Working side by side with scientists and coffee farmers in Costa Rica.
Earthwatch Institute helps our partners (employees) and customers participate in expeditions to replant rainforests, map water sources and biodiversity indicators, and share sustainable farming practices.
Spending time at a coffee cooperative in Costa Rica can be a transformational experience. Starbucks Earthwatch Expeditions offer our partners (employees) and customers the chance to become active members of a scientific research team on coffee farms in Costa Rica’s CoopeTarrazú cooperative. Those selected for the expedition conduct research that encourages environmentally sound farming practices at 24 C.A.F.E. Practices–approved farms.
Building on a relationship formed in 2001, Starbucks and Earthwatch Institute began a three-year pilot program in 2007 to assist scientists with soil testing, identifying best practices for pest management and mapping farm sites.
Three separate expeditions took place in fiscal 2008, providing 17 customers and 13 Starbucks partners with the unique opportunity to help farmers improve farming techniques and the quality of their coffee.
Earthwatch plans to publish the findings of the three-year pilot and make them available to scientists.
Here's one story:
Starbucks Earthwatch Expedition Partner Blog
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
This is Matt with a few final thoughts after returning from our expedition.
A week has passed since I left Costa Rica and parted ways with some amazing new friends. I’ve had some time now to decompress, get much-needed rest and think about how our expedition has affected me and what it means.
First, I want to say that Earthwatch did a great job in describing what was needed. But I don’t think anyone can prep you for the mental stress of living every moment in a vacuum for two weeks with a dozen strangers, working in the pouring rain on slopes steep enough to start the adrenaline pumping, and the bouts of home sickness that would hit as you went to sleep each night.
In the end we all made it, we all learned about our mental and physical limits and how to push through them, and now we are all stronger for it. This is something that I simply could not experience in my world of information technology at the Starbucks Support Center.
Once you go through that inner transformation, you have more mental clarity and are able to better see the world around you. Observing the world that the coffee farmers live in, the challenges they face trying to balance between sustainability and profitability where the standard of living continues to rise, you develop an immense respect for what they do and the intense pride they exude for their farms and country.
Some people may go home and make life-changing decisions because of this expedition, while others will simply make small but meaningful changes to better themselves and the world we live in.
I don’t believe anyone will simply return to the status quo. We’ve experienced what sustainability really means at the source, and I hope we can all teach that to others and improve the lives and ecosystems around us in even the smallest way.
Costa Rica left an imprint on every one of us. I can’t look at one of the 500 photos that I brought back without taking a deep breath and feeling a sense of peace. I can’t sip a cup of coffee without thinking about where those tiny beans came from and if I might have counted one of the trees.
I know that this is a place that I will return to as often as possible and when I do, I know that there are warm and welcoming people waiting to say hello at the local market.
Thank you, Starbucks, Earthwatch, Costa Rica and all my new friends.
- Matt
Matt Redetzke is part of the information technology team at the Starbucks Support Center in Seattle.
