The Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA™) is a global consortium of institutions that promotes sustainability by measuring what is really sustainable in practice.

 
COSA™ is sustained in partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Sustainable Commodity Initiative, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the United Nations International Trade Centre. Its partners and contributing donors include, but are not limited to, those in the Figure below. (See FAQ's)

Ecolabels and sustainability standards, including well known ones such as Organic and Fairtrade, are growing into mainstream forces in the marketplace. Coffee, one of the world’s most important commodities, now has more than 8% of global raw exports certified and 16% of U.S. imports are certified. In 2010, 10% of the world's tea will be certified - up from 1% in 2007. It is clear that markets are increasingly meeting the strong interest in the ecological, social and economic sustainability of farmers and farmlands with a variety of eco-labels and certifications for products.
• How New Agrifood Standards are Affecting Trade – UN ITC
• Value-adding Standards in the North American Food Market - FAO
• Standards and Agricultural Trade in Asia - ADBI

The growing economic value and consumer popularity of sustainability standards inevitably raise questions about the extent to which their structure and dynamics actually address many environmental, economic and public welfare issues. However, until now, there have been few comprehensive and scientific evaluations of the effectiveness of such initiatives at the farm level in developing countries.

There are concerns about the legitimacy of claims & whether the signals given to producers, policymakers & consumers may be distorted and thus hindering rather than supporting sustainability. Indeed, standards are becoming determinants of access to markets in light of increasing demands for sustainability-related concerns such as food safety and traceability. As such they can serve as both competitive factors and as barriers.

The COSA™ program offers information and capacity in sustainable agricultural practices worldwide. As a partnership between leading institutions in consuming and producing countries, COSA™ operates a rigorous assessment program and trains policymakers, producers, and other stakeholders to measure and understand the costs and benefits of undertaking different sustainability initiatives. It is the only comprehensive global approach offering a balanced and neutral understanding of agricultural sustainability.

The core of the COSA™ methodology is an innovative set of "econo-enviro-social" metrics that encompass globally comparable indicators (established by broad participation and international consensus) and the methods to gather, compare and analyze this information.

COSA™ operates by engaging partner institutions in a number of countries and working with them to build national-level competence. Our local partners can thus use COSA™ tools to better understand the realities of sustainability and to engage in improving their own sustainability from the ground up.

COSA™ research covers initiatives such as: Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, Utz Certified, EUREP-GAP, 4Cs, Nespresso AAA, and Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices. However, COSA neither judges nor promotes any particular approach; it simply helps to assess their actual contributions to sustainability using a common and standard set of measures.

In order to scientifically and neutrally assess both the direct and indirect costs and benefits at the economic, environmental, and social levels, the COSA™ tools are implemented under different ecological conditions (e.g. rainforest, semi-arid plains, mountainous, etc.), social circumstances (e.g. organized groups, single farms, close or far from markets, etc.) and economic conditions (e.g. small and large farms, intensive and rustic producers, high and low-input use, etc.).

Although initially developed for coffee and cocoa, these approaches and lessons will be adapted and applied to other commodities as well. Thousands of producers are currently being surveyed in various countries and the data will be available through a UN database (International Trade Centre) to promote sound strategies and a better understanding of the vital issues of sustainability.

COSA™ is a global consortium of institutions promoting effective sustainability. Daniele Giovannucci (co-founder in 2005) is the acting Executive Director.

Members of the Advisory Panel for COSA™

The International Advisory Panel includes leading stakeholders and is currently chaired by the Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization.

CABI Bioscience - Peter Baker, Project Development Coordinator
4C Association - Melanie Rutten-Sülz, Executive Director
Coffee Quality Institute - Ted Lingle, Executive Director
Colombian National Federation of Coffee Growers - Gabriel Silva, General Manager
Columbia University, The Earth Institute - Pedro Sanchez, Director of Tropical Agriculture
Cornell University - David Pimentel, Professor & Chair National Academy of Sciences E.S.B.
East Africa Fine Coffees Association - Leslie Omari, Board Chair
ECOM Industrial Group - Teddy Esteve (Eric Poncon), CEO
EMBRAPA (Brazil) - Gabriel Bartholo, General Manager
Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, Coffee, Tea and Spice Development - Yehasab Aschale, Dept Head
European Coffee Federation - Roel Vassen, Secretary General
European Commission - Enzo Barattini, Chief Negotiator for Commodities & Agreements
Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. - David Hallam, Chief, Commodities and Trade Division
Fairtrade Labeling Organization International - Rob Cameron, CEO
Green Mountain Coffee - Rick Peyser, Director of Social Advocacy
Guatemala Anacafe & Fedecocagua - Gerardo De Leon, Board Member
International Coffee Organization - Nestor Osorio, Chairperson, Executive Director
Interamerican Development Bank - Robert Kaplan, Chief Advisor to the Executive V.P.
International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) - Bo Van Elzakker, Board Member
India Coffee Board - G V Krishna Rau, Chairman
Inter-African Coffee Organization - Josefa Sacko, Secretary General
International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling (ISEAL) Alliance - Sasha Courville, Executive Director
Peru National Coffee Council - Lorenzo Castillo, Executive Director
Kraft Foods - Vacant (formerly Annemieke Wijn, Senior Director)
Mexican Coffee Association - Rodofo Trampe, Executive Coordinator
National Coffee Association USA - Robert Nelson, CEO
Nestle - Hans Joehr, Corporate Head of Agriculture
OXFAM - Constantino Casasbuenas and Seth Petchers, (Vacant) Coffee Program Manager
Specialty Coffee Association of Europe and Papua New Guinea - Delegate Mick Wheeler, Executive Director
Rainforest Alliance - Chris Wille, Director
Sara Lee International - Stefanie Miltenburg, Manager Sustainable Business
Specialty Coffee Association of America - Ric Rhinehart, CEO
SNV (Holland/Ecuador) - Christian Marlin
Starbucks - Vacant (formerly Sue Mecklenberg) Vice President
Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform - Emeline Fellus, Manager
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) - Ulrich Hoffman, Chief, Trade and Sustainable Development Section
US Agency for International Development - Chris Kosnick, Sustainable Ag & Natural Resources Management Advisor - EGAT Team Leader
Utz Certified - Juliette Caulkins, Executive Director
• Additional Advisors •
Danish Institute for International Studies - Stefano Ponte, Head of Research
INCAE Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development - Lawrence Pratt, Director
International Labor Organization - Ann Herbert, Researcher & Director China-Mongolia Office
University of Colorado State - Laura Raynolds, Professor Sociology
University of Verona - Angelo Zago, Professor
University of Berne - Udo Höggel, Professor
IFPRI - Gian Nicola Francesconi, Researcher
University of Florida - Matthew Cohen, Professor Environment

Note: Members serve as voluntary advisors, and their participation does not imply endorsement of the findings or of the institutions.
 

COSA™ Scientific Committee

The Scientific Committee is independent to  ensure  the  overall  rigor,  quality and objectivity of the research.

University of California at Berkeley - Alain de Janvry, Professor
Michigan State University - Larry Busch, Director, Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards
World Bank - Stephen Jaffee, Senior Economist
Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza (CATIE) - Jeremy Haggar, Coffee Group Coordinator
University of California at San Diego - Krislert Samphantharak, Associate Professor
Wageningen University - Sietze Valeema, Professor

Note: Members serve as voluntary advisors, and their participation does not imply endorsement of the findings or of the institutions.
 

 
PUBLICATION
Seeking Sustainability: COSA™ Preliminary Analysis of Sustainability Initiatives in the Coffee Sector
International Institute for Sustainable Development. Daniele Giovannucci, Jason Potts, et al. (2008)
(686KB)

Abstract:
The growing economic value and consumer popularity of sustainability standards inevitably raise questions about the extent to which their structure and dynamics actually address many environmental, economic and public welfare issues. The Committee on Sustainable Assessment (COSA™) was formed, in part, to develop a scientifically credible framework capable of assessing the impacts associated with the adoption of sustainability initiatives. This paper examines the pilot phase of vetting and testing the COSA™ method, an innovative management tool used to gather and analyze data using economic, environmental and social metrics.

The Circle of Sustainability