United Baristas is working to build a viable and vibrant coffee industry
Coffee creates opportunity
United Baristas is working with like-minded baristas and coffee companies to explore how specialty coffee can better support the Sustainable Development Goals.
Sustainability in Coffee
12% of people living in the coffee-growing regions of the world live in poverty. Many of the poorest live in rural areas.
The global poverty line was updated in autumn 2022 to $2.15. Living under the poverty line means you earn less than about £1.80 per day.
Across the globe around 25 million farming families depend on coffee for their livelihood. As many as 100 million people earn income across the coffee supply chain.
In 2015 the United Nations identified 17 goals for sustainable development. Specialty coffee can play a role in achieving these goals.
Sustainability agenda
From crop to cup, there are many ways to align coffee businesses with the sustainable development goals. United Baristas communicates options for baristas and coffee businesses.
Recent Articles
Introducing Total Coffee
A new talks programme for coffee people curated by United Baristas. Today we announce the first sessions of the new talks programme, Total Coffee. Join us at any of the dozen sessions taking place at Caffè Culture 2023 this October for powerful insights and actionable ideas. We’re bringing together a range of practitioners, experts and…
What’s been happening this year, plus a sneak peak into 2023
Well done, you’ve made it to the end of another dynamic year.
How can we make specialty coffee more sustainable?
Coffee’s scale, reach and connections enable us to play an important role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. We start this new series by exploring what it means to be sustainable.
Here’s how coffee businesses can tackle climate change
United Baristas starts a new series exploring the carbon footprint of coffee businesses. We want to equip the industry to reduce its impacts and build a more sustainable future.
Sharing & educating
United Baristas communicates actionable information to coffee people at industry events, in interviews and through our monthly Insights newsletter. Subscribe today.
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Gainful employment
United Baristas Jobs connects coffee people with jobs in the coffee industry. We’ve also been long-time advocates of the Living Wage Foundation and regularly publish articles on life, work and careers in coffee.
Life and Work in Coffee
Our Activities
Supporting coffee businesses
United Baristas champions best practice for starting, building and running a viable coffee business. For example in 2019 we introduced a market to make an easier way to start and grow a coffee business, and new opportunities existing proprietors to exit. And coffee business managers and owners regularly use our articles to enhance the financial performance of their coffee businesses.
Careers and wellbeing
Following on from our 2017 Barista Life project, we launched United Baristas Jobs to provide better and clearer coffee jobs information and career progression within the industry. In 2020 we have relaunched Barista Life to explore health and wellbeing issues for people working in the coffee industry.
Tackling climate change
United Baristas was founded in 2015 with a vision to reduce the coffee industry’s environmental impacts through the better allocation of equipment. United Baristas services have expanded since then to included the better procurement and maintenance of coffee equipment .
In 2019 we commenced a project to better understand and communicate the coffee industry’s carbon footprint, from crop to cup. As the majority of carbon emissions come from the making and drinking of coffee, it falls to us to lower our impacts to ensure coffee ongoing survival of the crop and protect the livelihoods of farmers.
Coffee farmers
United Baristas supports coffee farmers in need of finance through Kiva. To date we have provided over $1,000 USD of credit to over 40 farmers and co-ops in 12 coffee producing countries.
Our Values
For the coffee industry to be sustainable we need to work to make it commercially viable, socially just and safeguard the environment.
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Find out how United Baristas helps coffee people and businesses do amazing things ☕️⚡️