Standards & schemes
Global Coffee Platform
In brief
The Global Coffee Platform's Coffee Sustainability Reference Code (v1.2, renamed from the Baseline Coffee Code) is a sector-agreed reference for baseline sustainable coffee production: a common set of economic, social and environmental criteria developed through multi-stakeholder consultation, intended to define "baseline sustainability" that national platforms and company programmes can adopt or align with. It functions as a floor and an equivalence framework — GCP operates equivalence mechanisms recognising other schemes against the Code — rather than as a certification with its own label. The Code is deliberately positioned as a baseline beneath certification-level requirements: it describes practices that national platforms and company programmes should treat as the starting point, not the ceiling. GCP's equivalence mechanism lets buyers accept a range of third-party schemes and company programmes against it, making it the sector's common reference even where it is invisible to consumers. Alignment with these principles is a stated position, not a certification; it does not by itself demonstrate compliance or outcomes.
Conditional relationships
A relationship does not mean that the standard proves or validates every use of a claim.
Recognition & legal context
No reviewed law references are published.
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