Many human activities contribute to increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which in turn contributes to global climate change. The effects are also felt on coffee plantations, resulting in a loss of biodiversity and a decline in productivity and quality, with negative consequences for growers' livelihoods. Our goal is to contribute to the fight against climate change by bringing CO2 emissions generated throughout the Group's value chain to zero with a strategy for reducing and offsetting emissions: the ‘Roadmap to Zero’. This is a gradual process: the first steps involve monitoring and quantifying emissions, followed by continuous improvement measures aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing impacts, and finally offsetting residual emissions. The procedure aims to make our Group ‘carbon neutral’, i.e. reduce our net CO2 emissions to zero by balancing production and absorption of emissions through offsetting programmes. These programmes include the purchase of carbon credits or so-called ‘green credits’, each equal to the non-emission or absorption of one tonne of CO2 generated by supporting and financing projects with a positive impact outside our supply chain. Each credit acquired represents the successful reduction or elimination of one tonne of CO2 released into the atmosphere, offsetting emissions that cannot be avoided. But that's not all: in most cases, buying carbon credits also means financing and supporting sustainable development projects that help improve living conditions in local communities, ensuring social, economic and environmental benefits on a global scale.

More than 125 years of experience in the field has taught our Group to focus its initiatives on the source of coffee, places where we know we can make a significant and long-term impact by engaging with and supporting coffee-producing communities. Through the Lavazza Foundation, we play an active role in sustainable development projects, which help coffee growers adopt the most appropriate agricultural techniques to effectively respond to the effects of climate change and promote good practices to preserve areas of high natural value.

Our goal is to ensure maximum coffee quality with the least possible impact on the environment. This falls within the activities of Research and Development, which has experimented with and implemented the most innovative techniques from the very first stages of designing packaging, coffee machines and production models. Furthermore, the commitment to sustainability by design follows the principles of the circular economy to avoid waste and reduce environmental impact, increase efficiency and reduce emissions and waste generation throughout the product life cycle. Inspired by nature, the 'design for circularity' approach we have adopted sets itself the goal of optimising our use of resources, favouring renewable and recycled sources and extracting value from end-of-life products through reuse, recycling and composting.

A supply chain as complex and extensive as coffee requires a detailed strategy aimed at reducing environmental impact, including through responsible use of natural resources, from production to consumption. Therefore, we establish protocols for maximum energy efficiency and sustainable management of water and waste. As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, over the years we have embarked on a series of activities to increase our use of electricity from renewable sources. In Italy and France, for example, 100% of supplies come from inexhaustible sources. Between 2012 and 2014, this progress had already led to a 90% reduction in Italy's correlated CO2 emissions.

In recent years, the Lavazza Foundation has intensified its reforestation and anti-deforestation projects in collaboration with non-governmental organisations and international institutions. In the Amazon rainforest in Peru, the project involved the conservation of 36,000 hectares of forest and the planting of Brazil nut trees, an invaluable environmental resource: these trees can grow as tall as 50 metres, live up to 700 years and produce about 64,000 kg of CO2 over the course of their lives. Alternative planting models known as ‘garden coffee’ have been used in the Yayu UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Ethiopia to protect against deforestation. Agreement has been reached in Ecuador to set up and implement a programme to convert Ecuadorian coffee to coffee without deforestation. Projects in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Colombia have enabled the planting of more than 15 million coffee plants, while respecting the biodiversity of the environment.