Over the past decade, the price of coffee has fallen so far that coffee growers have a hard time supporting themselves and their families. What is Starbucks, the United States' leading coffee retailer, doing to help them, as well as to develop an ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable supply of joe?

Dennis Macray, vice president of corporate social responsibility at Starbucks, discusses all the things Starbucks does behind the scenes to be a good customer and neighbor to coffee growers in South America. Macray focuses on Starbucks' connections with Guatemala, as his audience of Stanford MBA students was preparing for a service learning trip that would explore fair trade in Guatemala.

Invited by the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, Macray describes the code of conduct that Starbucks developed over several years. This set of rules, called C.A.F.E. (Coffee and Farmer Equity) Practices, aims to improve social and environmental problems in the coffee supply chain. Starbucks also takes part in a fair trade cooperative, supplies the industry with alternative loan funds, sponsors social development projects tied to purchases, contributes to local communities through partnerships with NGOs, supports its farmers with a research and development unit, and contributes to disaster management and reconstruction in the regions in which it is involved.