Espresso House represents many things to Nordic coffee lovers—the region’s largest coffeehouse chain, a community gathering place, and now, as a result of Lever’s work, the pioneer of one of the most comprehensive animal welfare policies in the café sector globally.

With over 500 locations spanning Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Germany, Espresso House is the Nordic region’s largest coffeehouse chain. Lever Foundation’s collaborative work with the company has resulted in a comprehensive new animal welfare policy that establishes rigorous standards across meat, poultry, and seafood supply chains.

After working closely with Espresso House for two years, Lever helped the company expand upon its previous commitments on eggs and poultry with strong new policies covering all seafood and pork ingredients. The new policy sets ambitious standards for fish and crustaceans by 2030, including humane mechanical or electrical stunning requirements, appropriate aquaculture environments meeting Global Animal Partnership, RSPCA, or Naturland standards, daily monitoring of water conditions, and prohibitions on harmful practices like eyestalk ablation and problematic wild-catch systems.

For pork suppliers, Espresso House will prohibit farrowing crates, sow stalls, and gestation crates by 2030. It will also require environmental enrichment materials and eliminate painful procedures like tail docking and surgical castration without painkillers.

The company’s policy also reinforces its ongoing commitment to cage-free eggs since 2021 and its pledge to source only chicken meeting European Chicken Commitment standards by 2026. Impressively, Espresso House ensures that 50% of its menu items are plant-based, addressing both animal welfare concerns and evolving consumer preferences.

“Working alongside the procurement department and our suppliers, we’ve been striving to make real changes for animal rights, and we’re proud of what we’ve achieved so far,” noted Jessica Julin, Sustainability Manager at Espresso House Group. The Group publicly released its new animal welfare policy on Espresso House’s global website.

The result is a progressive, multi-species set of standards that will significantly improve the living conditions of countless animals throughout Espresso House’s supply chain while aligning with shifting consumer priorities toward animal welfare and sustainable practices in the Nordic region.