Costa

Is Costa an ethical coffee brand?

Established in London in 1971, Costa is the largest coffee chain in the UK and the second largest worldwide. Since 2019, it has been owned by The Coca-Cola Company, which expanded its drinks range into supermarkets. Despite its popularity, Costa unfortunately receives a very low score on The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Coffee Ratings Table and therefore cannot be classed as an Ethical Coffee brand.

The Ethical Coffee Ratings Table can show you where Costa ranks against other coffee brands and help you to learn more about the criteria that needs to be met for a brand to be classed as ethical.

What does Costa score well for?

Costa scores well on our table for its Environmental Report. The Costa website has a page dedicated to sustainability and lists its score commitments such as packing and the climate. The Coca-Cola Company also has a sustainability plan – its recent report contains various targets for areas such as packaging, water and carbon emissions.

Costa also receives a top score for Armaments and Nuclear Power, due to its lack of negative records.

What does Costa score poorly for?

Costa receives a bottom score for Animal Welfare on the Ethical Coffee Ratings Table. Despite not testing on animals, The Coca-Cola Company has multiple criticisms against it for animal welfare. One example includes the brand having to pay $21 million to settle lawsuits for falsely advertising that its Fairlife ultra-filtered milk came from humanely treated cows.

Additionally, due to Coca-Cola’s involvement in numerous unethical practices, Costa receives a bottom rating in the Public Record Criticisms and Public Record Criticisms+ categories. The latter category is only awarded to companies with several serious criticisms of their sustainability and/or human rights record. Examples of criticisms of Coca-Cola include allegations of plastic pollution, greenwashing, human rights abuses and more.

Costa also receives a bottom score from The Good Shopping Guide in our Fairtrade category as it does not have a Fairtrade certification from The Fairtrade Foundation. We hope that in the future Costa will improve upon this which would see its score rise on our table.

What can Costa do to improve its score? 

Costa’s score on the Ethical Coffee Ratings Table is the result of The Good Shopping Guide’s calculation of multiple ethical criteria. For Costa to reach our minimum ethical benchmark so that its position can rise on its table, it first must solve some issues. This includes its numerous criticisms and lack of Fairtrade certification.

Does your coffee brand have certification, proving its dedication to ethics and sustainability? If not, why not complete our preliminary evaluation form to discover if your brand might be eligible for The Good Shopping Guide’s renowned Ethical Accreditation.