Carbon Footprint

CARBON FOOTPRINT

Increasing farm climate resilience through agroforestry

Our Agroforestry Approach

Since 2007, the FUERTE® Ecosynergy Sustainable Quality™ Program has been addressing some of the greatest identified impacts on the environment, such as deforestation, water management and productivity. While we have made significant improvements to our farm ecosystems, our next challenge is to consider the landscape (ecosystems, watersheds, soil) in which the farms operate.

In 2011 we launched an agroforestry program Its aim is to help protect, regenerate and improve our organic coffee ecosystems to strengthen coffee farms climate change resilience. Trees will be reintroduced or maintained both inside and outside coffee farms to help:

Regulate water availability by limiting evaporation and soil erosion, as well as
preserving soil humidity.
Improve water quality and reduce soil pollution
Enhance soil fertility and limit chemical input
Absorb carbon from the air to generate biomass
Generate economic benefits for the farmers thanks to crop diversification and carbon certification

Intelligent Water Management

Water usage and conservation is still a challenge in many countries, like Dominican Republic, where rural Agriculture areas do not have access to water treatment facilities. Since 2004, Our Ecosynergy program has worked to solve our company pressing organic coffee environmental challenges in South America, with a strong focus on water efficiency. This has entailed upgrading many installations, including wet milling and sun drying installations.

We are reinforcing and broadening our existing strategy to address the water challenge in the country. Developing and implementing water management solutions at both farm level and landscape level, and training our farmers and communities to improve their environmental performance. Furthermore, we are working diligently to improve our organic coffee production systems, and to be competitive and sustainable, managing risks related to water and weather. Research and development of new technologies to fight water pollution.