Benefits of Social Enterprise
Sustainable Harvest addresses pressing social and environmental issues through business. Our mission—to improve the specialty coffee supply chain for all involved and especially to help farmers earn a sustainable income—is the primary measure of our success.
Two-thirds of the company’s operating expenses are invested in training and infrastructure projects that assist growers and their cooperatives to improve coffee quality, enhance market linkages, and earn more sustainable livelihoods.
With this social enterprise model, Sustainable Harvest’s farmer training and capacity-building programs can become economically self-sustaining. Once our initial investment reaches a certain scale, our coffee sales provide the revenue to continue and even expand farmer training and support programs.
As a certified B Corporation—a new and transparent legal structure for social enterprises—Sustainable Harvest meets a set of product, employment, community, and environmental standards far more stringent than traditional corporate models. Sustainable Harvest is ranked among the top three percent of B Corps worldwide and is the recipient of the 2006 Sustainability Award from the Specialty Coffee Association of America and the 2007 Sustainability Award for Small Business from the state of Oregon.
Read more about B Corporations, the Relationship CoffeeSM model, or our development programs.
"In 1997, Sustainable Harvest set into motion proof that business can be leveraged to solve social and environmental challenges... the company has a proven track record for creating social change and improving the lives of coffee farmers on three continents. Sustainable Harvest is a pioneering example of how business can do social good and is a great example of a B Corporation at its best."
- Bart Houlahan, co-creator of B Corporation