While S&D Coffee & Tea is wholly dedicated to its day-to-day production of top quality iced teas, it is equally concerned about the future of the tea industry. With that in mind, S&D has joined Tea-2030, a global initiative to address tea sustainability. S&D thus becomes the first U.S. based working group partner and joins other industry leaders like Unilever, Finlays, Yorkshire Tea, Ethical Tea Partnership, and Rainforest Alliance.

 

“Tea is the world’s most consumed non-alcoholic beverage after water and S&D is one of the largest importers of tea in the United States,” says Tracy Ging, S&D’s director of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. “Tea is a significant commodity in the world and in our business. And the tea supply chain is increasingly challenged by sustainability considerations related to climate change, increased demand for energy and water, competition for land use, and smallholder livelihoods.”

 

The Tea-2030 collaborative initiative, led by Forum for the Future, involves building a shared understanding across the tea industry of the critical challenges it must tackle. Tea-2030 is exploring risks and opportunities and from the most likely scenarios, developing a set of collaborative innovation platforms to start addressing key challenges.

 

This is just one of several initiatives that S&D is undertaking as part of an increased commitment to integrating sustainability into its core business strategy.

 

“The relationship between global issues such as a growing population, increased climatic variability, and stresses on water supplies and the long-term availability of products that we rely on is clear,” Ging says. “We at S&D understand that investments are needed and the opportunity here is to harness the will and resources of business to usher new solutions, models, and systems forward.”