The Sustainability Manifesto
and the Sustainable Development Goals

The Manifesto reflects the deep sense of responsibility that we have always demonstrated towards the communities with whom we operate, particularly coffee-producers, our employees and consumers.

In 2015, the year of the Milan EXPO and the publication of our first Sustainability Report, we embarked on a journey to gradually integrate sustainability into all our business activities, and also set the 4 Priority Goals at the heart of our Manifesto.

In 2015, we subscribed to the United Nations 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and joined the United Nations Global Compact, teaming up with other companies in order to achieve the sustainability targets.

The aim is to make the 17 SDGs the essential starting points when determining our strategies, in accordance with an ambitious project called “A Goal in Every Cup”, a title it shares with the Group’s Sustainability Report. This is a sustainability plan based on:

- An analysis of the impact of processes and products and a reporting system that meets the most advanced international standards

- A commitment to raising widespread awareness of the SDGs among all the Group’s stakeholders through an initiative that we created and called ‘Goal Zero – Spreading the Message’

- The implementation of a platform that indicates the main SDGs with a direct link to our mission – the ones we identified as providing guidance for the development of all business activities and sustainability programmes.

To the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identified by the United Nations we have added one of our own: Goal Zero. The goal aims to raise awareness of the SDGs among our main stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, suppliers, local communities, institutions and consumers. This led to the development of a programme of activities aimed at creating a culture based on the SDGs; one that could instil a strong sense of responsibility and contribute to driving change.

The following are a few significant examples of these activities:

- The 2018 Lavazza Calendar by photographer Platon, entitled ‘2030 What Are You Doing?’ – a photography project inspired by the 2030 Agenda and designed to spread a ‘wave of responsibility’.

- ‘2030: What are WE doing?’ – an internal awareness campaign that actively involved all our employees in relaying stories of ‘everyday’ sustainability;

- The new Code of Conduct for suppliers – rewritten to reflect the SDGs thanks to the collaboration of partners such as Oxfam, Save the Children and the International Labour Organization.

- Initiatives aimed at young students, such as the ‘Lavazza and Youth for SDGs’ university contest.

- The street art initiative ‘TOward 2030. What Are You Doing?”, which transformed the 17 SDGs and Goal Zero into 18 murals across Turin, created by international artists: a pilot project — an example of best practices — that can be replicated in other countries.

Our commitment to sustainability has not gone unnoticed, as revealed by the ‘Global CR RepTrak®’, a major international survey of the perceived Corporate Responsibility. In 2019, Lavazza was ranked among the world's top ten companies in terms of Corporate Responsibility programmes and headed the ranking in the Food & Beverage sector.

For a closer integration of corporate objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we identified the SDGs that are most impacted by our activities. This resulted in the 4 “Priority Goals”, the four main SDGs directly linked to corporate objectives and that we pledge to further as part of our business strategy and all our sustainability programmes.

Finally, with a bearing on all the Priority Goals and a crucial factor in attaining them, comes ‘Goal 17 – Partnerships for the Goals’; a tool to strengthen the sustainable development programmes.