Lavazza accused of deforestation in Sweden

The Lavazza Group, the Italian coffee giant, presents itself as a major company that has embraced the religion of sustainability. An entire section of its website is dedicated to Lavazza's social, economic, and environmental initiatives: from its commitments to decarbonization  from interventions to protect small coffee growers, from the circular economy to sustainable coffee(?). Completing the picture, with a flawless marketing ploy, are the usual, yet useless, Sustainability Report, and even interventions against deforestation.

Unfortunately, thanks to a complaint by Greenpeace Sweden, Lavazza is among those responsible for the destruction of entire pristine forests in this Northern European country. The accusation is well-documented and detailed: Lavazza It sells its products in packaging obtained by destroying some of Europe's last primary forests, from where it obtains the wood which is then transformed into cellulose.

The most striking aspects of this complaint are twofold. Lavazza hasn't responded to Greenpeace Sweden, yet from a group that claims to be so committed to sustainability, one would have expected at least some kind of denial or a commitment to review its packaging sourcing. Second, the accusations against Lavazza, a well-known brand in Italy (also due to its massive advertising investments), have gone unnoticed in our country. Evidently, they don't interest the newspapers and television stations that, meanwhile, continue to celebrate Lavazza coffee, including sustainable coffee (?).

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