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Coffee Cup Woes: Starbucks’ Environmental Sustainability Challenge
Abstract
Starbucks Coffee Company (Starbucks), the largest coffee chain in the world generated 4 billion single-serve cups as waste each year that ended up in landfills or as litter. The company had to work overtime to solve this problem as its customers and other stakeholders wanted it to do something about the problem. In 2008, Starbucks took up the target of serving 25% of the beverages in its company-operated stores in reusable cups by 2015. It also committed itself to making 100% of its paper cups in company-operated stores in North America recyclable by 2015. However, tackling the problem was anything but easy and straightforward. |
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Issues
The case is structured to achieve the following teaching objectives:
- Understand issues related to corporate sustainability and in being a globally and environmentally responsible company.
- Understand the importance and need for environmental sustainability for a company like Starbucks.
- Discuss and debate Starbucks’ approach toward environmental sustainability, particularly its initiatives to address the issue of waste generated by disposable coffee cups.
- Understand issues and challenges in convincing consumers to adopt reusable cups and problems in recycling paper cups.
- Explore ways in which Starbucks can address these issues effectively.
| Contents |
| Introduction |
| About Starbucks |
| Starbucks And Sustainability |
| Starbucks Cups - The Problem |
| Early Efforts To Solve The Problem |
| Cup Summits |
| Low-Cost Reusable Cups |
| Looking Ahead |
| Exhibit |
Keywords
Corporate sustainability; Environmental sustainability; Ecological challenges; Global environmental issues; Managing environmental issues; Stages of corporate environmental responsibility; Waste management; Recycling; Life-cycle analysis; Business-government-society relationship; Systems Approach; Stakeholder theory; Managing stakeholder tension
