Starbucks has been a pioneer of what it calls the C.A.F.E. Practices (Coffee And Farmers Equity) that focus on sustainable coffee farming with sustainable agricultural practices like water conservation, bio-fertilizers, supporting the prosperity and resilience of the farmers, and co-investing in farmer communities via technical assistance and grants. C.A.F.E. Practices ensure that Starbucks is sourcing sustainably grown and processed coffee by evaluating the economic, social and environmental aspects of coffee production. Across the globe, Starbucks is committed to 100% ethically sourced coffee, providing 100 million coffee trees to farmers by 2025, investing 50 million dollars in funding to farmers by 2020 and training 200,000 coffee farmers by 2020.
The Sustainability mission of Starbucks extends equally to greener stores and a greener cup. Tata Starbucks commitment to the environment began with its first store opening in 2012 with the use of paper bags, paper sleeves and paper napkins made out of recycled fiber. The paper cups used for hot and cold beverage are in adherence to FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) standards, and over time, Starbucks has strengthened its commitment with various green initiatives like the introduction of ceramic and glass serveware for food and beverages consumed within the stores, transitioning towards compostable and biodegradable cutlery, and the recent introduction of compostable straws.
Starbucks stores which bring to life the Starbucks third place experience focus on locally relevant designs which use sustainable material as far as possible. Starbucks globally is the largest builder of green stores and the commitment to deepen environmental-friendly retail in India has begun with the launch of three LEED®-certified stores in India.
Starbucks encourages its partners and customers to go green with neighbourhood social impact initiatives and customer-facing initiatives such as ‘Grounds for your Garden’ which allows customers to pick up a free bag of used coffee grounds from select Starbucks stores to enrich their garden while enabling efficient waste management.
On the occasion of World Environment Day, Tata Starbucks reinforces its commitment to reducing waste with two sustainability initiatives – ‘Bring Your Own Tumbler’ which gives an incentive (INR 10 off) to customers for using their own personal mugs or tumblers for beverages and the ‘No Paper Bill’ initiative where customers can opt out of receiving paper receipts, reducing paper usage.
Sumitro Ghosh, CEO, Tata Starbucks, says, “We’ve always been committed to using our scale for good. At Tata Starbucks, we believe in positively impacting the communities we serve and want to take this commitment further with initiatives that reflect our continuous and on-going efforts towards sustainability.”
