For standards bodies and NGOs, COSA presents a credible and friendly way to better understand their effects under different conditions and to apply the learning in order to improve their standards, and therefore, help ensure the desired impacts of their sustainability systems.

The demand for VSS (Voluntary Sustainability Standards) certified coffee has been considerably greater than for any other value-category of coffee over the last decade. Voluntary standards bodies and initiatives need to ensure the ultimate impacts of the criteria and systems they employ to meet their goals. COSA indicators, data and outputs help by providing a realistic and objective scientific basis for measuring such impacts. Using proven COSA tools also helps Standards Bodies to save considerable time and expense that would otherwise to required to develop a proprietary set of credible metrics.

COSA measures the impacts of sustainability initiatives most prevalent in the target country. In addition to measuring the impacts of many of the most common sustainability labels such as Fairtrade, Organic, Utz Certified, Rainforest Alliance, COSA has the capacity to analyze the impacts of local sustainability initiatives and other “on farm interventions” on a case-by-case basis.