GCP Equivalence Mechanism

The GCP Equivalence Mechanism is an innovative building block to support continual increases in the purchase of coffee produced following baseline principles and practices of sustainability.

The GCP Equivalence Mechanism is a framework developed by GCP to assess whether a scheme can be considered equivalent to the Coffee Sustainability Reference Code, a sector-wide reference on the foundations of sustainability in economic, social and environmental dimensions for green coffee production and primary processing worldwide. GCP’s Equivalence Process evaluates whether a sustainability scheme meets both the Code and a set of operational criteria (including governance, standard-setting, assurance, data and claims requirements). This helps to ensure that recognized sustainability schemes have a credible and effective system for implementation. Aligning efforts and using a common language allows the coffee sector to better understand sustainability and identify which schemes meet at least baseline practices of sustainability in a credible and effective manner.

The Equivalence Mechanism, together with the Coffee SR Code and the GCP Collective Reporting on Sustainable Coffee Purchases are connected assets developed by GCP to offer a common language on the foundations for coffee sustainability and promote the supply and demand of coffee produced following at least baseline sustainability principles.

Until the Equivalence Mechanism was revised in 2022 and published as EM 2.0, GCP had assessed the different sustainability schemes against the principles and criteria in the GCP Baseline Coffee Code (predecessor to the Coffee Sustainability Reference Code) and the operating practices that schemes should have in place to be  considered credible and effective for their recognition under the Equivalence Mechanism 1.1 or 1.2.

For the assessment of the sustainability schemes, GCP partners with the International Trade Centre, which, as GCP implementation partner, assesses the schemes against the principles and practices of the Coffee SR Code and the Operational Criteria of the EM 2.0 ensuring the integrity of the recognition process. Following successful assessment and GCP recognition, sustainability schemes are eligible for roasters and retailers to be included in the annual GCP Collective Reporting on Sustainable Coffee Purchases, another way companies are aligning to advance coffee sustainability globally.

Depending on their assurance model they are classified as GCP Baseline Coffee Code equivalent 2nd Party or 3rd Party assurance.

In total, 19 sustainability schemes are currently recognized by GCP (see table below). Five schemes have been recognized as equivalent – 3rd party assurance and 14 schemes as equivalent – 2nd party assurance. They are all eligible to be included in the GCP Collective Reporting on Sustainable Coffee Purchases.

All schemes that have been recognized as equivalent to the Baseline Coffee Code will need to submit their scheme for reassessment under the EM 2.0 and go through the GCP Equivalence Process by October 2023.

Applications are now open for additional schemes interested in being assessed.