Tackling Climate Change
In addition to increased erosion and infestation by pests, coffee farmers are reporting shifts in rainfall and harvest patterns that are hurting their communities and shrinking the available usable land in coffee regions around the world.
Addressing climate change is a big priority for Starbucks. We believe now is the time to increase our investments in solutions and strategies that address this crisis. The steps we're taking not only address our environmental footprint – they help to ensure the supply of high-quality coffee that our customers expect from us into the future.
We’re committed to supporting programmes that facilitate farmers’ access to carbon markets, allowing them to generate additional income while helping to prevent deforestation.
What We've Been Doing
We're working to significantly shrink our environmental footprint by conserving energy and water, reducing the waste associated with our cups, increasing recycling and incorporating green design into our stores. We're also committed to championing progressive climate change policy in partnership with other businesses and organisations.
Starbucks has been implementing a climate change strategy since 2004, focusing on renewable energy, energy conservation and collaboration and advocacy. In the 2008 financial year, we conducted our second carbon footprint study to see if our biggest impacts, as measured in 2003, remained the same – and indeed they had. So we'll continue to focus our efforts in these three areas.