The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “The Voluntary Coffee Standard Index (VOCSI). Developing a composite Index to Assess and Compare the Institutional Strength of Mainstream Voluntary Sustainability Standards in the Global Coffee Industry” (Dietz et al., 2018) in press) [1]. The VOCSI presents the most detailed comparison all major voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) that currently exist in global coffee production. This Data in Brief contains the database that we have generated to set up the VOCSI. We publish this dataset in order to facilitate further critical or extended analyzes.