Socially Responsbile Starbucks

Corporate social responsibility means that organizations must behave ethically and with sensitivity toward social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. Corporations should blend their mission with community relations in order to create greater customer relations. Starbucks is one of the many organizations who take corporate social responsibility seriously.

Starbucks Coffee Company was founded as a neighborhood coffee shop in Seattle, Washington in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel and Gordon Bowker. The first Starbucks sold high quality coffee beans and equipment but not brewed drinks. In 1987, the original founders sold Starbucks to Howard Schultz who quickly expanded the chain. That same year Starbucks opened two locations outside Seattle at Vancouver, British Columbia and Chicago, Illinois. Today, Starbucks has 16,635 stores in 49 countries making it the largest coffeehouse company in the world.

The mission for Starbucks states, “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.” This mission balances the needs and concerns of community relations. Starbucks’ commitment plan for doing business responsibility is called Shared Planet. According to their website, Starbucks Shared Planet involves “focusing on the areas of ethical sourcing, environmental stewardship and community involvement.” To go along with this program, Starbucks has three goals that involve each of the areas of focus, which will be implemented by 2015.
1.100% of our coffee will be responsibly grown, ethically traded
2.100% of our cups will be recyclable or reusable
3.We’ll contribute more than 1 million community service hours each year

These ambitious goals show Starbucks is serious about executing their socially responsible promise. In a section of the website, consumers can check the progress of these goals.

Starbucks publishes an annual global responsibility report on their Shared Planet website. In this report, Starbucks talks about their commitment to the environment and wellness, growth impacts in communities and the value of their products among other things. The report has also been informed by the Global Reporting Initiative G3 Guidelines, a set of international reporting standards which recognize sustainability. Everyone who visits the site can chose which sections of the report they want to see. This aspect is important because not all people are interested in the same issues. Scrolling down to find the section that interests you usually results on giving up but Starbuck’s clever way of customizing the report makes the consumer feel empowered.

The Starbucks Foundation is another way Starbucks uses corporate social responsibility. The foundation was made in 1997 and includes supporting “young people creating change in local communities where Starbucks has stores, water projects through the Ethos Water Fund and social investments in countries where Starbucks buys coffee, tea and cocoa.”

Shared Planet and The Starbucks Foundation are both ways Starbucks practices corporate social responsibility. Starbucks is active in reaching their goals, which proves this Fortune 500 company wants to make a difference.