow into sustainable businesses.

Our efforts have supported more than 170 coffee cooperatives and unlocked more than $500 million in lending to KDP suppliers in communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia.