Seattle University
IN-2: Innovation 2

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Dr. Susan Jackels, Associate Professor of Economics Dr. Quan Le, and students of Global Business Club partnered with the University of Managua, Nicaragua, and a Nicaraguan coffee cooperative called the Central de Cooperativas de Servicios Multiples Aroma del Café (CECOSEMAC) to create the new brand of Fair Trade coffee, Café Ambiental. The coffee is distributed and can be purchased on campus. The project was inspired by the university becoming a Fair Trade University in 2014, which motivated students, staff, and faculty members to become more aware of and involved with what it means to be fair trade. Seattle University has become the first Fair Trade University in the Pacific Northwest and one of only 26 schools in the country to earn that designation by Fair Trade Colleges and Universities USA.

Fair Trade supports and advances economic systems that help international farmers, artisans and other workers to lift themselves out of poverty while protecting the environment. The fair trade coffee project is a long-term project that allows students now and in the future to directly interact with farmers. Students have been able to travel to Nicaragua to meet the farmers that have been directly impacted by Fair Trade, and to see the impacts that it directly has on farmers. The Fair Trade coffee project further strengthen SU’s collaboration with UCA Managua and the longstanding work that Dr. Jackels and other SU faculty have undertaken for more than 10 years with coffee growers and others in Nicaragua. Projects have included coffee wastewater treatment, women’s health issues, a wind power generator, and other construction projects for schools and communities in Nicaragua.