Daniele Giovannucci is a Co-Founder of The Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA™), a global consortium of institutions that promotes sustainability by measuring what is really sustainable in practice.

For complete information, visit www.theCOSA.org

We know that applying sound business methods and enabling competitive participation in markets can foster agriculture development more effectively than any form of aid or charity. But improving economic capacity is simply not sufficient.

New evidence from thousands of COSA surveys suggests that it is necessary to simultaneously fulfill vital social and ecological needs in order to reduce poverty. To do this requires a commitment to advancing the capacity of local institutions and communities to be effective stewards of their future.
 

 
PUBLICATION
Seeking Sustainability: COSA™ Preliminary Analysis of Sustainability Initiatives in the Coffee Sector
International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Daniele Giovannucci, Jason Potts, et al. (2008)
(686KB)

Abstract:
The growing economic value and consumer popularity of sustainability standards inevitably raise questions about the extent to which their structure and dynamics actually address many environmental, economic and public welfare issues. The Committee on Sustainable Assessment (COSA™) was formed, in part, to develop a scientifically credible framework capable of assessing the impacts associated with the adoption of sustainability initiatives. This paper examines the pilot phase of vetting and testing the COSA™ method, an innovative management tool used to gather and analyze data using economic, environmental and social metrics.

The Circle of Sustainability