Lavazza Produces ¡Tierra! Limited Edition:
the Star of Vogue Fashion’s Night Out 2012
Lavazza’s ¡Tierra! Limited Edition for Africa, designed by Marni, Cavalli, Missoni, Etro, Versace and Moschino, will be the star of next September's Vogue Fashion’s Night Out in Milan, Rome and Florence. After the event, the blend will be on sale at the concept store at Corso Como 10 in Milan.
The aim is precise and ambitious: a large part of the proceeds will be donated to Fashion 4 Development, a United Nations partner organisation which uses fashion as a way of developing strategies for female assertion and independence.
A responsible company, committed to sustainable development: this is the path which Lavazza has followed with conviction over the past decade. The contribution will be directed towards less advantaged populations in Africa, India and South America, with the aim of improving living conditions for people living in coffee growing countries. Lavazza's projects have been focused on coffee growing communities since 2001, when the company began its involvement with International Coffee Partners. Since then it has worked in 16 different countries worldwide, and has other major projects in the pipeline.
The pathway towards sustainability reached an important turning point in 2004 with the establishment of the Giuseppe and Pericle Lavazza Foundation, whose aims include providing support to coffee growing countries. It was a tangible sign of the company's intention to structure itself in such a way that it could implement long-term projects intended to create value for the whole coffee industry. The main project of this path is ¡Tierra!. Started in 2002, it focuses on three key aspects, the quality of the end product, the attention to the living conditions of the populations of coffee-growing countries, and the respect for the environment.
After the success of the early schemes in Honduras, Peru and Colombia, and the international launch of the Lavazza ¡Tierra! blend, certified by the Rainforest Alliance NGO, the second phase of the project has now expanded to include three new coffee growing countries: Brazil, India and Tanzania.
It was precisely the project in Tanzania that provided the inspiration for the new Lavazza ¡Tierra! Limited Edition.
The six internationally-acclaimed designers involved in the project were excited about the idea from Lavazza and Fashion 4 Development, and used their style and creativity to dress the Lavazza ¡Tierra! can, which contains a blend of coffee made from 100%-sustainable crops.
“For over four generations, my family has seen corporate social responsibility as one of its main objectives", emphasised Francesca Lavazza, the company's Corporate Image Director. “Our involvement with the Fashion 4 Development project marks another step forward in Lavazza’s consistent, targeted support in the field of sustainability” — continued Francesca — and identifies common ground between coffee and fashion, two worlds which have shared objectives and lots of things in common".
Both industries are representative of Italy and its extraordinary capabilities, not only in terms of creativity, but also as a global ambassador for excellence and taste.
Both industries also share the same approach to quality, hard work, craftsmanship, a proactive culture, social responsibility and respect for the environment: all factors which are necessary in order to render a company's strategies viable and responsible.
The Lavazza ¡Tierra! Limited Edition for Africa, designed by Marni, Cavalli, Missoni, Etro, Versace and Moschino will be on sale at the 2012 Vogue Fashion’s Night Out, and in the concept store at Corso Como 10 in Milan.
Lavazza and Sustainability
Founded in Turin in 1895 and run under the firm control of the founding family for four generations, Lavazza has always demonstrated a special regard for product innovation and the protection of natural resources.
A member of International Coffee Partners since 2001, in 2004 the company set up the non-profit Giuseppe and Pericle Lavazza Foundation, whose projects are dedicated to improving the living conditions of less advantaged populations in coffee growing countries. Some of its major projects include collaborations with Save the Children in Central America, the Rewrite the Future campaign in the Ivory Coast, and the Everyone project in India. The Foundation has also been involved in disaster response programmes in Myanmar, Thailand and Emilia Romagna. Since 2002, the Tierra project has seen Lavazza working alongside local partners to improve social conditions in coffee-growing areas, not only by building facilities for the benefit of the local community, but also by facilitating communications among small-scale local coffee growers and setting up trade links.
Lavazza ¡Tierra!
Since 2002, Lavazza has set up its ¡Tierra! project in coffee growing countries with the aim of improving the living and working conditions of the local communities, by providing training and technical support. The initiative combines productivity with social responsibility, attaining excellent results not only within the targeted regions but also in terms of product quality.
In the first phase — from 2002 to 2009 — the project involved the coffee-growing communities of Honduras, Peru and Colombia, and in 2010 the ¡Tierra! project moved to new areas of intervention in Brazil, India and Tanzania. ¡Tierra! is a project that has seen these South American communities become independent, fruitfully capitalising on social, educational and environmental initiatives on a local level. Furthermore, it has led to the creation and international distribution of an excellent product: Lavazza ¡Tierra!, which is 100% Arabica and 100% sustainable, certified by the NGO Rainforest Alliance.
In Tanzania, Lavazza, in collaboration with the Kirua Children Association, the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union, the Tanzania Coffee Board and the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute, has launched a technical support programme for coffee growers in the Kirua region, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. The projects have already led to the construction of an infant school and in the short term are expected to involve 700 local producers and their families.
The company has always made the project’s visibility and proper communication one of its top priorities: for this reason Lavazza ¡Tierra! has always been able to rely on an outstanding narrator, who has turned the initiative into a cultural sustainability project by taking pictures of ¡Tierra! that convey truly unique emotions, places, people, objectives, coffee and results.