EP1676 Part 1 of 5 | What Sustainability in Coffee Actually Means (Norbert Niederhauser) Map It Forward
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Episode Description
This is part 1 of a new 5-part series on The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward, hosted by Lee Safar. Our guest on the podcast for this series is Norbert Niederhauser, co-founder and Impact & Sustainability Officer at Cropster.
Norbert returns to the podcast eight years after his first appearance on The Map It Forward Podcast in 2018. In this new series, Lee and Norbert are exploring what sustainable coffee supply chains actually look like, where the industry is falling short, and what needs to change if coffee is going to remain viable in the decades ahead.
In this episode, the conversation starts with a basic but increasingly difficult question: what does sustainability in coffee actually mean?
Norbert argues that sustainability cannot be reduced to carbon emissions, packaging, or environmental initiatives. It has to include the full ecosystem around a business, including employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, the environment, and whether the decisions being made today allow everyone involved to continue operating into the future.
Lee and Norbert also discuss the relationship between capitalism and sustainability, why economic sustainability has to remain part of the conversation, and what happens when shareholder return becomes the only measure that matters.
The discussion moves across the coffee supply chain, from farmers and traders to roasters and consumers, and looks at the responsibility each participant carries. They also explore the risk involved in changing established sourcing and business practices, why sustainable change often needs to happen gradually, and why businesses need to be transparent about what they have and have not yet achieved.
For roasters considering changes to sourcing, product strategy, or customer communication, Norbert’s advice is practical: start somewhere, test the change, communicate honestly, avoid greenwashing, and stay with the process long enough for customers to understand why the change matters.
This episode sets up the central question for the series: what would it actually take to build a coffee supply chain that can continue functioning for everyone involved?
Norbert first appeared on The Map It Forward Podcast in Episode 28 in 2018: https://www.mapitforward.coffee/podcasts/the-map-it-forward-podcast-episode-28-with-norbert-niederhauser
Contact Norbert Niederhauser and Cropster:
Website: https://hubs.la/Q04w4bKG0
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cropster/