Dear valued stakeholder, 

The outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted our lives in a way that’s unprecedented in the recent past. It requires coordinated action by governments, the health care sector, businesses, and people in every community across the globe. During this world health pandemic, the safety and health of our associates and meeting the coffee and tea needs of our customers and consumers are our priorities.

I am inspired by our associates across markets who have gone to great lengths to ensure we can continue to supply coffee and tea to our customers and consumers, as well as to support healthcare providers and local communities in need. I am proud to report that to date, we have donated more than 20 million cups of coffee to foodbanks and healthcare workers across more than 100 local initiatives in our markets. These efforts underscore how we live our JDE values also during this crisis.

This moment in time also highlights the importance for businesses of taking good care of the environment and communities we work in. I am therefore pleased to share with you an update on our Corporate Responsibility journey through this report. In 2019, we have made important progress on the responsible sourcing of our key commodities coffee and tea, have further reduced our greenhouse gas emissions and energy use across a number of categories, and have advanced our efforts to increase the recyclability of our packaging.

Our coffee and tea journey began over 265 years ago and continues today with the collective efforts of all JDE associates. In December 2019, JDE combined with Peet’s. In May, JDE Peet’s was listed on Euronext Amsterdam. This process provides an opportunity for us at JDE to review our corporate responsibility programme, to learn from our colleagues at Peet’s, and to evolve the KPIs and targets we use to track progress. All with the goal to best meet the needs of our business and our stakeholders, while improving the livelihoods of coffee and tea farming communities around the world and reducing our impact on the environment.

Thank you for your interest in JDE’s corporate responsibility journey. I look forward to working with you and other stakeholders on further evolving the important work we do in this area.

Casey Keller
Chief Executive Officer

Download the 2019 JDE Corporate Responsibility Report