Starbucks is a near and dear organization to me and I often find
myself visiting there more than I should. A part of what Starbucks
does for addressing sustainability is address hunger relief, which the
FY20 status shows the following, “74% of U.S. company-operated
stores donated available food, resulting in more than 8.9 million meals
donated. 28.6 million meals rescued since program inception in 2016”
(
Global Environmental & Social Impact Report
, 2021). Another
example of addressing sustainability is addressing Carbon, Water, and
Waste which has vastly affected our planet, Starbucks has done the
following, “11% reduction compared to FY19 for carbon emissions,
4% reduction compared to FY19 on water conservations and joined
the Water Resilience Coalition, and lastly, 12% reduction compared
to FY19 for reduction in waste sent to landfills” (
Global
Environmental & Social Impact Report
, 2021). a In addition to the
abovementioned improvements, Starbucks is vested in “managing
waste, sourcing renewable energy, operating greener stores,
partnering with greener partners worldwide, as well as ethically
sourcing coffee” (
Global Environmental & Social Impact Report
,
2021).
Starbucks is working towards rendering better sustainable options
with the hopes of becoming more sustainable and has measures in
place to aid in doing so. Although the global pandemic made this
movement more challenging, Starbucks remained resilient in this
movement and plans on continued improvement in future years.
Although sustainability comes at the initial cost of generating less
revenue, Starbucks reported, “Lost sales of approximately $1.2 billion
relative to the company’s expectations before the outbreak included
the effects of modified operations, reduced hours, reduced customer
traffic and temporary store closures” (Borges, 2020). With the dollar
value of lost revenue is shocking to see, Starbucks is fully capable of
financially recovering from this loss with its numerous sustainable
practices in place.
It is my opinion that Starbucks’ efforts to become more sustainable
and ethically sourced is a smart move. Starbucks is a very large and
successful organization and has been notorious for being consumer
focused and has a long-standing reputation of being reputable in the
business world. Although they do desire to be profitable, they are
looking at a way of being more sustainably focused and realize that
their success has come at a cost for our planet and is looking to
improve its footprint.
References
Borges, R. (2020, October 29).
Starbucks Reports Q4 Fiscal 2020
Results
. Investor.starbucks.com.
https://investor.starbucks.com/press-releases/financial-
releases/press-release-details/2020/Starbucks-Reports-Q4-Fiscal-
2020-Results/default.aspx
Global Environmental & Social Impact Report
. (2021). Starbucks
Corporation. https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2021/04/2020-
Starbucks-GESI-Report-Supporting-Documents.pdf
