George Clooney And Nespresso Unveil South Sudan Coffee Deal

George Clooney has long been passionate about activism in Sudan, as well as environmental sustainability. He's also long been the suave face of Nespresso, the machine in which you place a neat little capsule, and out pours a luxurious cup of espresso from one of the company's many exotic global sources. As the face of the product, Clooney has taken an interest in the company's sustainability.

Thus, the A-lister joined Nespresso in unveiling the new Nespresso Sustainability Advisory Board (NSAB) at a press conference on Tuesday in Paris. The company will be working with Sudanese coffee producers, hoping to foster the reemergence of South Sudan as a great exporter of coffee while simultaneously expanding the Nespresso empire.

"There is a real opportunity here," Clooney said. "There is only one product coming from South Sudan right now, that's oil, and the problem [with] oil is that someone, a company, takes the oil from the ground, beneath the feet of the people who put [it] there, put it in a pipeline... and they sell it. It doesn't seem to trickle back down to the people."

Nespresso executives have pledged to work with local farmers in the newly independent nation. The Nestle-owned company will be helping develop roads and infrastructure farmers will need to export their products by 2015.

Nespresso also announced it planned to extend the program into Africa. They expect to double the amount of coffee coming out of Ethiopia and Kenya to 10,000 tons by 2020. Here's to hoping some of that money does trickle down.