4C (Common Code for the Coffee Community) is a baseline sustainability certification for coffee, operated by 4C Services GmbH. Its Code of Conduct (v5.0) spans economic, social and environmental dimensions, with ten Unacceptable Practices — including worst forms of child labour and forced labour — excluded up front. 4C positions itself as an entry-level, mainstream standard: requirements are deliberately set below Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade so that large volumes of conventional coffee can begin a verified improvement path. Audits are performed by third-party certification bodies against the 4C Audit Checklist, and certified volumes move through the supply chain on a mass-balance model, so a "4C-certified" purchase supports certified production without guaranteeing the physical coffee in a given pack came from a certified farm. A cocoa pilot extends the model beyond coffee. 4C uses no consumer-facing on-product label; claims are typically B2B. Certification supports a claim only within the certified scope and chain-of-custody model; it does not by itself prove outcomes or validate wording beyond that scope.
Conditional relationships
Claims it may support
A relationship does not mean that the standard proves or validates every use of a claim.