Social responsibility

To produce one cup of coffee, 130-140 litres virtual water are used. However, if the coffee is grown in a country with abundant rainfalls, more than 90% of this water is rainwater. Then, this whopping number is not as much of a problem as it might appear. More of a problem is the fact that most coffee comes from monocultures, which replace rain forests, increase soil erosion, require large quantities of fertilizer and pesticides, etc. Therefore, it is important to use coffee from mixed cultivation with shade trees from organic farming, which avoids most of these problems.

Coffee and tea offered at the conference all carry the Fair Trade label and are organically grown. This means that the farmers receive guaranteed minimum prices for their products and that the plants are grown following social, economic and ecological sustainability criteria.