Corporate Social Responsibility

CBI is a pioneer in Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR); we have been providing direct support for community development efforts since 1984, our initial year of operation.  To maximize results, we collaborate with our owners, customers, government agencies, and other foundations to improve the communities in which we operate.  The content below provides additional information on some of our key CSR projects.

 

Providing Clean Water

More than 30,000 Indonesians have access to clean water after the end of Cooperative Water and Sanitation for Health (CoopWASH). This three-year project was implemented in partnership with the Starbucks Foundation and NCBA CLUSA, one of CBI’s owners.

Nearly half of the population in the Sumatran highlands accessed water from unsafe sources resulting in a prevalence of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.  CoopWASH installed more than 60 village communal gravity-fed and deep well water systems.  These provide safe sources of water for 80 percent of community members.  The wells have also helped to reduce the workload of women and girls by 75 percent in targeted Aceh and North Sumatra smallholder coffee producer communities.

Access to clean water has also impacted coffee quality in Indonesia.  Coffee is sold by farmers as “wet hulled” or with the mucilage removed prior to wet hulling.  When clean water is used to wash the coffee and remove the mucilage, the quality of coffee and the income level of local coffee farmers and cooperative members are both improved.

 

Value Chain Development to Improve Farmer Livelihood

The Sustainable Cooperative Agribusiness Alliance (SCAA) project followed the Indonesia Cooperative Business Development Alliance (ICBDA) project.  The goal is to improve long-term opportunities to improve the livelihood for over 5,000 small farmers in eastern Indonesia.  Through this project, local farmers and government officials in Papua and North Maluku provinces have access to better planting materials, can sustainably produce and process high-value crops and have a close connection to international markets.

The SCAA project is a partnership between CBI, Inc., McCormick and Company, Inc., PT AgriSpice Indonesia, and a local cooperative, Nimboran Kencana.  These companies are actively engaged as buyers, processors and marketers for the farmer’s products and to further develop value chains for vanilla, pepper, cloves and other products.

 

Disaster Relief

The CBI organization frequently provides fresh water and food to local and remote villages after earthquakes and other natural disasters. Between 2005 and 2010, CBI partnered with NCBA CLUSA, the Baitul Qiradh Baburrayyan Cooperative (KBQB) and our affiliated coffee customers, including Starbucks, to help rehabilitate thousands of farms destroyed by the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and tsunami.   The partnership also rebuilt dozens of water-collection and distribution systems in rural Sumatra after the earthquake.

In addition, CBI has partnered with organizations including, but not limited to, Starbucks, McCormick, and Keurig Green Mountain to respond to other natural disasters in Central Java, Central Sulawesi, North Sumatra, Timor Leste and Central Aceh.