A Journey of Collaboration: Five quick questions with Daniel Katz

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Rainforest Alliance – now one of the world's most well-known and influential NGOs.

To commemorate this anniversary, I sat down with Daniel Katz , the co-founder and current Board Chair of the Rainforest Alliance.

G: Thirty-five years is a significant milestone. I'm curious – what was your mission when you first founded the Rainforest Alliance?

D: Our mission was clear from day one: Save the world’s rainforests. The challenging part was figuring out how. We started with three parallel approaches: ?championing independent third-party certification, raising public awareness of sustainability, and starting to work on CSR – back when the idea barely even existed.

When we set out to create a global certification standard for forest products and crops, it was a radical idea at the time. In fact, that was our old slogan: “so practical, it's radical." We also wanted to create economic incentives and inspire companies to both operate more sustainably and contribute to better livelihoods for the people in their supply chains.

Actually, one of the reasons that we were interested in working with Nespresso was that we saw a company that understood that sustainability and quality went hand-in-hand, and had a kind of openness to learning and co-operating in a meaningful way.

G: The Rainforest Alliance is one of the world's best-known sustainability brands, but how has it evolved in the more recent years?

D: In 2020, we decided to push boundaries with our certification model. We published a new set of forward-thinking and strengthened standards that placed this journey from sustainable to regenerative agriculture at the heart of our mission.

We’ve raised our ambitions and our certification program must evolve with us. Today, ?we have four million farmers and workers on certified farms[1], with over 5000 companies involved. And the Integrated Landscape Management[2] projects now cover 14.2 million hectares of land.

G: Earlier this year you published the new Rainforest Alliance Regenerative Coffee Scorecard, can you tell us a little bit about that?

D: Coffee agriculture is fascinating because it can be a major cause of biodiversity loss, while simultaneously contributing to conservation goals. So, investing in the naturally occurring relationships on farms – that's the key. This creates value for farmers while working to protect the planet.

But because there's no strict industry definition for regenerative agriculture, it can be hard for farmers and companies to know what to do or how to measure their progress. Therefore, we decided to create a system to identify and quantify the implementation of regenerative practices. As we knew how much experience and knowledge Nespresso has about this topic, we co-created the Regenerative Coffee Scorecard with you, building on our shared knowledge.?

Our ambition is to move the entire sector forward, and the scorecard is a tool to help facilitate that transition.

G: I think more people realise that a regenerative economy should come from governments, businesses, NGOs, leaders and individuals all working together. What changes have you seen over these 35 years regarding that kind of alignment?

D: I would say that the two significant changes I've seen are greater awareness of the importance of sustainability and larger organisations realising that collaborating with local and Indigenous communities is key to solving problems. The Rainforest Alliance was built upon two words all those years ago: interdependence and responsibility. They are still just as important today.

To thrive, we need nature, and we need each other.?

G: It has been a privilege to have shared this journey with you at Rainforest Alliance.

D: Thank you, Guillaume. I really believe we all have the potential to be agents of change. Not only for the planet and people of today, but for the generations to come.?