Starbucks Set to Reduce Its Environmental Impacts
By NunoXEI • May 19th, 2008 • Category: Blog
Starbucks customers who care about the environment ask first about the paper cups. The cups are not recyclable, and even if they were, many Starbucks stores do not have recycling bins.
Starbucks is considering solutions, including using biodegradable material instead of plastic to line the inside of the cups, Packard said. In a Phinney Ridge store, it is testing a program to compost its current cups.
It also works on environmental issues in ways that customers rarely see. Among Fortune 500 companies, it is the ninth leading purchaser of renewable energy certificates. It is testing energy-efficient lighting in several shops.
Starbucks has committed to building stores by 2010 that are 25 percent more energy efficient. By that year, it also expects new stores in the U.S., Canada, Germany and the U.K. to be certified as green by independent organizations such as the U.S. Green Building Council.
The company recently pledged $7.5 million over the next three years to a partnership with Conservation International that will help protect the land, water and forest of coffee-growing communities in Mexico and Indonesia.
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NunoXEI is Co-Founder of TheGreenRocket.com and self proclaimed internet-surfing-guru. You can find his personal blog at NunoXEI.com, the home of his podcast, The Lowdown, his comic-related properties and his webcomic, Republic Domain.
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Update: http://snurl.com/2a0i7 [enn.com]
…And then we get stories like this one: http://snurl.com/2a45q [groovygreen.com]
I’m not sure if this is an issue with the corporation’s inforced health standards or their ability to edumacate their employees and franchise managers about the actual INITIATIVES it’s trying to put into place to “green themselves up” (ya, I just quoted myself, it’s how I roll).
I mean, if you are leaning green and releasing public statements about your initiatives, the least you could do is actually make everyday people–just getting their coffee–to believe your sincerity.