Supporting farmers, combating climate change.
According to Conservation International (CI), there are 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world –areas that are some of the Earth's most biologically rich and most endangered eco-regions. One of these vital biodiversity hotspots is in Chiapas, Mexico, the area where 10 years ago we started working with CI on a project to encourage local coffee farmers to use responsible farming practices and to also help protect the environment.
Like CI, we believe responsible coffee production contributes to higher quality coffee and is better for the environment. It also provides a direct benefit to farmers and their communities. Farmers are able to earn the higher prices that premium-quality coffee commands, while also implementing more ecologically sound growing practices that help sustain the health of the coffee-growing areas and surrounding forests.
Over time, and with CI's help, our entire approach to responsibly grown, ethically traded coffee has been strengthened. Today our approach is based on a comprehensive set of environmental, social, economic and quality guidelines, Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, developed in collaboration with CI. These are the principles under which our Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ coffees are purchased, and our coffees that carry this logo are responsibly grown and ethically traded.
Starbucks and CI have also collaborated to provide loans to farmers through Verde Ventures, a loan fund serving farmers in areas of high biodiversity and within communities working to conserve critical ecosystems. These loans help farmers make improvements to their farms and invest in more sustainable measures.
We asked CI to review our C.A.F.E. Practices suppliers' progress from 2008 and provide some additional feedback and insight, so we can continue to learn what is working best and to help our suppliers improve.
The link between coffee farmers and the planet.
Together with CI, we are addressing one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time – global climate change – which threatens the natural resources and livelihoods of farming communities.
The same tropical forest regions that produce the world's best coffee and sustain millions of farmers also extract and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide. The problem is, these forests have been disappearing at a rapid rate. In fact, the burning and clearing of tropical forests emits at least 20 percent of all greenhouse gases that are cited as a cause of climate change. That's more than all the world's cars, trucks and airplanes combined. This causes changing rainfall patterns, increasing drought and rising disease risks – all directly impacting the surrounding coffee-growing regions and the people who depend on these lands for their livelihoods.
You're already helping.
Every time customers buy Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ coffees they can be assured that they are contributing to better environmental practices and a more stable future for coffee farmers.
We introduced our first Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ coffee, Pike Place™ Roast, in U.S. stores in March 2008. A series of offerings followed in autumn 2008, starting with Espresso Roast in our European, African and Middle Eastern markets. We will continue to roll out more of these coffees, moving toward our goal of having 100 percent of our coffee being responsibly grown and ethically traded by 2015.
We also offer our customers direct ways to join our efforts to address climate change and support coffee farmers. On Earth Day in April 2008, our customers had a chance to give back to the environment just by using their Starbucks Card at participating Starbucks stores in the U.S. and Canada. With each Starbucks Card purchase that day, we donated five cents to CI to plant trees in Chiapas, Mexico. In this one simple action, Starbucks customers helped us donate money to plant thousands of trees in an area that has suffered from deforestation. We hope to bring more such opportunities to our customers in the future.
Addressing climate change on coffee farms.
There is literally no time to waste. So in 2008 Starbucks and CI announced a renewed five-year relationship, joining forces to tackle climate change head-on and to measure the impact of our responsible coffee growing methods, C.A.F.E. Practices, on farmers and the environment.
Starbucks committed $7.5 million over the first three years, with more than half of this funding aimed at project sites in Mexico and Indonesia. Our plan is to help implement the findings from these projects in other coffee-growing communities in the Asia/Pacific, Africa/Arabia and Latin America growing regions.
Efforts will focus on expanding farmer participation in C.A.F.E. Practices and leveraging our guidelines to support farmer activities, protect important habitat for the world's plant and animal species, and help farmers directly address the potentially devastating causes of climate change.
