Starbucks: Helping grow a better cup in Costa Rica

Corporate Partnerships

Earthwatch and Starbucks have partnered to support scientific research and employee engagement. Together, they’ve promoted sustainable farming practices in one of the world’s premier coffee-growing regions.

RIPE RESULTS: OUTCOMES FROM THE FIELD CENTRE AT COOPETARRAZÚ

Since 2001, Starbucks employees, partners and customers with a taste for adventure have participated in a different kind of Starbucks experience – at the source of the bean – while doing good deeds for the environment. Coffee farms are an important resource for communities in central Costa Rica. Research has provided analysis of environmental factors crucial to coffee farmers, such as soil erosion and water quality.

The partnership between Earthwatch and Starbucks supports scientific field research and employee engagement and promotes sustainable farming practices in a premier coffee-growing region.

Earthwatch and Starbucks Partnerships
More than 400 people teams of Starbucks employees, customers, and Earthwatch volunteers have taken part in the research.

How did they get involved?

In 2007, the partnership evolved to develop new tools and practices to encourage and facilitate more sustainable coffee cultivation practices, while linking together the consumer, buyer, and producer dimensions of the supply chain.

In collaboration with Coopetarrazú, a 2,500-farmer cooperative in the Los Santos region of Costa Rica, Earthwatch and Starbucks have worked with farmers to increase the use of practices and tools that benefit both the farmers and the natural environment.

More than 400 people, working in teams of Starbucks partners (employees), Starbucks customers, and Earthwatch volunteers, have taken part in the research.

What is involved?

Participants learn about key relationships between sustainable practices and quality coffee. Research has demonstrated that farmers can increase coffee yields by up to 25% by reducing the use of fertilizers and reducing soil acidity – creating financial returns of up to $1,200 for farmers and improved environmental outcomes.

More on Earthwatch and Starbucks

This project has directly impacted 336 farmers and cooperative staff, Starbucks partners and customers, Earthwatch educator volunteers, other corporate employees, and university students and interns. The project attracted 44,700 applicants and created 23 million impressions on nytimes.com.

This partnership has also been featured in presentations at the Ecological Society of America and the Royal Geographical Society; featured on the BBC Green Room; highlighted in “Volunteering for Impact” by FSG Social Impact Advisors and the Brookings Institution; and featured in stories in the Seattle Times, Sustainable Industries, and other publications.

Some outcomes:

Farmers who participated for the full three years applied on average 336.2 kilograms less synthetic fertilizer (nearly 7.5 fewer bags) per hectare, for a savings of $243 per hectare or about $1,200 per farmer.
Soil acidity on the project farms declined, with an increase in pH from 4.66 to 4.84 as a result of reduced fertilizer and increased use of lime.
Reduced acidity has resulted in a significant and strong increase in coffee berry density, as measured by the average number of berries per branch. On the farms we assessed, the average number of berries per branch increased from 25.1 to 33.4. This represents a 25% increase in yield. Berry density per plant correlates well with both bean weight and cup quality, so an increase in berry density means important positive outcomes of this program – more and bigger berries of higher quality.
Earthwatch received more than $140,000 in additional support from Nestlé, Ernst & Young, public volunteers, and educator fellowships during 2008 and 2009, as well as significant support from Land Rover in the form of a contributed vehicle.

As a result of the research, each participating farmers used less fertilizer and saved $1,200.

Research has proven farmers can increase coffee yields by up to 25% by reducing the use of certain fertilizers.

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