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Ethical brand ratings and accreditation since 2001

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Lavazza

How ethical and sustainable is Lavazza? 

Lavazza is a brand of coffee famous for its Lavazza coffee pods and organic coffee range; 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. One way to increase customers and our confidence in the brand is if Lavazza submitted itself to apply for Ethical Accreditation. This would allow The Good Shopping Guide to conduct a further more detailed assessment in order to provide the brand with more specific recommendations for ethical and sustainable development.

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 high-quality 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 sustainability report, 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, Fairtrade is vital for a brand to directly support the farmers and communities that ingredients are purchased from. The brand has not released any statement about the use of Genetically Modified ingredients in its products which scores in the middle category of The Good Shopping Guide’s ratings.
 
In what areas does Lavazza score well for its ethics?

Lavazza performs well in many areas. It scored high due to its good Animal Welfare Policy, where 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 any Nuclear investment, no Armaments or connections to making any Political Donations, and is therefore not affiliated with any parties or individual politicians. The brand produces and sells a Tierra Bio Organic coffee that is certified-Organic by the EU.

Lavazza has no public record criticisms, making it one of the best supermarket coffee brands for ethical shoppers and eco-conscious consumers.

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.

Lavazza is close to reaching the minimum benchmark to be considered an ethical coffee brand and is therefore close to being able to qualify for Ethical Accreditation. To meet this benchmark Lavazza should begin by releasing a statement about Genetically-Modified ingredients; if these are not included in its products, this would push them into a top rating for that category. Lavazza should also look into a more detailed sustainability and environmental report with clear and specific targets.

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

0

GSG score

63
70

GSG category benchmark

100

Ethical Rating

Environment

  • Environmental Report

    Poor

  • Genetic Modification

    Acceptable

  • Organic

    Good

  • Nuclear Power

    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