Starbucks Brazil and BV Sign Partnership for the Issue of Green Private Commercial Note Worth 20 Million BRL

First-of-its-kind operation in the global financial market structured by the Greentech Brasil Mata Viva (BMV) will direct resources towards sustainable actions across Brazil.

São Paulo – Starbucks Brazil, locally operated by SouthRock, today announced a collaboration with BV, to issue a Green Private Commercial Note worth 20 million BRL. The operation, structured by BMV, a green tech company, is the first of its kind to be carried out in the Global financial market to use Sustainability Credit Units (Unidade de Crédito de Sustentabilidade - UCS), an ESG environmental commodity that finances the conservation of forests to enable the transaction. In line with Starbucks global planet commitments and the values practiced by SouthRock, resources will be directed towards sustainable actions in Brazil, such as carbon footprint offset.

“In 2020, Starbucks made a commitment to become a resource positive company, formalizing environmental goals to reduce carbon emissions, water use and waste by 2030. It is with great pride that we announce this partnership with BV, as a way of continuing to honor our commitment to protecting the planet we share,” said Claudia Malaguerra, Managing Director for Starbucks Brazil.

Responsible for financing the solution, BV becomes the first bank to carry out this type of operation in the Brazilian market. "The Green Private Commercial Note is a way to engage our clients in identifying and reducing their environmental impact. We are proud to have structured this unprecedented operation," said Rogerio Monori, Executive Director of Corporate & Investment Banking and Treasury at Banco BV.

Under the structuring of BMV Group, the partnership gains scale, and the necessary know-how to expand its impact locally. “Bringing BV and Starbucks Brazil together in an unprecedented operation in the financial market is a milestone for BMV Group, as it shows that investing in the environment is good business, both reputational and financial. Operations like these reinforce our leading role in the green finance market, where we were the first institution to issue the Green CPR with registration at B3,” said Maria Tereza Umbelino, CEO of BMV.

All the Sustainability Credit Units transactioned by BMV are from areas of native forests preserved by over 200 rural producers of different sizes and regions in Brazil, providing a way to obtain environmental rentability. In this way, proceeds from the sale of UCS to Starbucks Brazil will be allocated to biodiversity conservation and best practices for land use with sustainable development.

UCS is the environmental commodity that goes beyond carbon, covering a total of 27 ecosystem services provided by the standing forest, such as climate regulation, hydrological flow, and fauna preservation. The methodology developed by BMV has the scientific support of the Universidade Estadual Paulista - Unesp and the entire protocol is approved by the world's leading certifier, the Swiss SGS, in addition to using technologies such as blockchain, which allow the traceability of issued financial securities. Additionally, all the forests that integrate the projects rely on satellite monitoring and periodic field inspections.

Currently, over a million hectares of native forest are preserved in seven groups from BMV: Xingu, Teles Pires, Madeira, Arinos, Amapá, Roosevelt and Guariba, in states of the North and Center-West regions of Brazil.

The commercial notes are a new product in the Brazilian financial market, ruled by the Law nº 14.195, enacted on August 26, 2021, and they have more flexible rules than other financial instruments. The Green BV Note is the first of its kind in the private market due to the commitment signed between BV and Starbucks Brazil to produce sustainable impact reports.