We’ve heard from literally thousands of you about how Starbucks can be a more responsible company, from ideas around recycling to buying more ethically sourced coffee. You have inspired us and, frankly, challenged us with your ideas.
So today, it is with great excitement that we unveil Starbucks™ Shared Planet™, our commitment to doing business responsibly – to help create a better future for everyone and the world we all share.
It may come as a surprise that during these challenging economic times we are investing in some of these programs. But in many ways, this is nothing new for us. Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ represents our long-standing commitment to being a responsible company and the journey we’ve been on since the early days of Starbucks.
Now we are stepping up our efforts in a big way and we’re declaring several aspirational goals to keep us accountable to you and to ourselves.
By 2015, we plan to meet the following goals:
• Environmental stewardship: 100% of our cups will be reusable or recyclable, and we will significantly reduce our environmental footprint through recycling, energy and water conservation and green construction. To achieve this goal, we will:
- Have a recyclable cup developed and launched by 2012
- Have 25% of the cups used in our stores be reusable
- Have recycling available in our stores
- Fifty percent of the energy used in our company-owned stores will come from renewable sources by 2010
- Reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by making our company-owned stores 25 percent more energy efficient by 2010
- Have a significant reduction in water usage (percent determined by March 2009)
- All new company-owned stores will be certified green by 2010
- Champion tropical rainforest protection as a solution to climate change
• Ethical sourcing: buy and serve 100% responsibly grown and ethically traded coffee. To achieve this goal and further support the farmers who produce our coffee, we also plan to:
- Purchase 100 percent of our coffee through ethical sourcing practices
- Invest in a better future for farmers and their communities by nearly doubling funding to organizations that provide farmer loans from $12.5 to $20 million
- Proactively impact climate change by offering farmers incentives to prevent deforestation beginning with pilot programs in Sumatra, Indonesia and Chiapas, Mexico.
• Community involvement: contribute one million community service hours annually. To meet this goal we will:
- Contribute more than 1 million community service hours per year in communities where we do business.
- Engage 50,000 social entrepreneurs to innovate and take action, who will in turn inspire 100,000 individuals to take action in their communities.
These commitments will help ensure our future. We need a healthy environment and farmers that are paid well so that we can continue to bring you the high-quality coffee that you expect from us. We want to care for our communities because it is community that makes us who we are – that third place in your neighborhood.
We invite you to come along on this journey with us because we believe we all have a responsibility to improve the world we share. We hope to achieve these goals sooner than 2015 and with your help, we can. Join us at www.starbucks.com/sharedplanet. And please continue to share your ideas and let us know how we’re doing.
Warm regards,
Michelle Gass
Starbucks Coffee Company, senior vice president