September 6, 2006

More Greater Good

Starbucks - like them or not, they are doing a lot of good things with their business success behind all of those espresso drinks. They have stated that a goal of theirs is to source all of their coffee (roughly 2% of the world’s production) from certified farms that undergo an audit which looks at product quality, economic accountability (transparency), social responsibility, environmental leadership in coffee growing and environmental leadership in coffee processing. Starbucks said that last year they sourced 150 Million pounds of certified coffee, while this coming year they will buy 225 million pounds of certified coffee. Under the terms of this program, Starbucks will pay a premium per pound of coffee to farmers who meet the certification. Not bad, farmers get helped, the environment gets helped, and you get higher quality coffee. What’s it cost you? Probably only about a penny a latte. Not bad.

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