Water in your coffee? Accelerating SDG 6 through voluntary certification programs

Abstract

This article assesses the contributions of voluntary certification to achieving the goals and targets of Agenda 2030 through the lens of SDG 6 on water sustainability. Cases are the most widely applied coffee standards: Bird Friendly, Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C), EU Organic, Fairtrade International, and Rainforest Alliance/UTZ. Our study consists of an analysis and comparison of these five standards, augmented by expert interviews and field visits in Colombia and Ethiopia. We find that fears of the recent proliferation of programs watering down the content of standards are unjustified in the case of SDG 6. However, there is a focus on environmental sustainability in line with priorities set by the Global North, whereas access to drinking water and sanitation is a more urgent problem in the Global South. Although certification programs may accelerate Agenda 2030, our research confirms that these programs reproduce North-South biases in global governance.