How ethical and sustainable is Lavazza?
Lavazza is a brand of coffee best known for its Lavazza coffee pods and ground coffee. The brand appears in The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Coffee Ratings Table. Although Lavazza has not currently met our ethical benchmark, we hope to see the brand making the necessary changes to operate as an ethical coffee brand.
For more information on the organic coffee industry visit The Good Shopping Guide’s report on Ethical Coffee, and view and compare other brands in our Ethical Coffee Ratings Table.
What does Lavazza do?
Lavazza was created by Luigi Lavazza in 1895 in northwest Italy. The brand is owned by Luigi Lavazza S.p.A.. The brand offers organic coffee and is famous for its Lavazza coffee pods that come in compostable capsules in a large range of flavours.
For which criteria does Lavazza perform poorly?
While Lavazza has made progress there are still opportunities in its sustainable business development plans for further improvement. Lavazza scored low for its Environmental Report, only achieving a middle rating, as it did not lay out clear goals for the future. The targets that the brand set were vague and did not lay out a specific goals for the brand to work towards or measure progress against.
Lavazza does not produce Fairtrade coffee and therefore receives a bottom rating in this category. Fairtrade is vital for a brand to directly support the farmers and communities that ingredients are purchased from.
In what areas does Lavazza score well for its ethics?
Lavazza scored a top rating for Animal Welfare, as Lavazza states that it does not test on animals and ensures that they are not harmed in the process of creating the product.
Lavazza has no links to the Nuclear, Fossil Fuels or Armaments industries, therefore achieving a top rating in these categories.
How can Lavazza improve its ethical rating?
The Good Shopping Guide employs three separate factors to calculate a brand’s ethical grade; the score is decided by the Environment, People, and Animals.
To improve its score, Lavazza should improve in the categories where it receives a middle or bottom rating, such as Environmental Report or Fairtrade.
Do you own or work for a coffee brand? Get your brand name on our Ethical Coffee Ratings Table and fill out our initial assessment form to see if you qualify for Ethical Accreditation.
Ethical performance in category
GSG score
GSG category benchmark
Ethical Rating
Environment
-
Environmental Report
Acceptable
-
Organic
Good
-
Nuclear Power
Good
-
Fossil Fuels
Good
Animal
-
Animal Welfare
Good
People
-
Armaments
Good
-
Political Donations
Good
-
Fairtrade
Poor
Other
-
Ethical Accreditation
Poor
-
Public Record Criticisms
Good
= GSG Top Rating = GSG Middle Rating = GSG Bottom Rating