MILAN — Specialty coffee producer Daterra, from Minas Gerais in Brazil, has made a public commitment to planting a new forest with 37,307 native trees in Cerrado. This number is equivalent to 20 hectares of vegetation, or 200,000 square meters.
The number of trees comes from the project Beanstalk, launched by Daterra in April: the project consists of a public commitment of planting 1 tree for every kilogram of roasted Daterra Coffee sold during the COVID lockdown.
“Although very necessary, the lockdowns were a hard hit on small and medium business,” says Isabela Pascoal, Daterra’s Sustainability Director. “We wanted to try to help these businesses during these difficult times in a way that’s aligned to our values”.
According to Isabela, the inspiration came from folk tale Jack and the Beanstalk: “It’s basically the story of small beans growing into something huge. Is there any bean more magic than coffee?”.
To participate in the Beanstalk project, roasters needed to commit to reporting the amount of Daterra coffee they sold during the two-month campaign. The final number was then converted to the number of trees Daterra is going to plant.
According to Gabriel Agrelli, Daterra’s Market Development Manager, the Beanstalk project tried to bring farm, roaster, and consumers closer: “This was the first time that Daterra made a campaign aimed at the final consumer – our communication is usually very B2B.
We wanted to show that the power to keep small businesses alive after the crisis is on the hands of the consumers”. Gabriel adds that the message was to encourage coffee lovers to buy from local businesses: “planting a tree was a thank-you gift to those consumers, like a ‘green voucher’”.
The number of trees may seem big, but it’s just part of what Daterra has already done: since the farm’s foundation in 1995, they have planted over 610,000 native trees in Cerrado. All these trees became either reforestation areas or wildlife grove.
“The groves coexist with the coffee plantations. We made several groves on the farm so wild animals live and reproduce. The land is their home after all”, explains Isabela. Today, 53% of Daterra’s land is strictly environmental preservation area and over 340 hectares have already been reforested by Daterra – that means 3,4 square kilometers of recovered area.
Isabela adds that the company is only beginning: “Daterra is going to plant 3 million trees in Brazil until 2030. It’s our contribution to the world reforestation goal”. According to the World Economic Forum, humanity must plant 1 trillion trees within the next decade to fight climate change.
“It’s a huge goal, but we’ll be able to do it in partnership with our clients and the public administration of the cities around our farm”, adds Isabela.
Daterra was the 1st Rainforest Alliance certified farm in Brazil and was awarded in 2015 as the most sustainable farm in Brazil by Globo Rural magazine. Daterra is also the only B Corp certified coffee farm in the world.
More information about the Beanstalk project and the participant roasters can be found at www.supportcoffeeroasters.com.
