Starbucks : Doing their part for the environment

• Jun. 4 by Anthony Dosanjh (1)

Coffee giants Starbucks are leading the way forward by going greener and doing its part for the environment.  The main three areas are the energy used in stores, the LEED award and the 100% recyclable cup.

The company is stating that by 2010 it wants 50% the energy that is used in stores to come from renewable sources. Starbucks plan to do this by incorporating green building standards in all of its new building construction.

Starbucks are still the largest purchaser, roaster and distributor of fair trade coffee in North America (and one of the largest in the world) buying approximately 20 million pounds worth a year.

The company have also been awarded the “LEED Silver Certification for New Construction” for the new LEED state of the art roasting plant, which is based in South Carolina.

This is not where it stops as the company is improving its products as well and making them more environmentally friendly. For the last 10 years they have been trying to reduce the environmental impact of their cups and are now trying to create the 100% recyclable cup. At the moment the company has five main steps that they are working on:

1. Launching the hot and cold recyclable cups by 2012

2. Reduce paper and plastic cup usage by 25%

3. Have recycling available in stores

4. Re-establish ceramic or glassware as a global standard

5. Converting all plastic cup to polypropylene in North and Latin America sometime in 2009

A statement from the company was “Starbucks is solidly behind the green movement … from it LEED roasting facility to it “take the mug pledge”.  Some folks just want / need a “to go ” cup … and Starbucks is working to make that a greener