"Global value chains (GVCs) hold important potential for transformations to sustainability in a context of climate change. Yet, their potential for sustainability may depend on whether, and how, promising individual innovations can foster broader change, disrupting the current unsustainable, inequitable values and paradigms in which they are enmeshed. In this article, I present an action research study of a global coffee value chain, extending geographically from Guatemala to North America. I describe the lead firm's relational governance, a defining characteristic of which is its mentoring-driven approach to social and environmental upgrading, in which producers and buyers collaborate, learn together, and mutually solve problems, in a context of overlapping economic, social, and environmental challenges. Three key strategies for relational governance used by the lead firm include fostering collaboration and trust, providing support for producing regions, and buying above the cost of production. I examine how this relational governance has been helpful in responding to the interconnected challenges and unexpected global-change phenomena, such as climate change as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, in the coffee sector. Findings suggest that this relational governance approach helped actors to respond generatively to unprecedented, shared challenges and helped support greater sustainability overall."

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