Investigating the Social-ecological Sustainability of Coffee
Creators: name: Wright, Dale
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2025
Subjects: classificationCode: 410401
subject: Conservation and biodiversity
classificationCode: 520501
subject: Community psychology

description: Agricultural production systems are a primary driver of habitat degradation and biodiversity
loss; however, they are our essential food systems and provide livelihoods for millions of
people. Although our food systems are also currently inequitable in many instances, their
transformation represents an opportunity to advance biodiversity conservation and social
justice goals. It is thus critical that we find ways to balance ecological values, production values
and social values in agricultural landscapes. Sustainability considers this the triple-bottom line:
the consideration of economic, social and environmental values, whilst ensuring that we can
meet the needs of current and future generations. However, agricultural systems also face
severe inertia from existing power structures that would maintain the dominance of the
industrial-agricultural paradigm. In opposition to this global hegemony, approaches such as
regenerative agriculture and agroecology promote biodiverse farming landscapes governed
by empowered local actors. In addition to farmers themselves, other stakeholders across
agricultural supply chains are now concerned with sustainability challenges and engaged in a
range of responses. Sustainability initiatives, pursuing balanced ecological, social and
economic outcomes, from local to global scales, driven by different actors at different stages
of the supply chain, have formed the primary subject of research in this thesis. I use coffee as
a case study to explore the levers for transforming an agricultural supply chain to become
more ecologically and socially sustainable.
Starting at the base of the coffee supply chain, in Chapter two I explore how different
ecological, social and economic values can be generated from biodiverse coffee plantations.
Using a systematic review, I examine the literature regarding the coffee bean yield and
biodiversity outcomes in conventional and agroforestry farming systems. The evidence
suggests that agroforestry farming systems do not lead to consistently lower coffee yields. In
addition, agroforestry farming systems support biodiversity at multiple scales, from soil
microbes and invertebrates to different tree, bird and mammal species. Critically, agroforestry
farms also provide diverse co-benefits including product diversification, coffee quality
improvements, carbon sequestration and cultural and relational values for the farmers
managing these landscapes.
Given the increasing evidence of the benefits that diversified farming systems can provide my
research turns to how we can advance these approaches in agricultural systems. In Chapter
three I remain at the farm stage of the supply chain but shift focus to the farmers themselves.
I use a dataset of interviews with coffee farmers in Peru to explore how farmers engage with
different environmental sustainability initiatives, including through government programs, with
the local cooperative and via sustainability certifications. I also investigate the relational values
farmers hold with the landscape and the emotional sentiments they experience in response to
landscape changes. My work in this chapter calls attention to the nuanced and complex
personal connections that farmers have to their land, and how relational values are potentially
overlooked in the design of environmental sustainability initiatives.
Following the journey of coffee along its supply chain, Chapter four focuses on coffee traders,
roasters and retailers. Using semi-structured interviews with 19 coffee retailers in Melbourne
I investigate whether, and why, they engage in sustainability initiatives, the criteria that
influence their coffee purchasing decisions, and if they consider biodiversity. The findings
advance our understanding of relationship-based trading models, in which retailers and midstage
supply chain actors seek long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with farmers. I also
find that retailers enacting these models have strong intrinsic motivations for implementing
what some described as a ‘purpose-driven business model’. The purpose-driven business
model aims to provide value for all the stakeholders with whom a business interacts, rather leverage point from which to drive transformative change in supply chains and promoting
relationship-based trading models can advance the goals of regenerative supply chains.
In Chapter five, I broaden focus to the full coffee supply chain. Using a systematic review of
the literature I investigate sustainability governance of coffee production and develop a
typology of eleven sustainability initiatives being implemented in the coffee supply chain. My
research highlights that coffee sustainability research has focused primarily on the economic
outcomes of certification schemes. The typology draws attention to novel sustainability
initiatives being led by coffee farmers themselves and provides a useful framework for both
research and practice regarding the sustainability of supply chains.
Through this work I have identified four levers that I consider important for driving
transformative change in supply chains. The levers include promoting inclusivity; addressing
power dynamics; advancing regenerative supply chains; and acknowledging biodiversity
benefits. The first two levers are inter-related: improving inclusivity in sustainability initiatives
is about acknowledging and navigating complex power dynamics that exist at various scales
among different actors in supply chains. My research has highlighted that sustainability
governed by local actors can improve outcomes by empowering local decision makers to apply
their contextual knowledge to environmental challenges. In some instances, sustainability
initiatives do apply co-design and participatory processes, and this should become the norm
for such initiatives. Regenerative supply chains are being developed that actively seek to not
only redistribute value more equitably in supply chains, but also improve the state of the
environment and the livelihoods of farmers. Biodiverse farming landscapes provide diverse
instrumental, intrinsic and relational values for society. However, it is not always clear how
sustainability and biodiversity conservation can be achieved in these landscapes due to the
diverse contexts and drivers that shape agricultural landscapes. By integrating personal
(behavioural psychology) and social structural (multi-level governance and institutions)
research my work highlights where and how best to leverage transformative change in a global
supply chain.