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Sustainability has been at our core since the beginning, back when Starbucks began in 1971.&nbsp;Over the years,&nbsp;with the help of our partners, customers, industry experts and advocates, we’ve looked for ways to help protect our planet, including introducing a cup sleeve made from recycled content, ethically sourcing 99% of our coffee, co-developing the LEED for Retail program, investments in renewable energy, championing the creation of a recyclable and compostable paper to-go cup and more. We recently announced a new sustainability commitment to be resource positive, including preliminary goals of reducing carbon, water and waste 50 percent by 2030.

To learn more, read on for an&nbsp;at-a-glance look at Starbucks sustainability milestones:

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Opens its first store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, selling whole bean coffee, tea and spices.

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Begins its first test of a coffeehouse concept, serving to-go beverages in paper cups.

Unveils Starbucks Mission Statement: “To establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow.” 

Establishes environmental mission statement, committing to “a role of environmental leadership in all facets of our business.” 

Rolls out <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/starbucks-coffee-grounds-for-the-garden/">Grounds for Your Garden</a> program in U.S. and Canada.

Establishes a relationship with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund to explore ways to reduce the environmental impact of its cups.

 Introduces soymilk, Starbucks first non-dairy milk alternative. 

Develops a cup sleeve made from recycled content to help eliminate the practice of double-cupping.

Establishes The Starbucks Foundation, whose mission is to strengthen communities around the world by creating opportunities for populations that face barriers, advancing sustainability initiatives and promoting civic engagement. 

Forms partnership with Conservation International&nbsp;to create Starbucks first ethical sourcing program.

Issues its first <a href="https://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/global-report">Corporate Social Responsibility Report</a>.

Introduces ethical coffee-sourcing guidelines developed in partnership with Conservation International.

Partners with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to develop the LEED for Retail program.

Launches C.A.F.E. (Coffee and Farmer Equity) Practices with Conservation International, with SCS Global Services overseeing the verification system of suppliers. 

Opens first Farmer Support Center opens in Costa Rica. Since then, eight other centers have opened around the world to support coffee farmers with climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Publicly reports its first inventory of greenhouse gas emissions.

Makes its first renewable energy purchase, equivalent to 5 percent of U.S. stores' electricity consumption. 

Designs and builds its first LEED certified store in Hillsboro, Ore.

Quadruples renewable energy purchases to equal 20 percent and begins buying renewable energy certificates (RECs) in partnership with World Resources Institute’s Green Power Market Development Group. Designated as one of the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-02/documents/2006awards.pdf">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partner of the Year</a>.

Launches the retail industry’s first hot beverage paper cup with 10 percent post-consumer recycled fiber (PCF).

Announces 2015 “Shared Planet” commitments, including goals to ethically source 100 percent of its coffee, build LEED-certified company-operated stores and cover 100 percent of U.S. store operations with renewable energy. Implements global LED lighting conversion program.

Commits $20 million to a variety of farmer loan funds, providing coffee farmers access to capital to cover expenses during the growing and harvesting cycles and make strategic investments in their farms. 

Partners with Conservation International to launch climate change campaign and five-year global commitment to support farming communities and encourage the protection of their land, water and forests.

Introduces a new polypropylene plastic cup that uses 15 percent less plastic than previous cups and emits 45 percent less greenhouse gas during production.

Hosts first Cup Summit in Seattle, inviting local governments, cup manufacturers, recyclers and stakeholders to find a comprehensive recyclable cup solution.

Opens Farmer Support Center in Kigali, Rwanda.

Unveils new, locally relevant design strategy to reduce environmental impact and incorporate reused and recycled elements. Starbucks becomes one of the first retailers to join USGBC’s LEED Volume Certification pilot program.

<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2009/starbucks-opens-leed-certified-coffee-roasting-plant/">Opens LEED-certified roasting plant</a> in Sandy Run, S.C.

Hosts second Cup Summit in Boston and announces Paper Recovery Alliance with the Foodservice Packaging Institute.

Opens Farmer Support Center in Mbeya, Tanzania.

Rolls out <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/earthsleeve-global-rollout/">cup sleeves</a> made from less paper and more post-consumer content, saving nearly 100,000 trees each year.

Starbucks Mexico opens its <a href="https://www.starbucks.com/coffeehouse/store-design/chalpultepec-reforma">first LEED® certified store</a> and achieves the Silver Certification level, making it the first LEED® Silver store in Latin America.

Committed to helping coffee growers and workers who represent Starbucks collective supply chain, Starbucks opens <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-farmer-support-centers/">its second Farmer Support Center</a> in Latin American and the Caribbean region in Manizales, Colombia.

Opens its first <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2013/innovative-new-drive-thrus/">store made from reclaimed end-of-life shipping containers</a>. Starbucks would go on to open more than 45 of these modular stores in the United States, and <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-opens-first-container-store-in-taiwan/">more around the world</a>.

Opens Farmer Support Centers in Manizales, Colombia and Yunnan, China.

Purchases Hacienda Alsacia, its first 240-hectare coffee farm in Costa Rica, to serve as a global agronomy Research and Development facility and working farm. 

Offers a $1 reusable cup in the U.S. and Canada, and a £1 cup in the United Kingdom to help reduce cup waste.

Starbucks Japan offers environmentally friendly napkins made from 70% post-consumer recycled milk-carton fiber and 30% FSC®-certified paper.

Opens 500th LEED®-certified store, more than any other retailer in the world.

<a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/recycling-in-one-of-the-worlds-largest-coffee-roasting-plants">York Roasting Plant</a> achieves 100% zero waste certification.

Is a founding partner with Conservation International and other industry leaders to launch the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/making-coffee-the-worlds-first-sustainably-sourced-agriculture-product/">Sustainable Coffee Challenge</a>, an effort to make coffee the world’s first sustainable agricultural product.

Launches <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2016/one-bag-for-every-tree-10-million-trees-milestone/">One Tree for Every Bag</a> program, which provides more than 25 million rust-resistant coffee trees to farmers whose farms are affected by coffee rust. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Purchases enough renewable energy to power 100% of its company-operated stores in the U.S., Canada and UK. 

Reaches <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/starbucks-ethical-sourcing-program/">99% ethically-sourced</a> coffee milestone with Conservation International.

Achieves its 25 percent water reduction target through global water conservation measures.

Announces additional commitment of $30 million as part of its <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/starbucks-more-than-doubles-global-farmer-loan-commitment/">Global Farmer Fund</a> program, which supports coffee farmers in improving the infrastructure on their farms and replacing older coffee trees with new ones.

Introduces coconutmilk, a non-dairy milk alternative.

Completes global rollout of <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/earthsleeve-global-rollout/">new cup sleeves</a>, which are made from less paper and more post-consumer fiber.

Introduces almondmilk, a non-dairy milk alternative. 

Issues its first Sustainability Bond in the United States.

Reaches milestone of <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-opens-1000th-leed-certified-store">1,000 LEED-certified store</a>s in 20 countries, including the historic Starbucks Roastery in Seattle.

Opens its third Farmers Support Center in Latin America, in Chiapas, Mexico, to offer technical support to coffee producers. 

Partners with Feeding America to launch its <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2016/starbucks-food-donation-program/">FoodShare food donation program</a> with a goal to rescue 100 percent of food available to donate from U.S. stores by the end of 2020. &nbsp;

Launches <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/starbucks-partners-for-sustainability/">Greener Apron program</a> for partners to become certified in environmental sustainability.

Announces commitment to provide <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2017/starbucks-100million-coffee-trees/">100 million climate-resilient coffee trees</a> to farmers by 2025.

Issues its second Sustainability Bond, this time in Japan.

<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2017/starbucks-uk-to-tackle-food-waste-with-charity-partner-action-against-hunge/">Expands food waste initiatives across EMEA</a>.

Eliminates straws in all Starbucks stores in Korea through strawless lids and paper straw alternatives.

Achieves 98% recycling of coffee grounds in Korea.

<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2018/starbucks-rolls-out-5p-paper-cup-charge-to-all-stores-across-britain/">Rolls out 5p Paper Cup Charge</a> in Starbucks stores in the UK and Germany

Achieves 100 percent zero waste certification at the Starbucks roasting plant in Carson Valley, Nev.

Opens Hacienda Alsacia Visitor Center to welcome visitors from around the world to experience Starbucks Hacienda Alsacia coffee farm, a <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/starbucks-farm-research-and-innovation/">hub for coffee research and innovation</a>.

Invests in <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/solar-and-wind-power-fuel-starbucks-store/">North Carolina solar farm</a> to power 600 Starbucks stores in North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., as well solar farms in <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/starbucks-and-cypress-creek-solar-farms-team-up-to-power-360-stores-in-texas/">Texas</a>, providing enough energy for the equivalent of 360 Starbucks stores across the state.

Starbucks Sustainability Timeline - Historias-en

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Historias-en

A historical look at Starbucks sustainability efforts since the company began in 1971.

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2020/starbucks-sustainability-timeline-7/

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Starbucks Sustainability Timeline

The journey a coffee bean follows from farm to cup is an arduous one. It usually begins high in the hills of the Coffee Belt, a band that wraps around the Earth’s middle between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Bucket by bucket, the beans are hand-picked and processed before trundling down winding roads to cargo ships destined for roasting plants and cafés around the world. 

To get the best beans, buyers from Starbucks have traveled to the source since the first store opened back in 1971. They journeyed to far-flung farms in places in Latin America, Asia and East Africa, taking time to get to know farmers and their communities along the way.&nbsp;&nbsp; 

When Starbucks launched its C.A.F.E. Practices sustainable sourcing program in 2004, the company knew that building on these personal relationships would be critical to the program’s success. It opened its first <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-farmer-support-centers/">Farmer Support Center</a> that same year in San José, Costa Rica, and hired a team of agronomists to bring farmers into the program.

Carlos Mario Rodriguez, director and global head of coffee research and development for Starbucks, was part of that first Farmer Support Center agronomy team. He drove his pickup truck over countless miles of narrow roads to visit farmers and help them with a range of sustainability issues and ensure a long-term supply of quality coffee. He helped them set up their own test plots, showed them how to space trees correctly and offered suggestions to manage erosion and reduce the use of pesticides.&nbsp; 

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William Chacon, owner of the Café Las Peñas farm in Sabanilla, Costa Rica, has been working with Starbucks agronomists for more than 10 years, even when his farm is not selling to Starbucks. 

“There are many problems related to deforestation, and the coffee gets damaged by disease, and so the quality suffers too,” said Chacon. “With Starbucks help, we are producing new varieties of coffee. The quality is good because the leaves and the plants grow healthy.” 

In the Farmer Support Center's first year of operation, 43.5 million pounds of green (unroasted) coffee were purchased from C.A.F.E. Practices-approved suppliers, representing 14.5 percent of total coffee purchases. In the 15 years that followed, purchases under the program continued to grow and Starbucks expanded its global network of farmer support. A satellite location in Guatemala City opened in 2006, followed by Rwanda in 2009, Tanzania in 2011 and Colombia in 2012. Field by field, farm by farm – this new approach to sustainable sourcing was taking root.

In 2012, Starbucks opened its sixth Farmer Support Center, and first in Asia, in Yunnan, China’s Pu’er region. Alan Tong was the first agronomist at the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2017/yunnan-single-origin-coffee/">China Farmer Support Center</a>, starting with just 25 coffee growers.

Since then, he and his team have trained nearly 10,000 farmers in China in sustainable farming practices and 1,200 farms are now verified through C.A.F.E. Practices. They are also putting resources toward <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2018/starbucks-deepens-its-commitment-in-yunnan-communities/">creating pathways out of poverty in coffee farming communities</a> across the region.

After opening two more Farmer Support Centers in Ethiopia (2014) and Indonesia (2015), Starbucks’ oldest Farmer Support Center also became its newest. In 2016 the San José agronomy center moved from its downtown office building to a farm 15 miles up a mountain road to the foot of the Poàs Volcano. The 600-acre working farm and visitor’s center at <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/coffee-sustainability/">Hacienda Alsacia</a> serves as Starbucks global agronomy research and development center.

“I can show [farmers] how we have been doing things,” said Victor Trejos, general manager of Hacienda Alsacia. “How we have been planting, how we fertilize, soil tests … and how they can do the same.” 

The farm includes 14 hectares dedicated to research. It’s a testing ground to push the boundaries of agronomy research to breed trees that are resistant to coffee leaf rust, or roya, which is ravaging coffee crops in Latin America. The team also analyzes soil, fine tunes pruning techniques, and supports farmers in other ways to increase coffee trees’ quality and productivity. Its findings aren’t kept in a company vault; they are shared freely with researchers and farmers everywhere.

Starbucks opened its tenth Farmer Support Center in <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2021/starbucks-opens-farmer-support-center-in-brazil-for-coffee-growing/">Brazil</a> in August 2021.&nbsp;To date, Starbucks has trained&nbsp;more than 200,000 farmers providing free access to education and resources through its Farmer Support Centers. Its aspiration is to&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2015/making-coffee-the-worlds-first-sustainably-sourced-agriculture-product/">make coffee the world’s first sustainably sourced agricultural product</a>.

But for Rodriguez, the accomplishment is best measured one farm, one farmer at a time.

“To me, as a professional, as a partner, it’s the best part really when you start working with a particular farmer and see that they are improving their living conditions and being able to keep producing coffee as a good business,” he said. “That’s the best. It’s really something that motivates us.” 

Farmer Support Centers help ensure coffee's future, farm by farm - Historias-en

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Farmer Support Centers help ensure coffee&#8217;s future, farm by farm

How Starbucks provide farmers across the globe free access to education and resources.

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2019/ensuring-access-to-agronomy-education-and-resources-7/

Farmer Support Centers help ensure coffee’s future, farm by farm

Centered on Sustainability

Sitting without fanfare on the table in front of packaging engineer Andy Corlett is the clear, recyclable lid that will soon replace more than a billion plastic straws each year.

“It sounds dramatic, but this lid is going to get used about a billion times a year. It’s going to take billions of single-use plastic straws off the market,” said Corlett, director of global packaging solutions and innovations, whose team at Starbucks helped design the lid. “It still hasn’t necessarily hit me.”

Corlett, who designed packaging for companies including L'Oréal and Proctor &amp; Gamble before coming to Starbucks three years ago, said the solutions he’s worked on in the past more typically might reach 10 million customers, a number that seems large. But this is on another level. It’s surreal to work on a project that will reach billions and will “change a way of doing things that’s been around for 100 years.”

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“We’re seeing a lot more public awareness around sustainability in packaging,” he said. “We have a major opportunity here. The impact and reach of this project make it really special. Plus, we think customers are going to love it.”

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In July 2018 Starbucks announced it would phase out plastic straws from more than 30,000 stores worldwide by 2020. The new lightweight, strawless cold drink lid will begin rolling out to stores in the United States and Canada this summer, an important milestone for eliminating plastic straws.

The new lid was modeled strongly after the lid traditionally used on Starbucks hot drinks, Corlett said. But while the standard hot and new cold beverage lids are similar enough to be siblings, if not fraternal twins, there will not be one lid to rule them all. Corlett said maximum enjoyment of a wide variety of beverages calls for variations in design. The Nitro lid, for instance, has a wider mouth to allow for optimal sips of liquid and foam simultaneously. Blended drinks, like the Frappuccino, have recyclable, domed plastic lids and will still feature straws (except in cities where straws have been prohibited)), but by 2020 those straws will be made of a plastic alternative.

The new cold drink lid uses nine percent less plastic than the former lid and straw combined and can still accommodate a straw, which will be available upon request, for those who need to use one, Corlett said. Starbucks is currently testing alternative materials to replace plastic straws as part of its goals to eliminate plastic straws by 2020 and to double the recyclability, compostability and reusability of its cups and packaging by 2022.

“We’re bringing new technologies to our company that we’ve never thought of before,” Corlett said. “It’s very exciting times as we look forward to our journey of being the most sustainable company we possibly can.”

At the Starbucks Annual Meeting of Shareholders Wednesday, Michelle Burns, senior vice president of global coffee &amp; tea, will share news of the new strawless cold drink lid as well as other updates on progress the company has made toward sustainability.

Over the next year, in several worldwide markets, Starbucks will pilot new cups that will be both recyclable and compostable in those cities. 

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Starbucks initiated a collaboration called the <a href="https://www.nextgenconsortium.com/">NextGen Consortium</a> last spring with partners such as McDonald’s, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé, Yum! Brands, Wendy’s and the World Wildlife Fund to not only explore next-generation recycling and composting technologies, but to work with municipalities to increase acceptance of these green &nbsp;cups.

Customers in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and London will help test several cups from the 12 <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2019/closed-loop-partners-announces-12-winners-of-the-nextgen-cup-challenge/">NextGen Cup Challenge winners</a> announced earlier this month.

“Who knows what further innovation we will see – I’m excited to see what happens next,” Corlett said. “Starbucks, either through our own initiatives or through collaborations, is making a significant change in the industry and how it thinks. That’s very special to me.”

At the annual shareholders meeting, the audience will sip Pike Place® Roast from a prototype of one of these cups.

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To put a lid on the company’s dedication to sustainability, Burns will also preview an upcoming feature in the Starbucks mobile app that will eventually let consumers trace the journey of the coffee inside their cups from bean to brewing. (In the case of the batch of Pike Place being served at the meeting, 80 percent of the beans came from farmers in Colombia and 20 percent from farmers in Brazil.) This ability to digitally trace the journey of coffee is another crucial piece of the company’s effort to be transparent in its sustainability and ethical sourcing, Burns said. 

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Say hello to the lid that will replace a billion straws a year - Historias-en

Say hello to the lid that will replace a billion straws a year

The new lightweight, strawless cold drink lid will begin rolling out to stores in the United States and Canada this summer, an important milestone for eliminating plastic straws.

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2019/say-hello-to-the-lid-that-will-replace-a-billion-straws-a-year/

Some of Starbucks’ 100 million tree donation flowers in Guatemala

For the Pachecos, figuring out how to make it work really didn’t feel like a choice. 

Seven years ago, an outbreak of coffee rust began destroying crops across Central America.

“Leaf rust entered the country of Guatemala in the year 2012,” says Kevin Pacheco, a coffee farmer in the Jalapa region. “Before the rust appeared, we had better coffee plantations, more vigorous. So, it is a big problem.”

“When there is no coffee, there is no business,” says Catalina Pacheco, 72, a second-generation coffee farmer. “It is what gives life to Guatemala.”

Catalina is Kevin’s grandmother. Coffee farming is the family business. So, “we have, over time, been learning,” says Kevin, 22.

Catalina says that she worked in coffee from the time she was young and always wanted to be “a real coffee owner.” She and her husband, Carlos Lima, bought the 12.5-hectare coffee farm that Kevin now farms.

“I learned how to work from them,” says Kevin.

The rust outbreak could have derailed the dream. But instead, Kevin “is having the thrill of his life,” says his grandmother. 

A 2016 donation to the Pacheco farm of 6,000 rust-resistant trees, as part of Starbucks’ One Bag for Every Tree initiative (now the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2017/starbucks-100million-coffee-trees/">100 Million Trees program</a>), is helping. So far, more than 30 million trees have been donated in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador This year in Guatemala, the trees produced their very first harvest.

Kevin has stepped wholeheartedly into the role of fourth-generation coffee farmer, and his passion for the work is leading the way for the generation after him to learn alongside him, just as he learned beside his grandparents.

“The idea is to teach the future generations so that they learn how to take care of the coffee, so it doesn’t get lost.”

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Nurturing family, coffee for next generation of farmers - Historias-en

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Nurturing family, coffee for next generation of farmers

Some of Starbucks’ 100 million tree donation flowers in Guatemala.

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2019/nurturing-family-coffee-for-next-generation-of-farmers/

After Hurricane Maria came and went at the farm owned by Erica Reyes’ parents in the lush interior of Puerto Rico, more than 95 percent of the coffee crop was gone. Hardy coffee trees were split in two. Others lay sprawled in the dirt. “It was like a bomb went off,” says Reyes, who helps run the farm and operates a barista training school in San Juan.

The devastation at Hacienda Moraika was so widespread that Reyes and her parents, like many other Puerto Rican coffee farmers, couldn’t find seeds to start anew. They decided they wouldn’t replant unless they could source quality seeds, which seemed improbable — until now.

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Erica Reyes

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In a show of solidarity and support for rejuvenating Puerto Rico’s once-thriving coffee industry, Starbucks announced Tuesday that it is donating 2 million disease-resilient seeds to help farmers on the hurricane-ravaged island reboot the coffee industry.&nbsp;

In addition, The Starbucks Foundation and the Fonalledas Foundation (part of Starbucks’ licensing partner in Puerto Rico) are partnering with World Coffee Research, a nonprofit committed to enhancing quality coffee production, to improve coffee seed quality and create a more sustainable future for Puerto Rican coffee farmers.

“We have an opportunity and a responsibility to be part of creating a future for coffee farmers in Puerto Rico,” said&nbsp;Michelle Burns, Starbucks’ senior vice president, Global Coffee &amp; Tea. “Providing seeds may sound simple, but that’s what gets directly to the farmer. It’s the purest example of our ability to have a direct impact.”

Starbucks has partnered to form a task force of farmers, officials, academics and non-profits, including Hispanic Federation founder Luis Miranda. "My family loves coffee.&nbsp;Coffee has been part of Puerto Rico’s agricultural heritage for centuries," Miranda said. "After Maria razed coffee plantations on the island, we must work harder to rebuild the sector smartly, resiliently and profitably for small farmers. The collaboration among Starbucks, coffee growers, Hispanic Federation and other non-profits as well as Lin-Manuel and our family, is an important step in this rebirth."

The commitment builds upon the company’s history of supporting communities hit hard by disaster or political conflict. Starbucks worked with&nbsp;Eastern Congo Initiative to piece Congo’s coffee industry back together after decades of conflict. The company supports farmers in Colombia who used to grow coca, fueling illicit drug trade, but want to<a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-support-to-colombian-coffee-farmers"> transition to growing coffee</a>. And it established the <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/press-releases/starbucks-100million-coffee-trees">100 Million Trees program</a> to help farmers in Latin America combat coffee leaf rust, a fungus known as roya that has affected millions of trees worldwide, causing a decline in coffee production. By 2025, Starbucks intends to donate 100 million coffee trees to help farmers replace disease-ridden trees with, rust-resistant ones. Thirty million have been planted so far.

“This is something in our DNA,” said&nbsp;Kelly Goodejohn, director of Starbucks’ ethical sourcing program. “We have rallied in other circumstances, following earthquakes in Guatemala and Mexico, and after civil conflicts, to support coffee. This is just another example of how we show up.”

Task force is working together to help the coffee industry recover

Last fall, Starbucks commissioned World Coffee Research to survey hurricane-related <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/puerto-ricos-coffee-industry-slowly-takes-root-again">damage sustained by Puerto Rican coffee farms</a>. The coffee industry estimates that 80&nbsp;percent of the island’s coffee trees were devastated by the harsh winds and flooding – about 18 million trees. Altogether, the lost beans and trees amounted to $18 million in damage.

Even those trees that were spared and left standing need some rehabilitation if they are to produce coffee in the future. To that end, Goodejohn has made multiple trips to Puerto Rico since the hurricane to launch a task force of farmers, roasters, agriculture officials, non-profits and academics from the University of Puerto Rico, keeping the task force moving forward in its mission to assist the coffee industry with rebuilding and recovery efforts.

It hasn’t been easy finding the right seeds to replant. Because the hurricane destroyed so much of the island’s coffee infrastructure, the 2 million seeds that Starbucks is donating are not the Limani or Fronton varietals native to Puerto Rico. The future of those two types of coffee trees are in doubt.

In fact, in many coffee-producing countries, farmers often are unable to guarantee that the variety they are planting is truly the one that they think it is. This leads to a mix of local varieties on the fields with different levels of productivity and disease tolerance.&nbsp; World Coffee Research tested the genetic purity of Puerto Rico’s local seed varieties. “Now we are preparing new seed lots for the future,” said&nbsp;Kraig Kraft, global programs director at World Coffee Research. A seed lot is a parcel of plants designated specifically for the purpose of producing coffee seeds.

When faced with piecing back together a country’s entire coffee crop, a single seed lot won’t do the trick. To kickstart the process, researchers selected a genetically similar variety from Mexico called Marsellesa, produced by a nursery that can genetically verify that the seedlings are true to type. It is resistant to rust, giving the seeds a leg up in a climate that is no stranger to rust invasions.

There is some trepidation within Puerto Rico about starting anew and welcoming a new coffee varietal to the island, but there is little choice. Quarantining the seeds will ensure that no new pests are introduced to the island. “We are hoping that this is the catalyst that helps restart the seed sector in Puerto Rico,” says Kraft.

A potential renaissance for Puerto Rican coffee

If the vision is successful, Puerto Rico’s coffee industry could experience a renaissance. Currently, Starbucks buys from just one farm on the island, Hacienda San Pedro, which is verified as <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/sustainability-is-at-the-heart-of-starbucks-coffee-sourcing">C.A.F.É. Practices</a>, the company’s quality and sustainability standards for growing practices, sustainability and processing.

But Starbucks would like to support more farmers in reaching that goal. “The coffee we buy in Puerto Rico is served locally,” said&nbsp;Goodejohn. “There is a real sense of pride for partners and customers who can come in and taste the high-quality coffee coming off the island. We are trying to preserve that and to build upon it.”

The 2 million seeds are just a portion of the 20 million needed to fully rebuild the industry in Puerto Rico. But Puerto Rican greenhouses don’t even have enough capacity to germinate all 2 million seeds at once. They will be germinated in phases, says Kraft.

Starting from scratch also offers the opportunity to retrain farmers in best practices for coffee-growing. World Coffee Research will provide training in technical and operational practices — choosing the right kind of soil, for example, or leaving the correct amount of space between seedlings when planting new fields.

But before they can lay seedlings in the ground, farmers will have to be patient. The seeds have a months-long journey ahead of them. They are expected to arrive this month in Puerto Rico, where they will be quarantined until the Department of Agriculture signs off that they are healthy and pest-free. The department’s Secretary, Carlos Flores Ortega, is rooting for the quarantine process to go smoothly. “The support from Starbucks will help in the recovery of the trees lost during the hurricane and reestablish coffee production in Puerto Rico,” he said.

As the seeds are being quarantined in nurseries for five months, they will germinate into seedlings and will undergo hardening, a process in which they’re gradually moved outdoors to be exposed to sun, wind, rain and outdoor temperatures. Only then will they be distributed to&nbsp;primarily smallholder farmers to plant come springtime 2019.

At that point, gratification is still many months away. It takes about three years for a coffee tree to become fertile and start producing quality coffee seeds. “A lot of TLC goes into this,” said&nbsp;Virginia Rivera, marketing director for Starbucks Puerto Rico. “The sooner we get the seeds to farmers, the sooner we can rebuild the local coffee industry.”

In the months after Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc, the Puerto Rican countryside was a mass of upturned, tangled roots and blue-tarped roofs, power lines dangling limply. Now, the land is already healing itself. “It looked post-nuclear,” said&nbsp;Rivera. “Now everything is beautiful and green again. Nature is really forgiving. I am hoping as Puerto Ricans we are as resilient as the land.”

Reyes, whose family farm awaits distribution of seeds, believes her fellow islanders are as resilient as they come. Despite the devastation wrought by Maria, Puerto Ricans are committed to reinvigorating the coffee industry, excited at the chance to begin again. “Our people on the farm are ready,” Reyes said. “We just want good seeds so we can start over. Of course I wish the hurricane didn’t happen, but now we have an opportunity to rebuild better than before.”

After Hurricane Maria destroyed the island’s coffee crop, recovery has been uncertain. Starbucks is donating 2 million coffee seeds to rebuild Puerto Rico's coffee industry.

Starbucks donates 2M coffee seeds to rebuild Puerto Rico

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Starbucks donates 2 million coffee seeds to rebuild Puerto Rico’s coffee industry

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https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/stories/2018/starbucks-donates-2-million-coffee-seeds-to-rebuild-puerto-rico/

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Por Bonnie Rochman/ Historias de Starbucks

A year after Hurricane Maria, coffee farmers like Erica Reyes have a renewed hope for the future.

It's hard to overstate what coffee means to Puerto Rico. Just ask Erica Reyes, whose family has been growing coffee in the region for generations.

If you talk with any Puerto Rican, the first thing they'll tell you about is our coffee. It is our culture, our passion.

So when Hurricane Maria tracked toward the island in September 2017, it threatened not only lives, but a way of life.

Officially the worst natural disaster in Puerto Rico's history, Maria claimed an estimated 3,000 lives, caused an estimated $90 billion in damage, and demolished vital infrastructure, including the electrical grid, which has only recently been repaired to the point where all residents have access to power again.

The storm also devastated local industries, with coffee among the hardest hit. Puerto Rico is one of the few places in the United States where coffee is grown, so its significance to the island's culture and livelihood are ingrained in daily life. As Reyes took stock of her family farm once the storm passed, the loss was clear: 90% of her crop and 100% of her parents' had been destroyed.

Reyes was raised by coffee farmers using traditional farming techniques that have been passed on for generations, but she realized early on that for Puerto Rico's coffee industry to thrive, it couldn't be averse to modernization.

"Before Maria, my father and I would talk about the future of growing coffee - more efficiency, more sustainability, increased production. He thought I was crazy."

After the storm, Reyes realized that future, while not lost, might be significantly delayed. How does anyone rebuild after such a catastrophe?

That's when Virginia called, Reyes remembers.

Virginia Rivera, a Puerto Rican with a long history in coffee like Reyes, has been a Starbucks Puerto Rico partner (employee) for over a decade. Having worked together for years, Rivera called Reyes to see how she might be able help local farmers in any way. At the time, neither would've imagined that this offer of help would result in a blueprint for the very future Reyes had envisioned.

Rivera proposed forming a task force with representatives from every part of the industry - farmers, entrepreneurs, baristas, nursery owners, even government officials - who'd gather to discuss the best, most cooperative way to move forward. For the last year, Starbucks has worked with this group to align on recovery and replanting efforts to build a more sustainable future for coffee.

In response, Starbucks is donating two million coffee seeds to Puerto Rican farmers, and the Starbucks Foundation and Fonalledas Foundation are partnering with World Coffee Research to improve coffee seed quality and create a more sustainable future for Puerto Rican coffee farmers. The climate-resilient Marsellesa seeds will help lay the groundwork for a more consistent, sustainable product, giving local farmers across the island renewed optimism for the future.

"There is a feeling now that every part of this industry is important, that companies like Starbucks and smaller nurseries need to work together," Reyes says.

"The future we dreamed about before the storm now seems like a reality."

Join Starbucks and the Red Cross in helping those affected by disasters big and small, including Hurricane Florence and countless other crises.

<a class="btn" href="https://www.redcross.org/donate/cm/starbucks-emp.html/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donate</a>

A year after Hurricane Maria, farmers like Erica Reyes have a renewed hope for the future.

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