Promoting Extended Producer Responsibility Policy: Inclusive Coffee Production Through a DEI Lens

Abstract

This chapter explores how a corporation’s environmental protection logic can be strengthened through the lens of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Using Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as a foundational environmental policy tool, we examine how DEI practices enhance the fairness, sustainability, and resilience of environmental initiatives, thereby creating a corporate societal logic in which corporations expand their economic, social, and environmental responsibilities in the way they govern production. We advocate for an inclusive EPR approach that broadens the policy’s traditional focus on post-consumer waste to encompass environmental and social equity throughout the entire product lifecycle. Drawing from empirical insights in Malaysia’s coffee industry, we emphasize representation, economic equity, and capacity building as pillars of a DEI-aligned EPR framework. Our restructured model integrates environmental and inclusion logics to support both marginalized communities and ecosystems.