Beyond aroma: A sustainability performance analysis of Italian coffee roasting companies

Abstract

Coffee consumption is becoming increasingly prevalent among a growing number of consumers worldwide. Despite ranking seventh in coffee consumption, Italy is the global coffee export leader, with almost 1000 coffee roasting companies across the country. As a product subject to increasing interest in sustainability, numerous studies address the economic, social and environmental challenges affecting coffee production. However, only a few evaluate the sustainability performance of roasting companies in consuming countries. This study examines the integration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in business strategy to provide an overview of sustainability performance among Italian roasting companies. The analysis encompasses 78 sustainability practices across 49 businesses and assesses their communication to stakeholders. Furthermore, factors such as company size and specialty coffee sale were investigated for their influence on sustainability performance. The findings reveal a low commitment to sustainability within the Italian coffee sector, with 83.7% of companies in the first two stages of the five-stage CSR assessment model. Although there is an interest in addressing product safety, quality, and consumer relations, responsible sourcing is often relegated to suppliers or voluntary sustainability standards. Communication is not effective, as more than half of the companies did not provide sustainability information on their websites. In this sample, the commitment to sustainability was directly related to the size of the business, and the same relationship was observed for roasters selling specialty coffees.