Case Study: Starbuck's Coffee Company

Starbucks Coffee Company is a specialty coffee retailer with corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington. The corporation has developed an environmental mission statement for all its stores.

The Mid-Atlantic Green Team oversees the Washington area environmental effort. The team is composed of representatives from the environmental affairs department, zones, regional area, districts, and individual stores. The Green Team holds monthly conference calls and quarterly meetings to evaluate the company's environmental progress and to establish future goals. It communicates with the company employees through the Starbucks monthly newsletter, e-mail, and open meetings. The Green Team also performs an annual recycling audit in stores to track progress and determine development opportunities. The information below comes from the Springfield, Virginia, location, which has 15 employees.

Materials Recycled: Plastics, corrugated cardboard, and soon newspapers
Cost Savings: Starbucks has found that it can operate more profitably and save money if it recycles. The most money is saved from the promotion of reusable items like coffee mugs.
Waste Reduction: Starbucks provides in-store customers with ceramic mugs, glasses, glass plates, and stainless flatware. It provides a $0.10 per cup incentive for customers to bring their own mug or customers can purchase a mug at the store and receive a free fill of coffee. Customers can also pick up coffee grounds at the store to use for their backyard composting. To reduce paper, Starbucks uses double-sided copying and e-mail. Employees are asked to use reusable mugs.
Buy Recycled: The store sells a "coffee paper" note card set made from post-consumer paper containing coffee tree fibers. The store's paper bags, napkins, shopping bags, cardboard boxes, paper towels, receipt tape and tissue paper all contain varying amounts of pre- and post-consumer recycled content.
Education: Education has been the key to success at Starbucks. The employees undergo training, participate in community clean ups, and help the stores improve their recycling. The store newsletter discusses environmental issues. Starbucks also instituted an internal environmental award called the "Green Bean Award" that is presented to a store or department that meets certain environmental leadership criteria. Customers are educated through signs posted in the store.
Keys: Instill environmental values in the employees through education. It is important that employees at all levels know the company's environmental policy and support it.
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