Starbucks commits to designing, building and operating 10,000 “Greener Stores” globally by 2025
Starbucks teams up with experts including SCS Global Services and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to develop new, open-sourced “Starbucks Greener Stores” framework
Championed by Starbucks partners who are accredited sustainability experts and advocates, Starbucks Greener Stores will be operated sustainably whilst helping the company avoid $50 million in utility expenses over the next 10 years.
The Coffee Company announced the “Starbucks Greener Stores” framework and a commitment to design, build and operate 10,000 “Greener Stores” globally by 2025. “Starbucks Greener Stores” framework will be built upon comprehensive performance criteria that help ensure the company’s approach to designing, building, and operating its company-owned stores sets a new standard for green retail.
Over the next year, the company will develop an accredited programme to audit all existing company-operated stores in the U.S. and Canada against the framework criteria, culminating in 10,000 “Greener Stores” globally by 2025, encompassing existing stores, new builds and renovations. The framework will also be open-sourced to benefit the broader retail industry.
“Simply put, sustainable coffee, served sustainably is our aspiration,” said Kevin Johnson, president and Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks. “We know that designing and building green stores is not only responsible, it is cost effective as well. The energy and passion of our green apron partners have inspired us to find ways to operate a greener store that will generate even greater cost savings whilst reducing impact.”
Announced on-stage at The Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, C.A., the “Starbucks Greener Stores” framework is anticipated to save the company an incremental $50 million in utilities over the next 10 years. This builds on the company’s ten-year legacy of utility cost savings attributable to Greener Store practices, which already equates to approximately $30 million in saved annual operating costs.
With this commitment, the company will also further enable and empower its more than 330,000 partners globally to be informed and engaged in sustainability, adding to a burgeoning group of partner advocates through Partners for Sustainability and the Greener Apron voluntary certification programme with Arizona State University.
The framework will be co-developed by leading experts including World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and will be audited and verified by SCS Global Services, a third-party verification organization that also oversees Starbucks Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices. This framework will be open-sourced to enable other retailers to engage in this initiative.
“This framework represents the next step in how Starbucks is approaching environmental stewardship, looking holistically at stores and their role in helping to ensure the future health of our natural resources,” said Erin Simon, Director of R&D at World Wildlife Fund, U.S. “When companies step up and demonstrate leadership, other businesses often follow with commitments of their own, driving further positive impacts.”
“Willingness for the company to independently verify a large-scale complex deployment of a robust, impact-driven and an innovative multi-attribute Greener Stores programme to address climate change, demonstrates leadership, integrity and transparency, which are core values shared by SCS,” said Stanley Mathuram, Vice President at SCS Global Services.
Starbucks has been committed for more than a decade to the development and implementation of scalable green building and operations. In 2001, Starbucks joined with the U.S. Green Building Council® (USGBC) to develop the LEED® for the Retail programme, and in 2005, Starbucks opened its first LEED®-certified store. Today, Starbucks operates more than 1,500 LEED®-certified stores globally across 20 countries – including all 50 states and Puerto Rico – more than any other retailer in the world.
The company’s investment in a sustainable future continues with the announcement of a green building framework that exceeds construction and design to address long-term, eco-conscious operation. Built on a foundation of the LEED certification programme and sustainable operations, the “Starbucks Greener Stores” framework will offer a comprehensive model and broad environmental scope that is universal in design, but most relevant to the retail industry.
