Starbucks Leads The Way In Sustainable Coffee Supply Chains – CoffeeTalk

Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee supplier, is committed to ensuring a sustainable future for all. The company procures around 800 million pounds of coffee each year, accounting for 5% of the world’s supply. However, this growth has come at significant environmental and social costs, such as deforestation and unethical labor practices. Starbucks is at the forefront of this sustainability drive, focusing on reducing its carbon and water footprints, promoting climate-resistant coffee tree varietals, protecting and restoring at-risk forests in key coffee landscapes, and equipping farmers with precision agronomy tools.

Starbucks developed one of the industry’s first ethical sourcing standards, the Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices verification program, two decades ago. This allows the company to ensure high-quality, ethically-sourced coffee while also gaining insights into the challenges faced by farmers and supply chain operations in dozens of 30 coffee-producing countries. Starbucks has opened 10 farmer support centers worldwide, providing over 200,000 farmers with access to education, resources, and the latest findings relating to soil management techniques, disease-resistant trees, and beyond.

The company’s one-of-a-kind Hacienda Alsacia farm in Costa Rica has become a global research, development, and innovation hub, where agronomists have developed six climate-resistant coffee varietals that Starbucks offers to farmers worldwide through its open-source agronomy initiative. Starbucks is also investing in new tech to help achieve its sustainability goals, installing 1,300 eco wet mills around the world, which can save up to 80% of water in coffee processing.

Starbucks is also conducting a material biodiversity impact assessment with respect to its coffee supply chain, due for completion by the end of FY25. As the EU Deforestation Regulation is implemented, Starbucks’ decades-long commitment to sustainable sourcing and supporting farmers puts it in a strong position to lead the discussion around ensuring a sustainable future of coffee for all.

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