COSA convened internationally renowned tea experts to build a simple and comparable sustainability measurement framework. This marks a first important step toward creating a comprehensive set of indicators that grasps the core issues of tea sustainability, and which can also track changes over time.

For sustainability in the tea industry, a critical goal has been to properly measure so as to understand the environmental, social and economic sustainability of producers and processors. Better managing tea production and achieving market competitiveness using tested and sustainable approaches is a primary objective of this work.

It is important to have a common language if we are to share objective and consistent ways of measuring sustainability so that we can learn about what works and so that we can achieve greater levels of collective impact in the tea industry. International Expert Technical Committee for Tea represent leading actors along the tea supply chain, from producers like the National Federation of Small Tea Growers India to NGOs like the Ethical Tea Partnership and Solidaridad, and to renowned firms such as Unilever, Taylors of Harrogate, Starbucks, S&D Coffee and Tea, and Tata Global Beverages.