By 2025, Starbucks plans to have 10,000 “Greener Stores” in operation, each of them relying completely on renewable energy sources. To establish the specific criteria that define a store as “green,” Starbucks is working on an open-source framework, as well as partnering with environmental organizations, to ensure its efforts are legitimate.
The planned framework will comprise six main topics that will qualify each store’s operations as green. First, it must reduce water usage by 30 percent and energy usage by 25 percent. Second, all energy sources must be renewable, including solar or wind power. Third, any materials used to build or supply the store need to be sustainably sourced. Fourth, the store environment should to be healthy, with appropriate lighting, air quality, and noise levels. Fifth, waste reduction is critical. Sixth, to encourage sustainability objectives across the board, Starbucks stores must encourage their employees to engage with their communities and environmental initiatives.
These goals have obvious benefits for society and the environment. They also promise to save Starbucks an approximately $50 million in costs. Such ambitions represent a continuation of Starbucks’s existing efforts, such that replacement lighting and refrigeration systems already offer greater efficiency, as part of a corporate mandate. In addition, Starbucks has embraced the LEEDs criteria, but it regards the new framework as a step further and a means to establish its reputation as a good corporate citizen.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is Starbucks doing to establish “green” stores?
2. Will this strategy appeal to its target market, and therefore increase customer loyalty and improve profitability?
3. Do you consider this strategy to be “greenwashing?” Why or why not?

 

 

Source: Tom Ryan, Retail Wire, September 17, 2018.