One company that I interact with very often is Starbucks. As someone who use to work there, their goal is “With every cup, with every conversation, with every community – we nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection”. Starbucks has done much more than sell coffee; they have taken on social responsibilities and have been pursuing sustainable business practices to achieve their goal of fostering connections.
The social responsibilities that Starbucks has taken on include “Opportunity for All” and “Strengthening Communities”. “Opportunity for all” allows for Starbucks to create more jobs opportunities for both they employees and their customers. Their goals focus on “hiring more Opportunity Youth, refugees, veterans and military spouses. To date, we have hired over 25,000 veterans and military spouses and look to hire 5,000 more each year”. Starbucks has also created a program with Arizona State University for their employees called the Starbucks College Achievement Plan. This program allows for Starbucks partners to work at Starbucks while simultaneously obtaining a bachelor’s degree of their choice. Another social responsibility is “Strengthening Communities” which focuses on the fact that every Starbucks store is within a community therefore, Starbucks gives back to the communities that they are apart of. One way that Starbucks gives back to the communities is donating food to local food banks. Every day, “Starbucks partners collect surplus pastries and fresh food to donate. Refrigerated trucks pick up the donations and transport them to a nearby distribution center. From there, donations are sorted and delivered to local food banks and mobile food pantries”. These responsibilities have been helping Starbucks achieve their mission of being able to connect people together through not only their coffee, but through their endless opportunities for their employees and customers alike, as well as, helping those in need.
The sustainable business practices that Starbucks has been using include “Greener Retail” and “Sustainable Coffee”. “Greener Retail” is Starbucks efforts of creating a better and “greener” way of reducing their carbon footprint. They are “building and operating stores with an aim to minimize our environmental footprint. We plan to build and operate 10,000 greener retail stores, improve the recyclability of our cup and invest in 100% renewable energy”. With this in practice, Starbucks can help create a better environment and help reduce climate change. Another sustainable business practice is their “Sustainable Coffee”. Right now, Starbucks is working with other industries to make coffee the first sustainable agriculture product. They plan to invest in “training and financing for coffee farmers, and providing 100 million coffee trees by 2025”. These practices help Starbucks not only connect with their employees and customers, but also with those who they work with in other industries and to gather others to help with reducing the carbon footprint on a larger scale.
While Starbucks does have many ways to keep their business as an ethical and socially responsible company, there are a few other practices that Starbucks can create to maintain this. Incorporating the awareness of plastic and global warming is a good way to be socially responsible considering that Starbucks cups can be plastic and they also provide plastic straws. Team exercises that revolve around helping the community is another one. It allows for coworkers to bond together while simultaneously helping the community in different ways, wether it be cleaning up trash on the beach or volunteering at a soup kitchen. Another one is to be more aware of diversity and culture. In order to connect people together, understanding each other’s identities and culture is very important to achieve that goal. Having a variety of pastries or drinks from different cultures could be a good way to make everyone, partners and customer’s alike, feel included in a community.
Cites:
https://www.starbucks.com/careers/working-at-starbucks/culture-and-values/
Hi Toi,
Thank you for sharing.
I think that Starbucks’ operations in the area of environmental care are significant. Today in our world, as climate change echoes everywhere, mutual effort from all industries is extremely important to protect our globe. I think each firm has to allocate time and thoughtfulness, invest much in sustainability, and ensure that their operations harm the earth as little as possible. I believe that with the technology inventions present in the market, it is possible to reach a balance and protect the Earth.