The Coffee Sustainability Foundation course covers the major sustainability issues facing the coffee industry today, providing a basic knowledge of the term "sustainability", including its links to power dynamics, current and historical events and practices, and various coffee programs. Students can expect to gain the skills and knowledge to begin implementing meaningful change within their own company, or to prepare for intermediate or professional courses.

This course is designed to be broadly applicable and attractive to coffee novices and coffee professionals from a variety of backgrounds who are interested in growing their knowledge of sustainability to become better managers of sustainability in their current role or company, or to develop new skills to support existing initiatives or goals. Anyone working in the coffee industry will benefit from this course.

The intermediate course further develops the concepts introduced in the basic courses and develops the ability to analyze and interpret various sustainability projects in various parts of the value chain. At the intermediate level, students will expand their exposure to different sustainability approaches in the value chain, leading to a deeper understanding of the defining issues of at least two parts of the value chain; enriching the understanding of collective action and platforms that exist to collaborate, leverage resources and share; evaluating case studies and sustainability studies, projects, initiatives and/or business decisions; and developing preliminary plans to advance sustainability initiatives in their own contexts.

This course is ideal for coffee professionals who want to further their coffee sustainability research, develop critical thinking skills and start developing personal sustainability projects.

Professional-level courses provide an intensive hands-on experience in which participants design, execute, and evaluate their own sustainability projects in line with personal, organizational, or business goals and capabilities. During the course, participants will identify measures of accountability, success, and progress on sustainability issues selected by the participant; participate extensively in the policy and practice of sustainability debates at multiple points in the value chain; lead others in discussion and practice on these issues; and act as an advocate for intelligent sustainability planning within the coffee industry through educational choices on trade compromises, sustainability costs, and concepts; finally, develop, implement and evaluate a sustainability effort that (a) fits the student's personal, business or organizational capabilities, (B) can be measured and tracked, and (c) contains a structure for accountability.

This course is ideal for coffee professionals seeking to go through the process of designing, developing and implementing sustainability projects. Professional courses are designed to be taught over a period of several months, supporting participants through online or face-to-face classroom sessions (online or face-to-face), which they support as they design and execute projects.