BLK & Bold Announces Collaboration with SGS to Strengthen Sustainability in Its Coffee Operations and Supply Chain

The Certified B Corp® joins forces with one of the world's top sustainability leaders to bring transparency, circularity, and climate resilience to the coffee category.

DES MOINES, Iowa, May 2, 2025 /CNW/ - BLK & Bold Specialty Beverages, the largest independently owned, social impact coffee brand, announced today a new sustainability collaboration with SGS, the world's leading testing, inspection, and certification company. As a Certified B Corporation, BLK & Bold is deepening its commitment to environmental performance, with a focus on climate change. This involves training its staff, measuring its carbon footprint, and concretely defining opportunities to reduce emissions in the future. This journey is captured in a four-part docuseries titled 'BLK & Bold: A Journey Rooted in Coffee, Community, and Climate'.

"With increasing climate disruptions in coffee-producing regions, we felt an urgent need to identify how our operations impact the environment—so we can measure our environmental performance and improve over time," said Pernell Cezar, Co-Founder of BLK & Bold. "SGS stood out to us, not only for their certification expertise, but because it is also one of the world's top ten most sustainable companies. It was appealing to us that SGS really walks the talk in terms of being sustainable in its own operations."

'BLK & Bold: A Journey Rooted in Coffee, Community, and Climate' will premiere at the second annual Business for Good Summit, hosted by Drake University's Zimpleman College of Business and sponsored by SGS. The docuseries follows Co-Founders Pernell Cezar and Rod Johnson as they trace their journey from roasting beans in a garage to leading a national coffee brand with a 33,000 square foot production facility in Des Moines. That facility now supplies BLK & Bold's line of specialty roasts to more than 11,000 retail locations, including Target, Amazon, and Walgreens. BLK & Bold's commitment to social consciousness is embedded in the brand's ethos, exemplified by its pledge to allocate 5% of gross profits to communities across the United States to empower underserved youth. While community engagement is one of the core 'social' objectives of a purpose-driven business, strengthening 'environmental' objectives and solidifying 'governance' of these objectives is also critical.

"Our passion for quality coffee, along with our commitment to social impact, are the reasons that BLK & Bold has experienced growth since embarking on this journey seven years ago," said Johnson, Chief Values Officer and Co-Founder of BLK & Bold. "The docuseries follows me to Peru. Visiting the coffee-growing communities reaffirmed our responsibility to measure sustainability at every step, from farm to cup."

In recent years, disruptions to climate such as rising temperatures and unpredictable or diminished rainfall have resulted in reduced coffee crop yields or lower-quality crops. At the same time, 95 percent of residents of the small town of San Ignacio, where BLK & Bold sources some of its coffee beans, are connected to the coffee industry. "As much as this is about consumers being able to continue enjoying coffee, this is also about supporting growers whose livelihoods are centered around this commodity. With coffee being the second most consumed drink by Americans, we believe the onus is on coffee brands to do what they can to prevent production dips due to climate related disruptions, which goes hand in hand with doing better for communities and the planet," continued Johnson.

BLK & Bold is in the process of identifying and establishing its environmental key performance indicators, from growth and harvesting through to production, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. "BLK & Bold's commitment to sustainability sets a positive example for small-mid sized North American food and beverage manufacturers, since one of the top ESG priorities in the industry is leadership oversight," said Adam Hammes, Vice President of Sustainability Assurance at SGS in North America. "Thirty percent of the top 100 food and beverage companies in North America have yet to put in place top-down sustainability governance and tackle climate change seriously, so BLK & Bold's initiative really speaks volumes."  BLK & Bold's ESG journey is just beginning, and the brand is committed to continued transparency, accountability, and progress.

About BLK & Bold

Founded by Pernell Cezar and Rod Johnson, BLK & Bold is a trailblazing specialty coffee brand committed to fostering a community centered around social impact. From its modest beginnings in a garage with a tabletop roaster, the company has grown into a 33,000 sq ft warehouse and has donated over a quarter of a million dollars to date. As the first Black-owned nationally distributed coffee brand, BLK & Bold proudly allocates 5% of its gross profits to initiatives that support youth programming, workforce development, and community growth. Its B Corp certification attests to the company's dedication to upholding the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility. Recognized as one of The Fast 50: Top Growing NMSDC-certified Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs) and a two-time Inc. 5000 list maker, BLK & Bold exemplifies rapid growth and innovation in the industry.

About SGS

SGS is the world's leading Testing, Inspection and Certification company. We operate a network of over 2,500 laboratories and business facilities across 115 countries, supported by a team of 99,500 dedicated professionals. With over 145 years of service excellence, we combine the precision and accuracy that define Swiss companies to help organizations achieve the highest standards of quality, compliance and sustainability.

Our brand promise – when you need to be sure – underscores our commitment to trust, integrity and reliability, enabling businesses to thrive with confidence. We proudly deliver our expert services through the SGS name and trusted specialized brands, including Brightsight, Bluesign, Maine Pointe and Nutrasource.

SGS is publicly traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker symbol SGSN (ISIN CH1256740924, Reuters SGSN.S, Bloomberg SGSN:SW).

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SOURCE BLK & Bold Specialty Beverages