Starbucks announced this week that it pledges to lower its carbon footprint significantly, honing in on a couple of key problems to eliminate its waste contributions and its use of water. The pledge was announced on the company’s website on Tuesday in a series of blog posts that outlined exactly what the coffee giant plans to do, and how it plans to do it.
The company’s commitment to focusing on sustainability will target three aspects of its business in which it admits it can improve, though it has already implemented changes in each one. Starbucks will focus on improving its sustainability efforts in how it sources its coffee, where it gets the energy used to run its business, and how much waste it puts back into the earth in its products.
Starbucks has created a long list of things it pledges to do from now on, but some key takeaways from its announcement is that it will focus on helping sustainable and ethical farms around the world run their businesses, as well as planting trees that will help to reduce the environmental impact of the coffee farming.
The company also pledges to invest more into sustainable energy resources. It’s already invested more than $75 million into renewable energy to power its stores around the world, but Starbucks plans on sourcing at least 50% of its power from local, sustainable methods in 2020.
Additionally, the company will invest in packaging that cuts back on its waste or eliminates it altogether with things like cups and paper products that will be either recyclable or compostable. The company also pledges to phase out plastic straws by the end of the year, having implemented its straw-less lid (it’s a sippy cup) for cold drinks in recent years.
Starbucks commits itself to sustainability.
“Today, more than ever, the world needs leadership in environmental sustainability,” said the company’s CEO Kevin Johnson in a statement. “We agree with the consensus of scientific experts who note that without drastic action from everyone – governments, companies and all of us as individuals – adapting to the impact of climate change in the future will be far more difficult and costly, taking a toll on our supply chains, our business, and more importantly, the lives of everyone involved, including coffee farmers, our suppliers, Starbucks partners, customers and every community we serve” he said.
You can read the breakdown of how Starbucks plans to lower its carbon footprint in the new decade on its website here.
