**5. Discussion**

Society is becoming increasingly conscious about sustainability and sustainable development in both developed and developing countries, and environmental legislation and regulations have increased accordingly [57]. This concern extends to companies that are learning that applying sustainability practices to their strategic supply chain managemen<sup>t</sup> plans gives them competitive advantages that are difficult to imitate [18]. Despite the existence of supply chain managemen<sup>t</sup> in the coffee industry, there is still a long way to pursue more sustainable practices. This case study shows how Grupo Nabeiro, through the brand Delta Cafés, a well-known coffee company, with its business managemen<sup>t</sup> practices and operational processes, meets the theoretical core ideas related to sustainable buying practices with success. We then discuss the positive and negative sustainable practices found in this study.

#### *5.1. Positive Sustainable Buying Practices*

The literature review emphasized how business relationships, trust, and commitment are important for companies that want to achieve sustainability, once this goal is dependent on others. By examining the data collected from the company under study, we can understand and establish a bridge between the theoretical and empirical parts. Grupo Nabeiro closely matches what the literature review presents in its organizational culture, sustainable practices, and sustainable supply chain management. Our results and findings enlighten and show how the buying processes involve a well-organized group of people that nourishes relationships with suppliers (other actors) trying to ensure that the company obtains a variety of goods of grea<sup>t</sup> quality. At the same time, the company is trying to drive through better practices, especially with suppliers located where sustainability comprehension is weaker [35].

With the support of the ARA model, we show how the organization chooses to involve actors to implement activities and use resources that guarantee respect for the triple bottom line approach; they care about people and the planet as much as profit (Elkington, 2018). Moreover, we show integrated supply chain management, in line with Hasan's [39] defense of green purchasing. We show how the company cares about environmental issues, evaluates suppliers, and develops practices to help suppliers improve their sustainable performance.

Additionally, our analysis shows that the company tries to reinforce the application of the holistic approach to a more sustainable coffee supply chain, as proposed by Nguyen and Sarker [45]. Our analysis shows how this firm implements projects for sustainable farming by training farmers and picks new locations for coffee production (locations that have never had coffee production before). We provide evidence that the company promotes environmental managemen<sup>t</sup> by investing in achieving certified coffee, for example, through a capsule recycling program, works on supply chain managemen<sup>t</sup> through relationships developed, which enhances the company, and these findings are contrary to those of Kumar [23], who found that not all collaborative relationships have good results. The reverse logistics were developed to enhance resources and adopt new activities to reuse resources; corporate social responsibility was achieved by, for example, promoting fair trading conditions and opportunities for producers in developing countries and, finally, marketing efforts were made to share projects and sustainable practices, creating a positive reputation in the market.

We found a confident attitude and transparent intention from Delta Cafés within all the counterparties involved (partners, consumers, and coffee lovers). Therefore, it is fair to say that this company works to effectively boost the growth of all communities where their suppliers are located, spreading their beliefs and their values, which can positively impact the largest number of people.

Our case study shows how a business can create and develop good practices to spread sustainability through the supply chain [34]. Maintaining sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> of the coffee supply chain would contribute to the stable economic development of the world, stimulate the development of local agriculture, boost employment, and develop the sustainability of society and the environment [4,27,39,44,45].

These practices contribute to maintaining competitive advantages and strengthening ties and business relationships that are strategic for achieving the company's sustainability goals, once these results are most likely to be successfully achieved through cooperation with stakeholders [45].

#### *5.2. Negative Sustainable Buying Practices*

Although the study of Nguyen and Sarker [45] is in line with our research, as mentioned above, it also shows some differences. They focused on the viewpoints of all related stakeholders (diverse actors), while our research focused on one main actor that tries to be involved in all stages of the coffee supply chain. Therefore, there are some issues in each of the six main factors influencing sustainability that remain unclear to our research, such as energy concerns, pricing policies, and agricultural processes.

Kittichotsatsawat et al. [42] advocate the use of smart technologies and tools for sustainable development potential, but since in this study we did not find evidence of the company promoting such technologies to suppliers, this opportunity was identified as being missed. Moreover, using the framework proposed by Abreu et al. [3] regarding the dynamics and factors that provide sustainable solutions, Grupo Nabeiro, the owner of Delta Cafés, fails in two dimensions: traceability and consistent behavior or practices. The first problem relates to traceability, because not all coffee traded by the company has traceable origins for the consumer. Blockchain can be used for traceability purposes (e.g., [43]). The second problem relates to inconsistent behavior or practices, because certifications are applied only to a reduced range of products, as is the case with organic certification. This negatively impacts not only the sustainability of coffee but also the profitability of the coffee farm [45]. The first factor is more impactful for sustainability but easier to solve; hence, it implies only the disclosure of information that the company already has. The second problem relates to inconsistent sustainable behavior or practices that cannot strictly be interpreted or analyzed in the coffee industry. This is because coffee can be sustainable without certification. Nevertheless, we consider that there should be a constant update of certifications to keep the business up to speed with all sustainability requirements.

#### **6. Conclusions, Contributions, Limitations, and Further Research**

Our research shows how a business firm may develop and shift to more sustainable buying and business practices in the coffee industry supply chain. We show there is not a grea<sup>t</sup> number of focused studies about the coffee industry supply chain and green purchasing in this scope. Nevertheless, the literature recommends paths for more sustainable business and buying practices. Furthermore, it is possible to develop policies and practices in addition to the company's values and culture that would impact and increase the business efforts to achieve sustainable buying processes. Our findings and discussion highlight how the business, and particularly the buying practices of the company selected

for our case study, follow the literature on corporate sustainability. The case analyzed shows an innovative case of sustainable supply chain managemen<sup>t</sup> and green purchasing practices by creating sustainable ecosystems, not just for all suppliers and counterparties they choose to work with, but for their entire community and business network. As our main finding, the present study proposes that companies carefully consider the ecosystem that is associated with the partners they have business relationships with. This would master positive perceptions among a grea<sup>t</sup> number of people, including consumers, and ultimately create positive intentions toward them.

Our research shows and discusses the positive and negative purchasing processes and practices regarding sustainability concerns and issues, and finds it is pertinent for addressing the issue of food safety, an implicit concern in the food industry, and for Grupo Nabeiro, which has a certified system with HACCP and ISO 22000: 2005, based on food safety, food defense, and food fraud. The system allows the company to guarantee the quality control of its product and its sustainability values, giving more confidence to consumers, avoiding the occurrence of health problems, and increasing its impact on environmental sustainability throughout the supply chain.

Nevertheless, our research is limited by the data collected. Furthermore, this research involves only one case study focusing on a single company chosen for being considered a good and rich representative of sustainable implementation buying practices. Thus, further research involving other companies, case studies, and situations, including diverse industrial sectors and business firms, should be developed to extend our findings. However, there is a lack of research in this field. Therefore, further research is needed to explore more and diverse ways to implement sustainable business practices to reduce the impacts that companies have on society and the environment. Many issues remain to be considered, innovated, and explored. Above all, commitment is needed of all stakeholders, showing a genuine desire for long-term sustainable change.

**Author Contributions:** All authors were equally involved and contributed to this article conceptualization, investigation, writing and draft preparation. The research was managed by J.F.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This paper received funding through research gran<sup>t</sup> UIDB/04521/2020 by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal) for Advance/CSG, ISEG's research center.

**Data Availability Statement:** Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study. This data can be found here: [54].

**Acknowledgments:** João F. Proença gratefully acknowledges financial support from FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal), national funding through research gran<sup>t</sup> UIDB/04521/2020.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. There was no funding from Grupo Nabeiro in this study. The public access data used was provided by the company to us, by email, due to our request to develop this case-study. From then on, the analysis of the data, the conception of the ideas, and the writing of the article were entirely the responsibility of the authors who are part of this study. We further declare, the founding sponsors, the ADVANCE/CSG, had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.
