Rainforest Alliance

Joke Aerts moved to Amsterdam five years ago to serve as one of the Rainforest Alliance's representatives. At the time, our presence in Europe included our Madrid-based forestry staff, consultants in the United Kingdom (UK) and France, and several companies that were sourcing coffee and bananas from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms and wood from Forest Stewardship Council/Rainforest Alliance Certified forestlands.

Since then, our visibility across the continent has grown by leaps and bounds. In the UK, for example, unprompted awareness of the Rainforest Alliance recently reached an astonishing 54 percent (up from 18 percent just two years earlier). The Rainforest Alliance's green frog can be spotted hopping across packages of coffee, cocoa and tea, along television and newspaper ads and on the sides of buses, in train stations and on café menus.

Today, Aerts acts as project coordinator for the Rainforest Alliance's sustainable agriculture program, training auditors and producers in the Sustainable Agriculture Network Standard (SAN), visiting suppliers interested in certification, and helping to increase awareness of the Rainforest Alliance's agriculture work.

Meanwhile, European sustainable value chains manager Marcel Clement joined Aerts in the Netherlands nearly four years ago. He works with companies eager to source goods from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and helps them expand their product range. He also represents the Rainforest Alliance at trade shows and conferences and explains to companies and the public the benefits of our work.

To what do you attribute the Rainforest Alliance's phenomenal growth in Europe?

Aerts: Companies here are motivated to source ethically produced goods because the media here is so diligent in bringing environmental and social concerns to the attention of the public. Europeans understand that the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal is both credible and meaningful, and that's why we're growing as fast as we are.

Clement: Because of our name, people assume that we're doing work that's good for the environment and good for the climate -- two issues that are particularly relevant to Europeans.

What are some of the challenges you face working in Europe?

Aerts: When a business is the first in a particular country to sell certified products, it can be a little tough going at the start. But in Germany or in the UK, for example -- where lots of products now bear our seal -- the growth is tremendous. Today we're working with four of the world's top tea companies and a number of well-known European companies, including Tchibo, Costa Coffee, Innocent, Marks & Spencer and J.D. Wetherspoon.

In which areas do you think we should focus our efforts, both geographically and programmatically, as we continue to bring Rainforest Alliance Certified products to an ever-increasing number of responsible shoppers?

Clement: I would definitely say that we should continue focusing on the tropics, since that's where many important commodities are grown. Our growth in one area generally fuels another. For example, our coffee program helped to trigger interest in tea and cocoa -- programs that have recently experienced momentous growth.

It's all interrelated. The more products that are available bearing the Rainforest Alliance seal, the more we strengthen our position as providing the "sustainability solution."