Responsible Business Program

Sustainability and responsible conduct have always been integral to our work at NKG, as coffee connects us with people, communities and their natural environments all over the globe. Their health and wellbeing are fundamental for our company’s long-term success.

Driven by this responsibility, our strong corporate values and the latest industry developments, we launched the NKG Responsible Business Program (RBP) in 2020. The RBP defines four focus areas and nine strategic objectives for our work, building a robust framework for our group’s sustainability efforts.

As our business environment is constantly changing, the RBP is reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that it matches with our long-term objectives and the needs of our stakeholders. For this purpose, we conducted a strategy workshop with a group of sustainability experts from different NKG companies and departments in the spring of this year. This open exchange allowed us to narrow the topics that are most material to our business and has led to a revision of the RBP.

All objectives of the RBP are fully supported by our Board of Management and the operative management of all NKG companies. While the program is led and coordinated by the holding Neumann Gruppe GmbH in Hamburg, the objectives are implemented in close collaboration with our colleagues worldwide and adapted to their national contexts and organizational set-ups.

How we work

Our work on the RBP is based on three pillars that support the achievement of our objectives: innovation, partnerships and communication.

To use resources more efficiently, we need to continuously question the way we produce and trade coffee. Digitizing our operations in the field and beyond to enhance traceability and gain an even deeper understanding of our coffee supply chains is an important starting point. Beyond this, we pilot new technologies, such as handheld scanners for soil tests to optimize fertilization, and support producers in the rediscovery of traditional methods such as bio-input production.

Moreover, we are convinced that sustainability benefits from different perspectives, skills and joint forces. For this reason, we do not only engage in multiple industry partnerships, but also rely on an interdisciplinary team of colleagues from various departments and with diverse backgrounds, which is working collaboratively on the implementation of the RBP.

Lastly, we believe that holistic and transparent communication should be at the core of any sustainability strategy. In this report we want to communicate the objectives we aim for, how we work on them, and where we still have potential to grow, improve and learn. Unless otherwise noted, all information refers to the reporting period January to December 2021. The content of the report has not been reviewed by an external party.