Customer : Social Responsibility

Join Our Global Month of Service

Blair Taylor — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 22:30:00 GMT

If everybody says “I’m going to change one person at a time,” before you know it, we’ve changed a neighborhood, we’ve changed a town, we’ve changed a city, we’ve changed a nation.

This April, we’re launching our third Global Month of Service. We invite all of you to join us. Working together, we can bring about change on an unprecedented scale.

During our last fiscal year, our customers and partners contributed more than 600,000 hours of service in over 33 countries. This year, we want to do even more.

That’s why we’ve invited five business partners to join projects in their hometown cities – Alaska Airlines in Seattle, Deloitte in New York, Fidelity in Boston, Hyatt in Chicago and Square in San Francisco. These partnerships represent significant opportunities for large companies to address the unique needs of their neighborhoods and use their scale for good.

While these partnerships are important, it is your individual acts that truly make a difference. As a member of the My Starbucks Idea community, you know the power of sharing ideas. Tell us your ideas for projects in your neighborhood. Use the hashtag #extrashotofgood on Twitter to rally and inform everyone of the good work we’re doing. Help be a catalyst for change in your communities. Will you join us? You can get started here.

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A Starbucks Card Made With Wood

MaryKersbergen — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:09:00 GMT

We have an exciting announcement for Starbucks Card fans – introducing the first Starbucks Card made with wood! The wood is sourced from a forest certified to meet Forest Stewardship Council sustainable management standards.

Marrying together our coffee heritage with Starbucks commitment to ethical sourcing was the inspiration for this unique collectable which is now available for purchase in retail stores for a limited time. As with all Starbucks Cards, this card can be registered and reloaded for participation in the My Starbucks Rewards™ program to earn delicious rewards year-around.

Stay tuned for more exciting Starbucks Card innovations throughout the year. Keep the ideas coming.

Less Cups, More Savings

sbx_slon — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:36:00 GMT

A top suggestion on My Starbucks Idea has been to focus on offering recycling in stores. We've made some strides here, but also have found alternate ways to reduce cup waste and encourage more people to bring in their own reusable cups. This month, we were happy to announce a great new way to do just that.

We introduced a new, reusable Starbucks cup! We first tested this cup in stores in the Pacific Northwest, and it has been a hit. We’ve sold lots of cups and we’re giving out more personal cup discounts – about 26% more compared to last year. We certainly hope this cup has a similar effect in the rest of the United States and Canada!

While we’ve sold reusable mugs and tumblers for years, what makes this new cup exciting is that it’s yours for only $1. It’s a high-quality, low-cost option to enjoy your favorite Starbucks beverage. This cup is less expensive than other tumblers because it’s made with a lighter material and less of it. Though you’ll need to use a sleeve for the cup when you’re holding a hot drink, it’s a low-cost, high-impact way to help make a difference.

And since you receive a 10-cent discount every time you use it in our stores, this cup pays for itself in just 10 uses. And you’ve saved 10 paper cups! If you use it daily for a month you’ll help avoid using more than a pound of paper or 3.5 pounds of wood. At the end of its life, if polypropylene (#5) plastic recycling is available in your region, you can recycle this cup and truly minimize your impact on the planet.

Starbucks is committed to reducing our cup waste. We have a goal to serve 5% of the beverages we make in our company-owned stores in personal tumblers by 2015. By offering this option and providing our 10-cent discount, we hope to inspire you to bring your own cup.

Inspired by your ideas:

Recycling
posted by deetfind

Can Your Business Use Square?

Rob Toledo — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 21:28:00 GMT

Recently, we announced a collaboration with Square and started accepting mobile payments using Square Wallet at most of our U.S. stores. So far, a number of you have used the payment app at Starbucks. We would love to hear your feedback on this and any ideas you have for us regarding Square Wallet.

Beginning this month Starbucks will sell Square Mobile Card Readers in our U.S. stores. The Square Mobile Card Reader allows business owners to easily and inexpensively accept credit card payments. It costs $10, and you get a $10 credit from Square if you register a new Square account. You can learn more at Square’s website.

Take a look at this video to see how a farmer’s market vendor uses Square and the positive impact on the business. So if you’re a furniture seller on Craig’s List, a professional dog walker, or working on the next big thing; do ask about the Square Mobile Reader at your local Starbucks.

Reclamation Drive-Thru, Repeated.

sbx_sally — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:59:00 GMT

Do you remember the Reclamation Drive-Thru? It was our first store built from shipping containers, conceived by senior designer Anthony Perez. Well, he’s done it again, this time in Denver.

Like its predecessor, this store has been carefully designed with LEED certification in mind. Reclaimed Wyoming snow fencing flanks the building’s exterior and blends in with the native landscaping to create a site that feels as if it’s been there all along.

My favorite feature is the art panel on top of the store. It’s designed to let daylight illuminate the store. This “lantern effect” means minimal exterior lighting is required. The store itself was manufactured in just 8 weeks; construction for the opening was completed in a single week. (Check the video to see the build-out. It’s amazing!)

Your ideas, like building environmentally conscience stores, become our inspiration, so please continue sharing your thoughts with us.

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Create Jobs for USA One-Year Anniversary

Gina W — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work on the Create Jobs for USA initiative for Starbucks. I’m so proud to be a part of a great team of people – partners, customers, and like-minded companies – who have helped raise both money and awareness of the jobs crisis in America. Create Jobs for USA was created so that we could all DO something to help the people across this country affected by unemployment, and I’m happy to say – WE DID! We’ve raised over $15 million in just one year which has helped to create or sustain more than 5,000 jobs. These are 5,000 jobs for our family, friends, neighbors and fellow Americans across the country, and working together we’ve made a positive impact on their lives.

In honor of the Anniversary of the Create jobs for USA program, I’d like to share a letter that Howard Schultz, Starbucks chief executive officer, wrote to our supporters – including you, our customers – who have been actively supporting Create Jobs for USA or otherwise actively involved in making your communities better this year. Thank you for everything you do!

Gina Woods

Dear Fellow Leaders,

Today marks one year since we launched the Create Jobs for USA initiative along with Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), and I am proud and humbled to share its progress, and thank the many committed supporters who have taken an active role in helping to address the jobs crisis.

Create Jobs for USA was born from a deep-seated belief among those of us at Starbucks never to accept the status quo, and a sincere desire to address our nation’s unacceptable unemployment rates. Because of the collective effort of Starbucks partners (our employees), our customers and of like-minded businesses, that original vision has grown into an innovative program that is benefiting thousands of Americans.

To date, Create Jobs for USA has reached $15 million in donations. Through the fantastic work of OFN, this money has been distributed to community lenders serving nearly all 50 states, and these lenders are leveraging that equity to support approximately $105 million in small and community business financing which will help to create or sustain approximately 5,000 jobs across the country.

This achievement is, in large part, a testament to the generosity of our customers, and to honor their support the Schultz Family Foundation has recently donated $1 million to Create Jobs for USA. More than 800,000 Indivisible wristbands have already been distributed to customers and concerned citizens around the country who support this initiative. And with this donation, on Election Day, November 6, Starbucks U.S. company-operated stores will offer wristbands to those visiting our stores.

The success of Create Jobs for USA also would not be possible without the generous support from Banana Republic, Citi, Google Offers and MasterCard. These companies share Starbucks belief that when businesses use their resources and scale for good, they can make a positive difference in the communities they serve. It is this philosophy that continues to inspire Starbucks to consider how other business decisions we make can reap benefits for and beyond our partners, customers and shareholders.

On that note, I am pleased to announce the next phase planned for Create Jobs for USA, The Indivisible Fund. This Fund, which OFN plans to offer, will give Starbucks and like-minded corporations another, sustainable way to support Create Jobs for USA. Corporations can invest in The Indivisible Fund, which will finance community lenders across the country so that they can make new loans to community businesses committed to creating and retaining jobs. This adds an important new dimension to Create Jobs for USA. These loans will be repaid to the corporations, giving these companies the opportunity to invest in the economic future of the country by putting their funds to work supporting business growth and innovation. Starbucks has signed on as a founding, $5 million investor in The Indivisible Fund. We invite other like-minded companies to join us in supporting The Indivisible Fund by providing their own loans to the Fund, and look forward to the great work that we can continue to do together.

It’s exciting to share these results of what we’ve been able to accomplish together in the last year. But it’s important to remember that behind every statistic are real people—men, women and families that many of us will never meet, but whose lives are benefiting and can benefit from the decisions we make every day as individuals and as companies. The perpetuation of the American Dream exists because of the initiative, sacrifice, talent and hard work of all American citizens, on behalf of themselves as well as one another.

In closing, as proud as I am of our work together, I urge all of us to continue to take the problems our country faces very seriously. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, and is only one of many complex challenges facing our country. Create Jobs for USA is by no means a definitive solution, but it serves as a reminder that, whoever wins the election next week, progress is possible when we come together—indivisible.

With gratitude and respect,

Howard Schultz

Indivisible: Songs for Overcoming Adversity

David Legry — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 16:37:00 GMT

When I was asked to put together a compilation to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Create Jobs for USA Fund, I welcomed the opportunity. But then I began wondering what exactly that might sound like.

The direction given was to begin with three different playlists: Americana, country music and ”uplifting songs about America.” Which sounded like a fun endeavor (“That Rosanne Cash song might fit perfectly next to Joan Baez!”), until I began the digging and compiling and quickly found that I had lost my way (“Wait. Where should Mississippi John Hurt go again?”).

I had a form of writer’s block (“producer’s earwax?”) that left me unable to work on it for several weeks. And then one morning, while beginning to puzzle and sift through the various playlists again, I decided to streamline it. To cull songs from each into one cohesive mix that wasn’t specifically grouped by genre, but was simply a good listen.

What evolved out of that process was a thematic narrative that moved between songs of tender hardship like Fred Neil’s “Little Bit of Rain” to songs of gradual uplift like Otis Redding’s version of “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

Obviously, I wanted the overarching message to fit with the Create Jobs for USA initiative, but I also wanted the playlist to say: “Hey, we know times are difficult for a lot of folks right now, but just hold on a little longer, because it’s going to get better. And meanwhile, here are a few songs to ease your troubles, to reflect upon, to provide a little light at the end of the tunnel.”

From Hawaiian ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro’s unique take on “The Star Spangled Banner” to Sharon Jones’ funky take on “This Land Is Your Land” and on to Daniel Lanois and Emmylou Harris stirring cover of “Shenandoah,” it’s a mix that showcases some beloved standards in a unique new way.

The finished compliation is in our coffeehouses now. Starbucks will donate $2 to Opportunity Finance Network® for the Create Jobs for USA Fund with every purchase of this CD.

We hope you enjoy it.