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◼ DEBRIEF Bloomberg Businessweek October14, 2019“Our mission is
about delighting
people who
appreciate
quality of life”
goodness. It’s an enhancer of the coffee experience.
That’s why Illy decided to have only a single blend.
Because by blending, we get to the fundamental attributes—
richness, elegance, balance, and consistency. Our single
blend, globally and universally, is designed for the ultimate
coffee experience, which is Italian espresso. And that’s the
focus of our strategy: expanding, distributing, developing
new occasions for consumption.
You’ve expanded your business substantially. Revenue is at about
half a billion dollars right now. What is it about coffee? Why is it
such an incredible business?
It’s a dream, because it’s about success in life and in busi-
ness. And, it’s very good for your health. It makes you live
better and longer. It’s really the best way to enjoy caffeine:
90% of the human population consumes caffeine in one
way or the other—and coffee should be the preferred one.
Tea still beats us out in number of consumers, even though
we’rethebest.
What’syourgoalfroma growthstandpoint?
Growthis nota goalperse.It’sa waytostaycompeti-
tive,a waytodelightmoreandmoreconsumers,a wayto
self-financethebusiness.It shouldn’tbeseenasa kindofa
greedygoalin itself.Webelievea companymusthavea pur-
pose,andthepurposehastobecompletelycoherentwith
thebusinessdevelopment.Thatmeansthatwewillnever
compromiseourethicalvaluesoroursustainablequality
justforgrowth.
You’reachemistbytraining.Howdoeshavinga science
backgroundaffectthedecisionsyoumakeasa businessman?
In 1990 westarteddirectsourcingfromcoffee-bean-
producingcountries. Wenowbuy100%ofourcoffee
directlyfromgrowers.Theaimwastonotonlyget100%
traceabilitytofarmers,butalsotoexchangeknowledge
withgrowerssotheycanelevatethesustainablequality
oftheirproducts.Becausesustainabilityandqualityare
twosidesofthesamecoin.InBrazilweworka lotinthe
stateofMinasGeraisandinthestateofRiodeJaneiro,
handinhandwithourcoffeegrowers.Wefoundedthe
UniversityofCoffeetoteachwhatpeopleneedtoknow
fromthesoiltothecup.Wehavefiveagronomistsand
techniciansvisitinga minimumof 100 farmsperyear,train-
ingandauditing them so they can implement our sustain-
able quality guidelines.
Virtuous agriculture is one of your passions. What does
that mean?
It’s beyond a passion. The mother of all causes is cli-
mate change. We absolutely must reach the Paris goals.
From 2020 to 2030, we need to reduce emissions by 50%
and become carbon neutral entirely—the entire world—by- This is a challenge, a very serious one. I believe my
company must contribute to this goal. So I wanted to pur-
sue this idea to be carbon free in 2033 because 2033 will
be our centennial. But we don’t want to buy carbon cred-
its outside our value chain. It doesn’t work. So we need to
have a soil-to-soil carbon cycle. We need to sink carbon in
thesamesoilwherewegrowourcoffee.Andthisis howI
startedstudyingthisopportunitytosequestercarbon from
the air into the soil. It will not only reduce net emissions in
the atmosphere but also make the soil much more healthy,
fertile, biodiverse, and resilient to pests, diseases, and
extreme weather events, including droughts and floods.
How do you do it?
You have to enrich the soil. About 98% of agriculture is
so-calledconventionalagriculture.Startingwiththegreen
revolution,theparadigmhasbeentomaximizeproductivity.
But this productivity maximization eventually depletes the
soil, impoverishes it, and makes it dry and arid. This agri-
cultureis moreandmoredependentonchemicalfertilizers,
billionsoftonsperyear,and3.5billion tons of pesticides
per year.
This overdependence on chemistry makes a substantial
contributiontogreenhouseemissionsandclimatechange.
In 2018 theworldproducedmoreorless 32 billion giga-
tons of carbon emissions, and agriculture was responsible
for 11 of those. Instead of emitting, agriculture can seques-
ter carbon in the soil. If Elon Musk is extremely successful,
he will completely offset emission that comes from mobil-
ity. Agriculture can be a net carbon sequestrator. Negative
emissions instead of neutral.
This is why I’m starting to enrich the soil with organic
carbon, and, thanks to that, making better coffee, coffee
that’s more resilient to climate change, and showing the
way to the rest of agriculture, that this is feasible with very
good results.
And there’s a part of virtuous agriculture that we didn’t
speak of. Soil health is also about human health. If you have
less chemistry in the soil—and more biodiversity—then
you’re going to have a healthier plant, a healthier fruit or
seed, which eventually is going in your gut, is going to have
a better health impact.
There are many different components in our food that can
make a positive contribution to our bodies. I’m not talking