Publications

Academic writing

Refereed books

Grabs, J. (2020). Selling sustainability short? The private governance of labor and the environment in the coffee sector. Cambridge University Press.

Can private standards bring about more sustainable production practices? This question is of interest to conscientious consumers, academics studying the effectiveness of private regulation, and corporate social responsibility practitioners alike. My book provides an answer by combining an impact evaluation of 1,900 farmers with rich qualitative evidence from the coffee sectors of Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica. Identifying an institutional design dilemma that private sustainability standards encounter as they scale up, this book shows how this dilemma plays out in the coffee industry. It highlights how the erosion of price premiums and the adaptation to buyers’ preferences have curtailed standards’ effectiveness in promoting sustainable practices that create economic opportunity costs for farmers, such as agroforestry or agroecology. It also provides a voice for coffee producers and value chain members to explain why the current system is failing in its mission to provide environmental, social, and economic co-benefits, and what changes are necessary to do better.

Winner of the Academy of Management’s 2021 Organizations and the Natural Environment Book Award
Reviewed in Governance by Elizabeth Bennett, who called the book “one of the most important contributions to the field since initial theorizing in the early 2000s.”
Reviewed in Perspectives on Politics by Luc Fransen, who said that he “recommend[s] this great book without any reservation to anyone interested in voluntary business practices toward sustainable goals—in coffee and beyond. It is theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich and is likely to inspire new ideas and conversations about the path toward more labor and environmentally friendly production.”

Refereed journal articles

Please email me if you are interested in pdf versions of any of these papers!

Chandra, A., Garrett, R. D., Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Stigler, M., Benedict, J. J., & Grabs, J. (2024). How well does the implementation of corporate zero-deforestation commitments in Indonesia align with aims to halt deforestation and include smallholders? Environmental Research Letters, 19(4), 044054. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad33d1

In response to growing scrutiny surrounding commodity-driven deforestation, companies have introduced zero-deforestation commitments (ZDCs) with ambitious environmental and social targets. However, such initiatives may not effectively reduce deforestation if they are not aligned with the spatial extent of remaining forests at risk. They may also fail to avert socio-economic risks if ZDCs do not consider smallholder farmers’ needs. We assess the spatial and functional fit of ZDCs by mapping commodity-driven deforestation and socio-economic risks, and comparing them to the spatial coverage and implementation of ZDCs in the Indonesian palm oil sector. Our study finds that companies’ ZDCs often underperform in four areas: traceability, compliance support for high-risk palm oil mills, transparency, and smallholder inclusion. In 2020, only one-third of companies sourcing from their own mills, and just 6% of those sourcing from external suppliers, achieved full traceability to plantations. Comparing the reach of ZDCs adopted by downstream buyers with those adopted by mill owners located further upstream, we find that high-quality ZDCs from buyers covered 62% of forests at risk, while mill owners’ ZDCs only covered 23% of forests at risk within the mill supply base. In Kalimantan and Papua, the current and future deforestation frontiers, the forests most at risk of conversion were predominantly covered by weak ZDCs lacking in policy comprehensiveness and implementation. Additionally, we find that only 46% of independent smallholder oil palm plots are in mill supply sheds whose owners offer programs and support for independent smallholders, indicating that smallholder inclusion is a significant challenge for ZDC companies. These results highlight the lack of spatial and functional alignment between supply chain policies and their local context as a significant gap in ZDC implementation and a challenge that the EU Deforestation Regulation will face.

Bennett, E. A., & Grabs, J. (2024). How can sustainable business models distribute value more equitably in global value chains? Introducing “value chain profit sharing” as an emerging alternative to fair trade, direct trade, or solidarity trade. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, online first. doi: 10.1111/beer.12666

Global supply chains often distribute value inequitably among the Global North and South. This perpetuates poverty and contributes to indecent work in raw material-producing countries, thus creating challenges to sustainable development. For decades, corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, and sustainable business model innovations have aimed to distribute value more equitably across global value chains, for instance via fair trade, alternative trade, and direct trade. This article examines a novel and hitherto understudied innovation for equitable value distribution in global supply chains: “value chain profit sharing.” We draw on interview and archival data from two cases of social entrepreneurs working in the coffee sector to develop a generalized model. One of the model’s key features is that the entrepreneur pays suppliers in multiple installments that reflect market conditions (as opposed to a single lump sum based on prediction). We show how this can increase value creation, appropriation, and equitable distribution. Although our research suggests that this model may be highly contingent on leaders’ skills, resources, sense of place, and accountability to suppliers, we find no evidence that its applications are limited to specific countries or sectors. Our research further extends extant theory by showing how “value chain profit sharing” may relieve some of the tensions often associated with sustainable business models, including distributing value to suppliers while maintaining financial solvency; creating value while pursuing a social mission; providing benefits to suppliers without curtailing their market opportunities; responding to market conditions while maintaining commitments to suppliers; and scaling without diluting benefits. It thereby contributes to the literatures on sustainable business model innovations, equitable value distribution in global supply chains, novel application of revenue-sharing contracts, and innovative methods of profit sharing. It furthermore provides actionable guidance for social entrepreneurs, corporate social responsibility practitioners, and supplier cooperatives aiming to achieve more equitable value distribution and sustainable supply chains.

Grabs, J., Carodenuto, S., Jespersen, K., Adams, M. A., Camacho, M. A., Celi, G., Chandra, A., Dufour, J., zu Ermgassen, E. K. H. J., Garrett, R. D., Lyons-White, J., McLeish, M., Niehues, I., Silverman, S., & Stone, E. (2024). The role of midstream actors in advancing the sustainability of agri-food supply chains. Nature Sustainability, online first. doi: 10.1038/s41893-024-01296-9

Global food supply chains remain critical drivers of ecosystem degradation and social injustices. In this Perspective we invite policymakers, civil society actors, businesses and researchers to direct attention to the middle of global supply chains, where various actors—referred to as ‘midstream actors’— operate between agricultural commodity producers and manufacturers of food products. We highlight the power of this less visible segment (spanning multinational trading houses to small-scale aggregators of commodities) and the potential leverage that can be harnessed to improve supply chain and food system sustainability. Not engaging these actors poses a risk to the impact of supply chain policy.

Grabs, J. (2023). Business accountability in the Anthropocene. Environmental Policy and Governance, 33(6), 615-630. doi: 10.1002/eet.2081

The arrival of the Anthropocene requires a profound rethinking of business accountability. A central challenge in this age is the possibility of pushing past planetary boundaries, which may irreversibly propel the Earth system into a new equilibrium that is less hospitable for human civilization. Businesses drive many of the processes contributing to such boundaries, and are powerful political actors who may shape or obstruct the necessary transformations to our socio-economic systems. We therefore need to reconsider their accountability, focused on the following guiding question: Who (in business) should be accountable to whom for what? The answer to this question has important implications for environmental policy and governance. Drawing on a range of recent conceptual and policy developments, I present four major lines of thinking for reconsidering business accountability in the Anthropocene context: to rethink the purpose of business; to acknowledge companies’ expanded but shared accountability for productive activities; to heighten collective and individual liability for past and future actions linked to overshooting planetary boundaries; and to recognize business accountability for influencing political and societal processes. Each of these lines of thinking imply policy changes related to, inter alia, corporate governance, due diligence, liability, and lobbying laws. I further call on businesses to actively participate in the large-scale transformation necessary to keep within planetary boundaries by changing not only their production processes, but also product portfolios, business models, legal forms, and political and societal engagement; and highlight avenues for future research.

Grabs, J. (2023). A theory of credible cross-temporal corporate commitments as goal-based private sustainability governance. Business Strategy and the Environment, 33(8), 5146-5160. doi: 10.1002/bse.3423

Goal-based corporate supply chain commitments to zero-deforestation, carbon neutrality, or sustainable sourcing have become important elements of businesses’ sustainability and reputation management practices. However, we still know little about the conditions under which such cross-temporal commitments are likely to be successful. This article introduces commitment credibility as a crucial but understudied antecedent of success. Drawing on the economic theory of imagined futures, it shows how cross-temporal signaling via commitments may change suppliers’ expectations and related actions and thereby co-create more sustainable futures. By using insights from credible commitment theory, it argues that this pathway relies on high motivational and/or imperative credibility of the committed company. Contrasting the example of zero-deforestation commitments in the palm oil sector with commitments to sustainable seafood and no farmworker exploitation, it highlights that the involvement of critical stakeholders (as external accountability partners or third-party implementing agents) is of particularly high importance for on-the-ground success.

Grabs, J. & Garrett, R. (2023). Goal-based private sustainability governance and its paradoxes in the Indonesian palm oil sector. Journal of Business Ethics, 188, 467-507. doi: 10.1007/s10551-023-05377-1

In response to stakeholder pressure, companies increasingly make ambitious forward-looking sustainability commitments. They then draw on corporate policies with varying degrees of alignment to disseminate and enforce corresponding behavioral rules among their suppliers and business partners. This goal-based turn in private sustainability governance has important implications for its likely environmental and social outcomes. Drawing on paradox theory, this article uses a case study of zero-deforestation commitments in the Indonesian palm oil sector to argue that goal-based private sustainability governance’s characteristics set the stage for two types of paradoxes to emerge: performing paradoxes between environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals, and organizing paradoxes between cooperation and competition approaches. Companies’ responses to these paradoxes, in turn, can explain the lack of full goal attainment and differential rates of progress between actors. These results draw our attention to the complexities hidden behind governance through goal setting in the corporate space, and raise important questions about the viability of similar strategies such as science-based targets and net-zero goals.

Garrett, R., Grabs, J., Cammelli, F., Gollnow, F. & Levy, S. (2022). Should Payments for Ecosystem Services be used to implement zero-deforestation supply chain policies? The case of soy in the Brazilian Cerrado. World Development, 152, 105814. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105814

Abstract: Over the past decade public and private actors have been developing a variety of new policy approaches for addressing agriculturally-driven deforestation linked to international supply chains. While payments for environmental services (PES) have been advocated in many contexts as an efficient and pro-poor environmental policy to incentivize conservation, they have been the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism for leading to mixed and sometimes adverse environmental and social outcomes. It remains unclear whether such an approach is an improvement over existing approaches to govern sustainability in supply chains and especially as a mechanism for reducing ecosystem conversion. Here we conduct an ex-ante analysis to examine the potential outcomes of using a standalone PES scheme versus existing standalone market exclusion mechanisms (MEM) to govern commodity supply chains. The analysis develops a theoretical framework to examine the potential effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, equity, and legitimacy of the two approaches and then applies this framework using qualitative analysis of secondary and interview data. Using this theory-driven evaluation approach we examine the case of the Brazilian Cerrado, where a PES mechanism is currently being proposed to achieve zero-deforestation targets in soy supply chains. We find that both standalone approaches suffer from different strengths and challenges and would be better used in combination. We conclude that a mixture of strict market exclusion with positive incentives and enabling programs that are targeted at the poorest farmers would be more effective, cost-effective, equitable, and legitimate. However, in the future such supply chain focused soy deforestation control efforts in the Cerrado must be complemented by broader jurisdictional approaches to addressing deforestation and sustainable development that include all land use actors, not just soy farmers. These more inclusive and balanced initiatives can help ensure that avoiding deforestation goes hand in hand with supporting sustainable livelihoods for a wider range of actors in the Cerrado.

Cammelli, F., Levy, S., Grabs, J., Valentim, J., & Garrett, R. (2022). Effectiveness-equity tradeoffs in enforcing exclusionary supply chain policies: lessons from the Amazonian cattle sector. Journal of Cleaner Production, 332, 130031. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.130031

Abstract: To address ongoing deforestation for global food commodities production, companies and governments have adopted a range of forest-focused supply chain policies. In the Brazilian Amazon, these policies take the form of market exclusion mechanisms, i.e., immediately dropping suppliers who have cleared their land after a specific cut-off date. Theory suggests that strict exclusionary policies such as these are likely to result in both negative livelihood effects and reduced effectiveness of the policy if some farmers are not able to comply. It is proposed that a more cooperative model of enforcement that uses flexible and negotiated approaches to compliance management may enable more marginal and disadvantaged farmers to achieve compliance, thereby improving both the effectiveness of supply chain policies and their equity. Through our case study of cattle in the Brazilian Amazon, we examine the degree to which a purportedly cooperative supply chain policy exhibits coercive tendencies at different tiers and the degree to which these tendencies influence effectiveness and equity outcomes of the policy. We show that, surprisingly, even cooperative models of enforcement are prone to exhibit coercive tendencies in multi-tier supply chains, leading to severe equity shortcomings. We provide recommendations and a research agenda to mitigate effectiveness-equity tradeoffs in multi-tier, forest-focused supply chain policies in the aim to improve the design, adoption, and implementation of such policies.

Grabs, J., Cammelli, F., Levy, S., & Garrett, R. (2021). Designing effective and equitable zero-deforestation supply chain policies. Global Environmental Change, 70, 102357. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102357

Abstract: In response to the clearing of tropical forests for agricultural expansion, agri-food companies have adopted promises to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains in the form of ‘zero-deforestation commitments’ (ZDCs). While there is growing evidence about the environmental effectiveness of these commitments (i.e., whether they meet their conservation goals), there is little information on how they influence producers’ opportunity to access sustainable markets and related livelihood outcomes, or how design and implementation choices influence tradeoffs or potential synergies between effectiveness and equity in access. This paper explores these research gaps and makes three main contributions by: i) defining and justifying the importance of analyzing access equity and its relation to effectiveness when implementing forest-focused supply chain policies such as ZDCs, ii) identifying seven policy design principles that are likely to maximize synergies between effectiveness and access equity, and iii) assessing effectiveness-access equity tensions and synergies across common ZDC implementation mechanisms amongst the five largest firms in each of the leading agricultural forest-risk commodity sectors: palm oil, soybeans, beef cattle, and cocoa. To enhance forest conservation while avoiding harm to the most vulnerable farmers in the tropics, it is necessary to combine stringent rules with widespread capacity building, greater involvement of affected actors in the co-production of implementation mechanisms, and support for alternative rural development paths.

Winner of the Swiss Network for International Studies’ 2021 International Geneva Award
Summary for practitioners: ETHZ-EPL 2021 Guide for effective and equitable zero-deforestation supply chain policies

Dietz, T., & Grabs, J. (2021). Additionality and Implementation Gaps in Voluntary Sustainability Standards. New Political Economy, online first, doi: 10.1080/13563467.2021.1881473

Abstract: Voluntary Sustainability Standards have become a popular private governance framework for more sustainable agri-food value chains. However, recent mainstreaming efforts have increased competition between standards and driven down price premiums. This study employs a dataset of 659 Honduran coffee producers to examine whether the most widely used standards in the coffee sector (4C, Fairtrade, Fairtrade/organic, UTZ Certified and Rainforest Alliance) represent effective solutions for improving the social, environmental and economic sustainability practices of smallholder farmers under such conditions. It presents 54 farm-level indicators, compared across five standard systems, and links field results to a discussion of the strategies and governance prospects of voluntary standards. We find that no scheme has managed to grow substantially while maintaining strong additionality: commercially successful standards show little impact, while stricter schemes create high entry barriers and unresolved opportunity costs. Successful mainstreaming would require better cost coverage of sustainability improvements by value chain actors.

Grabs, J. (2021). Signaling Southern sustainability: When do actors use private or public regulatory authority to market tropical commodities? Journal of Environmental Management 285, doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112053

Abstract: The private regulation of agri-food value chains through sustainability standards has proliferated in recent decades, promising producers to differentiate themselves and gain preferential market access. However, in a number of producing countries, laws exist that mirror and go beyond what private labels demand. These countries have two options for placing their sustainable products in the market: signal their national system’s equivalence to private schemes, or utilize the existing regulatory framework as favorable preconditions for widespread certification. In framing this choice as a collective reputation challenge, this study analyzes under which conditions states and parastatal actors opt for either approach, provides evidence of the strategies used, and draws conclusions on their respective success and on-the-ground outcomes. Using an in-depth comparative case study of the coffee sectors of Costa Rica and Colombia, the study finds that the divergence in institutional strategies can be explained by three factors: sector-specific institutional capacities; a country’s place in the commodity marketplace, which determines the expected added pay-off of certification; and a country’s overall international image.

Grabs, J., & Carodenuto, S. (2021). Traders as sustainability governance actors in global food supply chains: A research agenda. Business Strategy and the Environment 30(2), 1314-1332, doi: 10.1002/bse.2686

Abstract: Corporate actors are rapidly gaining ground as nontraditional forms of authority that shape sustainability governance efforts in global food supply chains. This paper highlights the critical, but underresearched role of traders—companies whose core business lies in the movement and exchange of agricultural commodities between producers and manufacturers—in linking corporate sustainability ambitions to on-the-ground impacts. Drawing on a systematic analysis of the major transnational corporations trading cocoa, coffee, and palm oil, we present advantages and potential pitfalls of relying on traders as implementers of sustainability governance and outline a future research agenda that focuses on producer-level impacts, changes in supply chain organization and power dynamics, and traders’ interactions with state and other nonstate actors. At the intersection of supply chain management, political economy, geography, and global governance, research on traders as key sustainability governance actors also provides novel opportunities for interdisciplinary work and stakeholder engagement.

Grabs, J., Auld, G., & Cashore, B. (2020). Private regulation, public policy, and the perils of adverse ontological selection. Regulation & Governance, early view, doi: 10.1111/rego.12354

Abstract: What problems can private regulatory governance solve, and what role should public policy play? Despite access to the same empirical evidence, the current scholarship on private governance offers widely divergent answers to these questions. Through a critical review, this paper details five ontologically distinct academic logics – calculated strategic behavior; learning and experimentalist processes; political institutionalism; global value chain and convention theory; and neo‐Gramscian accounts – that offer divergent conclusions based on the particular facets of private governance they illuminate, while ignoring those they obfuscate. In this crowded marketplace of ideas, scholars and practitioners are in danger of adverse ontological selection whereby certain approaches and insights are systematically ignored and certain problem conceptions are prioritized over others. As a corrective, we encourage scholars to make their assumptions explicit, and occasionally switch between logics, to better understand private governance’s problem‐solving potential and its interactions with public policy.

Grabs, J. (2020). Assessing the institutionalization of private sustainability governance in a changing coffee sector. Regulation & Governance 14(2), doi: 10.1111/rego.12212

Abstract: The potential of transnational private governance initiatives to constitute effective alternatives to state-led regulation of global value chains rests on their ability to scale up and become institutionalized in a given sector. This study examines whether such institutionalization has occurred in the coffee sector, the commodity with the most widespread adoption of certified products and over 30 years’ experience of private governance, and tests hypotheses on facilitating and inhibiting conditions. It finds that while norm generation around responsible supply chain management and the organizational institutionalization of standard-setting bodies is well advanced, the practice of internalizing social and environmental externalities through the routinized production and purchase of higher priced certified goods continues to be questioned by industry actors. Indeed, conditions that favored normative and organizational institutionalization, such as high levels of industry concentration, product differentiation, and deliberative interaction, are shown to represent barriers to the practice-oriented institutionalization of market-driven regulatory governance.

Dietz, T., Estrella Chong, A., Grabs, J., & Kilian, B. (2020). How effective is multiple certification in improving the economic conditions of smallholder farmers? Evidence from an impact evaluation in Colombia’s coffee belt. Journal of Development Studies 56(6), 1141-1160. doi: 10.1080/00220388.2019.1632433

Abstract: Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) in the coffee sector have become a popular tool to improve the livelihoods of smallholder coffee farmers. As third-party and company-led VSS have proliferated, an increasing number of producer groups are turning toward multiple certification to diversify their export channels. Yet, each certification requires added efforts and expenses, both at the farm and the organisational level. Hence, it is important to evaluate the additionality of multiple certification in bringing benefits to smallholders’ farm economy. This study addresses this research gap using a sample of over 600 coffee farmers from two Fairtrade-certified cooperatives in Colombia’s coffee belt to assess the additional economic impact of Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices, Nespresso AAA, 4C, and the combination of Rainforest Alliance/Nespresso AAA certification. In examining coffee gross profit and household income, we find limited gains from the addition of industry and company-led standards to the Fairtrade certification. Evaluating pathways to improved economic performance, gross profit improvements appear most likely if higher average prices are combined with lower production costs. Finally, we show that the majority of farmers are unable to break even, irrespective of their certification status. This alarming result illustrates the need for further intervention in the coffee value chain.

Grabs, J., & Ponte, S. (2019). The evolution of power in the global coffee value chain and production network. Journal of Economic Geography 19(4), 803–828. doi: 10.1093/jeg/lbz008.

Abstract: The configurations of global value chains and production networks are constantly changing, leading to new trajectories and geographical distributions of value creation and capture. In this article, we offer a 40-year evolutionary perspective on power and governance in the global coffee value chain and production network. We identify three distinct phases that are characterized by different power dynamics, governance setups, and distributional configurations. We find that the kinds of power exercised along the coffee chain have changed, but also that the underlying power inequities between Northern buyers and Southern producers have remained fundamentally unchanged.

Dietz, T., Grabs, J., & Estrella Chong, A. (2019). Mainstreamed voluntary sustainability standards and their effectiveness: Evidence from the Honduran coffee sector. Regulation & Governance, early view, doi: 10.1111/rego.12239

Abstract: Voluntary Sustainability Standards have become a popular private governance framework for more sustainable agri-food value chains. Yet, amidst increasing concerns over the decoupling of standards and practices, it is still unclear to what extent agricultural standard requirements are implemented on the ground, and what may account for such differential implementation. This study employs a novel dataset of 659 Honduran coffee producers to examine this puzzle, focusing on the most widely used standards in the coffee sector (4C, Fairtrade, Fairtrade/organic, UTZ Certified and Rainforest Alliance). It first presents results on implementation and behavioral change, based on matched groups of certified and non-certified farmers, for eight representative social and environmental sustainability practices. Analyzing determinants of implementation success, it finds that the stringency of rules – if they are known by farmers – and the level of farm-gate prices are significantly correlated with farmers’ performance and lower levels of decoupling across a majority of indicators. These results speak to the importance of supporting small-scale actors’ awareness of and financial capacity to comply with proposed sustainability rules.

Dietz, T., Auffenberg, J., Grabs, J., Estrella Chong, A., & Kilian, B. (2018). The Voluntary Coffee Standard Index (VOCSI). Developing a composite index to assess and compare the strength of Mainstream Voluntary Sustainability Standards in the global coffee industry. Ecological Economics, 150, 72-87.

Abstract: Over the last years, key players in business, politics and civil society have promoted Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) to shift global markets towards more sustainable value chains. In this article, we develop a new methodological approach (composite indices) to assess and compare the strength of competing voluntary sustainability standards (VSS). We apply this approach to all major VSS in global coffee production. In detail, we identify 92 regulatory topics relating to sustainability improvements in global coffee production through VSS. We weight these indicators and develop a coding system to evaluate how strongly each VSS addresses each of the 92 regulatory topics. The results show four sub-indices that compare the strength of the different VSS within the four main regulatory areas of sustainable development: (I) environmental sustainability (II), social sustainability, (III) economic sustainability and (IV) compliance enforcement. Aggregating these sub-indices build the “Voluntary Coffee Standards Index” (VOCSI) that compares the strength of VSS across the four main regulatory areas. We evaluate the robustness of the index and correlate the VOCSI with the amount of coffee certified to examine the relationship between the strengths of a standard and its proliferation.

Dietz, T., Estrella Chong, A., Font Gilabert, P., & Grabs, J. (2018). Women’s empowerment in rural Honduras and its determinants: insights from coffee communities in Ocotepeque and Copan. Development in Practice, 28(1), 33-50.

Abstract: This article quantifies the level of women’s empowerment in western Honduran coffee-producing households through the construction of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, and highlights the determinants of each empowerment indicator and their interactions. Women in the study region suffer from a lack of control over use of income and access to productive resources. Since control and ownership of assets are positively correlated with input in productive decisions and control over the use of income in this study region, it is suggested that “low-hanging fruit” to improve empowerment would be to invest in interventions that strengthen asset control and distribution.

Grabs, J., Kilian, B., Hernández, D. C., & Dietz, T. (2016) Understanding coffee certification dynamics: A spatial analysis of Voluntary Sustainability Standard proliferation. International Food & Agribusiness Management Review, 19(3), 31-55.

Abstract: Third-party Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) have emerged as an increasingly popular strategy to guarantee sustainability in the coffee value chain. Yet, knowledge of the population characteristics of certified farmers, and of the influence of transnational and local supply chain actors on the uptake of VSS at the producer level, is still scarce. Using expert interviews, a comprehensive database of certificate holders and spatial mapping analyses, this paper adds to present knowledge concerning the effectiveness of VSS in the coffee sector in three ways. First, it showcases the structural, geographical and socio-economic tendencies toward VSS adoption in Guatemala, Colombia and Costa Rica, and allows first insights in the additionality and effectiveness of certification schemes derived from these indicators. Second, it contributes to an up-to-date understanding of the coffee supply chain, a sector of great economic importance both to producing and consuming countries that is in constant flux and reorganization, and it explains how current VSS interact with this type of global supply chain. Finally, through the construction of a comprehensive population of certified farmers, it enables better evaluation of existing case studies, generalizability, possible biases and provides valuable information for the preparation of future impact evaluation projects.

Grabs, J., Langen, N., Maschkowski, G., & Schäpke, N. (2016) Understanding role models for change: A multilevel analysis of success factors of grassroots initiatives for sustainable consumption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 134, 98-111.

Abstract: In order to achieve sustainable societies, we need models of behavior that go beyond individuals equating wellbeing and material consumption levels. Lowering individual footprints might be more acceptable once we include social relations, adopting responsibilities for other human and non-human life as well as civic engagement as complementary sources of wellbeing. Grassroots initiatives that stimulate collective action and social learning contribute to these diverse sources of wellbeing when striving to facilitate sustainable consumption. Thus, they can become role models for societal change. This review sets out to investigate why grassroots initiatives are created and developed successfully by focusing on the processes of founding, engaging in, developing and maintaining grassroots initiatives. We look at insights from different disciplines that address behavioral change and social learning to develop an overview of factors that are from an interdisciplinary perspective highly relevant to understand societal change processes. By means of organizing the analysis along three levels of human behavior – the individual level, the group level, and the societal level – we capture the multifaceted relationships influencing the success of grassroots initiatives. We present theoretical and empirical evidence connecting a broad spectrum of concepts that can subsequently be used as testable factors in fieldwork for in-depth investigations of grassroots success.

Grabs J. (2015) The rebound effects of switching to vegetarianism. A microeconomic analysis of Swedish consumption behavior. Ecological Economics, 116, 270-279.

Abstract: Sustainable diets, in particular vegetarianism, are often promoted as effective measures to reduce our environmental footprint. Yet, few conclusions take full-scale behavioral changes into consideration. This can be achieved by calculating the indirect environmental rebound effect related to the re-spending of expenditure saved during the initial behavioral shift. This study aims to quantify the potential energy use and greenhouse gas emission savings, and most likely rebound effects, related to an average Swedish consumer’s shift to vegetarianism. Using household budget survey data, it estimates Engel curves of 117 consumption goods, derives marginal expenditure shares, and links these values to environmental intensity indicators. Results indicate that switching to vegetarianism could save consumers 16% of the energy use and 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions related to their dietary consumption. However, if they re-spend the saved income according to their current preferences, they would forego 96% of potential energy savings and 49% of greenhouse gas emission savings. These rebound effects are even higher for lower-income consumers who tend to re-spend on more environmentally intensive goods. Yet, the adverse effect could be tempered by purchasing organic goods or re-spending the money on services. In order to reduce the environmental impact of consumption, it could thus be recommended to not only focus on dietary shifts, but rather on the full range of consumer expenditure.

Book chapters

Maschkowski, G., Schäpke, N., Grabs, J., & Langen, N. (2016) Learning from co-founders of grassroots initiatives: personal resilience, transition, and behavioral change – a salutogenic approach. In: Henfrey T., Maschkowski G. (eds.) Resilience, Community Action and Societal Transformation 2016. East Meon: Permanent Publications and Bristol: Good Works.

Book reviews and book review responses

Grabs, J. (2021). Moving Forward on the Point of Voluntary Sustainability Certifications. AN INVITED RESPONSE TO Bennett, E. A. 2021. Voluntary Sustainability Certifications: What is the Point? Global Justice and Human Rights Journal Review 1(4), 18-23. Global Justice and Human Rights Journal Review, 1(5), 24-30.

Abstract: In her review, Bennett asks ‘what is the point’ of voluntary sustainability standards, if it is not to improve sustainability on the ground. While my book’s problem-solving approach did not yield itself to answering this question, I introduce some recent answers to this question that is currently discussed in a vibrant academic debate. In addition, I defend the usefulness of voluntary simplicity as a way forward and suggest two additional future research streams that may help to tackle systemic sustainability problems in
global commodity trade.

Grabs, J. (2021). Private Governance and Public Authority: Regulating Sustainability in a Global Economy. By Stefan Renckens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 314p. $99.99 cloth. Perspectives on Politics, 19(1), 324-326.

Consultancy reports

Biber-Freudenberger, L., Ferrara, V., Gibassier, D., Glover, J., Grabs, J., Grace, M., Hörmann, S, Targetti, S. (2020). How can environmental regulators support businesses to improve the outcomes of their operations for biodiversity, with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises in the food and beverage sector in Europe? Report prepared by an EKLIPSE Expert Working Group. UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, United Kingdom.

Grabs, J. (2015) Value-adding strategies for low-emission coffee. GIZ – Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Costa Rican country bureau

Grabs, J. (2015) Estrategias de valorización de acciones climáticas en el sector cafetalero: Un panorama. GIZ – Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Costa Rican country bureau

This report was created for Costa Rica’s NAMA Café project and presents different options for bringing low-emission coffee (and consumer products more generally) to market.

Working papers

Macdonald, K., Diprose, R., Grabs, J., Schleifer, P., Alger J., Bahruddin, Cashore, B., Cisneros P., Delgado, D., Garrett, R., & Hopkinson, W. (2023). Jurisdictional Approaches to Sustainable Commodity Governance. Sustainable Global Supply Chains Discussion Papers Number 4. Research Network Sustainable Global Supply Chains.

Bennett, E., & Grabs, J. (2021) Rethinking the “necessary” trade-offs of distributing value to suppliers: An analysis of the profit-sharing model. Carr Center Discussion Paper. Harvard Kennedy School Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

Abstract: Far too often, global supply chains distribute value in ways that contribute to income inequality and the uneven accumulation of wealth. Despite a surge of innovations to address this problem—such as fair trade, corporate social responsibility, and creating shared value—the issue of value distribution persists as a pressing priority for the international development and business communities. This article puts forth a first attempt at theorizing profit sharing as a potential mechanism for more equitable value distribution in global value chains. Drawing on two in-depth, multi-method case studies of companies that share profits in the coffee sector, we develop eight theoretical propositions about the applicability and efficacy of profit sharing as a tool for redistribution. Our research suggests that profit sharing can distribute value without requiring suppliers to compromise price stability, profit maximization, value creation, or alternative economic opportunities. This conclusion challenges extant theory which asserts (based on studies of fair trade certification, direct trade, and solidarity trade) that these tradeoffs are often necessary or inevitable. We also extend the literature on profit sharing. Extant literature examines firm-level attempts to maximize productivity and minimize dissent, while we are theorizing profit sharing’s fitness for redistributive objectives in the context of value chains. The implication of our findings is that, in some contexts, companies may be able to increase prices and improve income stability without requiring suppliers to compromise other economic priorities.

Full case studies underpinning the analysis are available here: Two Case Studies of Profit Sharing in Global Supply Chains: Catracha Coffee Company & Thrive Farmers International, Inc.

See, also, our article in 25 Magazine, an official publication of the Specialty Coffee Association, which came out in April 2021.

Grabs, J. (2017) The Rise of Buyer-Driven Sustainability Governance: Emerging Trends in the Global Coffee Sector. ZenTra Working Paper in Transnational Studies No. 73 / 2017.

Abstract: The coffee industry connects millions of smallholder farmers with global markets and has historically been a frontrunner in sustainability efforts. Yet, the governance of this value chain and its sustainability depends on the distribution of power between market actors. This paper applies a Global Value Chain approach (Gereffi, 1999) to characterize the current distribution of power and opportunities in the coffee sector, and examines how this characterization has influenced the sector’s non-state market-driven (NSMD) sustainability governance structure (Bernstein and Cashore, 2007). The study finds that in a strongly buyer-driven chain, the reinterpretation of sustainability as supply chain management has led to the emergence of more company-owned standards and direct-impact projects as alternatives to third-party certification schemes, as well as their coordination in pre-competitive sectoral platforms. The simultaneous rise of producing-country definitions of sustainability points to a continued fragmentation of sustainability governance and a loss of authority of traditional NSMD channels.

Non-academic writing

Blog

Food Policy for Thought (since 2013)

Magazine articles

The coffee price crisis and price volatility: Can we tame the C-market? 25 Magazine. Issue 7. December 2018.

The hunt for new niches. Climate-friendly coffee production in Costa Rica. Internationale Politik. Special Issue Mercator Kolleg 2015. January/February 2016.

Jagd nach neuen Nichen. Klimafreundliche Kaffeeproduktion in Costa Rica. Internationale Politik. Sonderbeilage Mercator Kolleg 2015. January/February 2016.

Fleischproduktion. Der vergessene Sektor in der Klimadebatte. Adhoc International. Issue 14: Klima und Mensch im Wandel. Wege in eine klimafreundliche Zukunft. December 2015

Zukunft für den Acker? Die Lösungen der Kleinbauern. Adhoc International. Issue 14: Klima und Mensch im Wandel. Wege in eine klimafreundliche Zukunft. December 2015 (co-authored by Julia Harrer and Loredana Sorg)

Home-Grown Hunger. The Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Canada’s North. GUTS Canadian Feminist Magazine. Food/Land Issue. November 2015

Can the Sharing Economy Revolutionize Consumption Patterns? Emanate Magazine. Issue 11: Innovating Against Crisis. February 2014

Sustainability Starts on Your Plate. Emanate Magazine. Issue 10: Sustainability. June 2013