Air NZ should be bolder about its coffee problem
Air New Zealand is trialling reusable cups to replace single-use plastic cups on its domestic flights. They are not alone. Other airlines are flying free of plastics, or at least trying not to generate any landfill waste.
As an attempt to care for the environment, trying not to dump rubbish all over it is probably the least that carbon-emitting airlines can do. Good on them. But they can be bolder.
The critical sustainability issue is not the cup. It is the coffee.
The in-flight cabin waste problem was identified in Asia-Pacific at the turn of the century, and efforts to reduce waste have only intensified with greater awareness of environmental damage.
Today the United Nations is pushing countries, industries and other stakeholders for a treaty on plastics pollution.
With negotiations expected to conclude in 2024, the International Air Transport Association – the major trade association representing 320-plus airlines – signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN Environment Programme last year on the “reduction of problematic single use plastics products and improving the circularity in the use of plastics by the industry”.
In this global game, hurried and tiny initiatives like Air New Zealand’s reusable cups are shooting for small trophies.
The big picture is not just plastics pollution or sustainable transport systems. The Sustainable Development Goals, or the 2030 Agenda, begins by declaring that it is “a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity… We recognise that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.”
The 2030 Agenda mentions “poverty” 28 times. “Plastic” is mentioned not even once. Even “pollution” appears less frequently than “decent work” or “labour”.
The focus of sustainability, therefore, must more frequently fall on tackling poverty. In Air New Zealand’s case, it can start by looking at the coffee in the cup.
Remember the trolley problem of moral philosophers? If there is a train speeding towards five men tied to a track, while another person lies on a branch line, and you hold the lever that controls the junction, will you do nothing and kill all five people or pull the lever so that only one person dies?
Sustainability leaders often face similar “do-good” dilemmas: if the business tackles one sustainability issue, a stakeholder group asks why not the other. Fortunately for Air New Zealand, there is no trolley problem when it comes to coffee.
The world’s coffee is grown predominantly by smallholder farming households with less than 2 hectares of land. Producers typically retain around 1% of the retail coffee price; that is, for a $5 cup of coffee, the farmer gets around 5 cents. Coffee may enjoy cult status in urban centres, but nearly half of the smallholder coffee farmers live in poverty; about a quarter of them live in extreme poverty. Their challenges are accentuated by today’s inflationary environment and by climate change. Inflation hits all actors in the coffee value chain, but farmers – lacking margins to cut – get pushed deeper into the poverty trap, which leads to other sustainability challenges, such as child labour and food insecurity.
Getting a decent price for their work and product is fair and just. It is not a silver bullet to solve all problems of sustainability, but in community after community, we have seen that a fair price can tip the balance towards a child’s education or adoption of good agricultural practices. It gives marginalised communities headroom to prepare for the future and build resilience.
A tiny surplus makes a vast difference for a person living below USD$2.15 per day. A fair price ensures human dignity.
Coffee farming requires a delicate balance of temperature, water, soil and sun. Erratic weather patterns are affecting this balance. Independent studies show that, by 2050, the number of regions suited for coffee growing will decline by 50% due to the warming planet.
Many farmer communities I recently visited said that the natural forces which their ancestors harnessed for hundreds of years for farming are no longer in their predictive power.
Coffee farmers have contributed very little to this climate emergency. Yet they stand at the frontline of the catastrophe.
I believe Air New Zealand passengers would welcome a Fairtrade coffee in that reusable cup, knowing they are helping vulnerable producer communities and fighting child labour too.
What better way to honour our Treaty obligations. As the Māori proverb goes, “He aha te mea nui te ao? …. he tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata.” (“What is the most important thing in this world?... it is people, it is people, it is people.”) New Zealanders know how to care for both the environment and its people. A fairly traded product – which does not exploit those who lack power – remains the hallmark of sustainability.
The cup is easy to change. Supporting the people who get the coffee to the cup is the real challenge. Air New Zealand can stand out by doing both.