If you’re a student, you might have stepped in to Starbucks at least once to study or work on projects or just get a cup of coffee to keep you going through the day. How many of us know what Starbucks does for the environment? Well, read on to find out!
1. Environmental Mission Statement
Starbucks adopted an environmental mission statement in 1992. They are committed to understanding environmental issues and sharing information with their partners (employees), developing innovative and flexible solutions to bring about change, striving to buy, sell and use environmentally friendly products, recognizing that fiscal responsibility is essential to their environmental future, measuring and monitoring their progress for each project, and encouraging all partners to share in their mission.
2. Store Design
One of Starbucks stores in Singapore has tables and walls made out of reused railroad sleepers from all over Southeast Asia.
The store is also illuminated by 100% LED lighting and the energy saved in one year by using these lamps can be used to light a 5-bedroom HDB flat for 35 months.
Let’s hope Starbucks implements such initiatives in all their outlets throughout the world!
3. Cups and Materials
Starbucks also discourages the use of disposable cups and even gives a 50 cent discount to people who bring their own Starbucks tumblers in Singapore. This may not seem like a huge initiative but think about it. If all their regular customers being to bring their own tumblers, that would mean less disposable cups would be used and hence there will be lesser strain on the Earth’s resources.
However, this initiative has failed to meet Starbucks goals and hence they are looking at new ways to encourage the use of recyclable cups or mugs. They launched a $1 recyclable cup in US and Canada which would entitle customers there to save 10 cents on each purchase. Let’s hope that they introduce this in Singapore as well! Maybe, if Starbucks had a way to identify its regular customers and give them a larger discount on tumblers, this initiative could become more popular and have a greater role in environmental conservation.
Here’s a little suggestion from what I have noticed. Since Starbucks outlets tend to get quite crowded, the baristas sometimes give out disposable cups by default. So if you go to Starbucks and plan on sitting there to do your work or relax, mention ‘having here’ to the barista and you will be given a ceramic mug (for hot drinks) or a reusable cup (for cold drinks) instead. This will help minimize the use of disposable cups and you can do your part in saving the environment too!
4. Sustainable Raw Materials
Coffee bean is an important raw material for Starbucks. Currently, they work with Conservation International (CI) and farmers in three unique coffee-producing communities to identify and test effective strategies for improving the sustainability of coffee production processes. Besides that, they are also active in the conservation and restoration of natural habitat. For instance, in Chiapas, Mexico, they engaged more than 260 farmers in 23 communities in 2013 and helped them protect over 620 hectares of plantation.
Since I visit Starbucks rather frequently, it does feel nice to know that they attempt to do their part in environmental conservation.