Since opening its first roastery in Torino in 1895, the company founded by Luigi Lavazza has become a global coffee brand. Happily for the city, it has kept its roots there – and signed up to its climate neutrality plan. Lavazza's director of global sustainability answered some questions for NetZeroCities about its own sustainability priorities.
By Alan MacKenzie
For any city's progress and success on climate, the support of citizens and stakeholders, including private business, is non-negotiable. This support not only legitimises city plans but stakeholders will bring key insights and ideas for proper local transformation that will include their own emissions and relevant behaviours.
"Since the beginning of its journey toward climate neutrality, Torino has created a framework that allows all local stakeholders – private and public, profit and non-profit – to have their contributions recognized by officially joining the Climate City Contract," says Chiara Foglietta, the city's deputy mayor in charge of ecological transition.
The numbers speak for themselves in measuring this framework's effectiveness: six signatories, 16 main partners, 60 supporters, nine members and eight other partners make up this "community united by a shared goal," as Foglietta describes it. And it continues to grow.
The transformational plans of Mission cities created by the Climate City Contract (CCC) process encourages the engagement and commitment of as many partners as possible, and many have endorsed and become signatories of CCCs, which outline actions and investment plans for climate neutrality.
In Torino, coffee giant Lavazza was one of the first companies to sign the city's CCC, and it represents a unique overlap of interests. As a company founded in the city over 130 years ago, it has a long historical connection and stake in the future of the area. As a global coffee company, it faces its own sustainability questions, including the future of the crop it has built its success on.
'Deep roots' in Torino
"Lavazza is deeply rooted in Torino, a city where our company's legacy was established and where we continue to build our future," says Veronica Rossi, the company's director of global sustainability.
Its Nuvola headquarters, opened in the city in 2018, are 'LEED Platinum-certified' – the highest rating of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design award developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. The complex also contains a museum that incorporates an archeological site uncovered by its excavation works in 2014, and expert-led tours of the1600-year-old ruins are available.
Lavazza is committed, says Rossi, to working with all local stakeholders to promote sustainability, hence its association with Torino's CCC.
"It is with great pride that we support this initiative," she says.
"Lavazza's role in implementing the CCC is crucial for generating the 'emulation effect,'" says Foglietta.
"Being at the top of a complex supply chain, Lavazza is able to indirectly incentivize local SMEs to adopt higher sustainability standards to remain competitive and aligned with the CCC parameters.
"Lavazza's support also translates into tangible actions that directly impact the city's emissions profile: the 'Nuvola' hub, for example, represents a real model of a low-impact built environment," Foglietta says.
Changing climate and the future of coffee heritage
Coffee has long been part of Italy's culture, recognized all round the world. But how does its future look when coffee-growing regions are threatened by climate change?
"Coffee is an agricultural product that remains highly susceptible to the adverse effects of climate change," Rossi says.
"Rising temperatures, extended periods of drought, and irregular rainfall patterns pose significant risks to harvest yields, coffee quality, and overall availability. These challenges are further compounded by the increasing global demand for coffee."
"Climate change mitigation and care for people and communities" are the priorities of its own sustainability activity, says Rossi, considering the vulnerability of coffee as a product and the areas that depend on its production.
"Coffee is a human ritual," she says, "strictly interconnected with the history of the communities producing it, as well as those drinking it. And it is a fragile product that needs care to be grown and treated."
What is the responsibility of a global brand, with its own long coffee heritage, to encourage the industry's sustainability?
Rossi says Lavazza "has consistently supported coffee-growing communities" to mitigate the effects of climate change and promotes "adaptation strategies and sustainable agricultural practices." It is also reducing emissions from its production facilities, she says, through energy efficiency initiatives, renewable electricity, and offsetting residual emissions.
Torino's climate-neutral future?
And the future of Torino's sustainability? What does a climate-neutral city look like to you?
"I would be delighted to live in a city with cleaner, healthier air, fewer cars on the roads, and the opportunity to enjoy daily life without needing a car," says Rossi, which would "enhance the quality of life for everyone."
The EU Cities Mission's 2026 conference takes place in Torino from 27-29 May.
This text is the responsibility of the author and is hosted by the NetZeroCities website to highlight support of a city's Climate City Contract. It does not represent the positions of NetZeroCities or its partners, or the European Commission, and is not an endorsement of any company or its sustainability or programmes.
