Starbucks Green Idea – Consumers Vote to Make Starbucks More Environmentally-Friendly
Starbucks Ideas has been live for about 2 weeks and already customers have had plenty to say about what they expect from the world’s largest chain of coffee shops.
The move to launch a website that allows anyone to post ideas about how Starbucks can improve its service offering is part of an increasing trend by companies to use social networking applications to better improve communication with their customers. This move may be the best way for the struggling coffee maker to quickly turn its business around.
Starbucks Ideas is not a true social network play, rather is an an interactive forum where people can vet their best ideas in a manner much like Digg. Starbucks Ideas is powered by Salesforce.com and is the same social platform that powers Dell’s Ideastorm which won PR Innovation of the Year 2008.
Already, Starbucks has moved to implement the top two customer requests: free coffee for frequent buyers and universal free wi-fi, which is finally (woot, woot!) coming soon in Spring 2008. The thought that a multinational global corporation like Starbucks would be so responsive to the voice of its customers is encouraging indeed.
Can Customers Make Starbucks Become More Environmentally Responsible?
As I surfed through several pages of Starbucks Ideas I was struck by the number of requests for a Greener Starbucks. Below is a list of suggestions and comments that would Starbucks make a better environmental citizen, all of which I voted on:
We don’t need any more plastic in the trash. Rather than suggesting trashing an empty starbucks card, give people a 25 cent credit…for refilling it. To make it affordable, how about….
Re-fill your card…at $20 level…get $20.25 on the card.
Re fill at the $50 level…get $51.00 on the card.
Re fill at the $100 level…get $103.oo on the card, or get the $100…and your current single drink order free.
More on the plastic…less plastic in the trash.
I have recently had customers who come in with their own rubber sleeves for their cups. They tell me they purchased them from Bed Bath and Beyond. They prefer to use them as the grip is more secure and they are helping preserve the trees. Starbucks should have these manufatured with the company logo and sell them for a really reasonable price point so we could also help save the trees etc
Recycle! Become greener!
It concerns me that we do not have recycle bins in our stores. In Seattle, and in most large cities the opportunity to help the environment by recycling is readily available in our homes and many business. I would like to see Starbucks stores embrace this as well by providing Glass, plastice and compost waste in containers in all stores.
Recycle the Waste in the Back of Your Stores
I don’t think Starbucks has shown a real connection between environmental health and human health. Here is why: My local Starbucks produces a tremendous amount of garbage everyday and nearly none of it is recycled. Nearly all the store waste is thrown out and put in the garbage and taken to the landfill. Recycle the waste in the back end of ALL your stores. It goes beyond the polish of the front end and sales. Make it a real effort to connect environmental health and human health. Thank you.
I use my Starbucks reusable travel mug almost every time I order and this is what I often see:
- 99% of the time I don’t get the mug discount,
- some baristas have no real clue what to do with it,
- they stick a disposable cup inside it to take down the order and then throw the disposable cup away (I’ve seen stickers but they seem to be out of them a lot).
We need more people to use the mugs and reduce the number of disposable cups used. Push the sale of them (make them cheaper – why not just $5?) and then train staff on how to handle the cups!
Locally sourced (organic) baked goods
Offer locally sourced (organic or not) high quality baked goods similar to some of the baked goods Whole Foods offers, instead of the nationally consistent scones, cookies, pastries, cakes, and breads offered now. This sacrifices some of the national consistency now in place (though there is some variance already) but brings better quality, better tasting food to Starbucks, supports the local community, and elevates Starbucks above other coffee outlets (national outlets now also serving coffee) by cranking up the quality level and local community/local business tie ins. As a result, Starbucks will feel more like a local coffee store again rather than some big national chain.
Biodegradable drink and food containers – Yeah!
Replace plastic containers for cold drinks, straws, salads etc. with those made of biodegradable polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA). These are readily available and currently in use by forward-thinking entities like Paul Newman’s “Newman’s Own” products.
I think that Starbucks should switch to only selling and brewing coffee, lattes … with only fair trade coffee. Fair trade coffee costs the consumer no more than regular coffee and still gives the coffee grower a fair price for their coffee. In return these coffee growers use organic means to grow their coffee making it environmentally friendly. That is why I would like to see Starbucks switch to only selling fair trade coffee.
real fruit smoothies
When I first started going to Starbucks, they used to ask here or to go, and if “here” you’d get a porcelain mug of various sizes. Would that be cheaper than buying all those paper cups. Too much washing dishes?
Corporate Social Responsibility at Starbucks
I’ve seen Starbucks come a long way. Since 1999, when it was assailed by numerous activist groups upset with the company’s fair-trade policies, labor relations, and environmental impact during the WTO talks in Seattle, Starbucks has evolved with a commendable corporate social responsibility program.
The mission of Starbucks’ CSR program is to work daily with partners (employees), suppliers and farmers to help create a more sustainable approach to high-quality coffee production, to help build stronger local communities, to minimize their environmental footprint and to be responsive to customers health and wellness needs.
In 2005, Starbucks received The World Environment Center’s 21st Annual Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development, where it was recognized for its leadership in sustainable development within the specialty coffee industry.
In particular, WEC commends the company’s development of Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, a set of environmentally, socially and economically responsible coffee buying guidelines created in conjunction with Conservation International that are designed to contribute positively to the livelihoods of coffee farmers while placing an emphasis on environmental conservation and supply chain transparency.
According to Calvert Funds’ December 2007 edition of Socially Responsible Investing News, in “Calvert’s view, Starbucks Corp. remains an industry leader with significant and progressive programs on renewable energy and the environment as well as workplace diversity and safety.”
While many love to hate Starbucks, I would point out that, over the past decade, Starbucks has proved to be more socially responsible than many other multinational corporations of equal reach and caliber. My Starbucks Idea is simply another way in which the company has demonstrated a willingness to address public opinion, even if its primary motivation is maintaining competitive advantage.
The power of social media for social innovation is evident. If consumers are vocal enough about Starbucks’ environmental impact, Starbucks Ideas may indeed be the catalyst to a Greener, more earth-friendly Starbucks.
[tags]starbucks, starbucks ideas, web 2.0, salesforce.com, corporate social responsibility, csr, social innovation, social media, social networking, green business, environmental sustainability, lorna li[/tags]
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10 Responses to “Starbucks Green Idea – Consumers Vote to Make Starbucks More Environmentally-Friendly”
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About Lorna Li
I specialize in search engine marketing - paid search, search engine optimization (SEO) and Web 2.0 marketing - that is using the social web to create community, generate buzz, and maximize web presence around ideas, products and services. I am an expert in social SEO - the art of leveraging the social web to increase your web rankings. I can help you with buzz marketing and online reputation management. And I know a great deal about blogging.
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March 30th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
[...] Lorna Li has scattered through some of the customer suggestions and identified some of the ares for consumers would like to see Starbucks getting better on green and fairtrade: [...]
April 4th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
[...] How to Green Your Starbucks [...]
April 19th, 2008 at 2:55 am
[...] So the most popular ideas are the ones SB concentrates on. According to Lorna Li, who writes on green marketing, not surprisingly so, many of the ideas and issues that customers are adding to the SB site are [...]
December 31st, 2008 at 5:23 pm
PLEASE start selling small sizes!!!! It’s ridiculous to make customers buy more than they want, especially when they’re buying for small children. It’s also ridiculous to call the smallest size a “tall.”
January 6th, 2009 at 12:09 am
This type of social media attention for Starbucks is a great way for them to grow and dialogue directly with their consumers.
March 9th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Such a great links you have given here in this blog, and i liked the way you have recycling
and to grab the attention of customers, it should have a great brand name for it,
As well as you have to advertise the product for cheap price at the beginning stages, as one of the friend said before. That’s the great idea to do it. Thanks
April 14th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Starbucks Ideas an interactive forum where people can vet their best ideas in a manner much like Digg. It’s social networking applications to better improve communication with their customers…
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:36 am
Starbucks Ideas is not a true social network play, rather is an an interactive forum where people can vet their best ideas in a manner much like Digg. Starbucks Ideas is powered by Salesforce.com and is the same social platform that powers Dell’s Ideastorm which won PR Innovation of the Year 2008.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:53 am
Starbucks has been a frequent target of protests on issues such as fair-trade policies, labor relations, environmental impact, perceived anti-competitive practices,* and rumors of support for the Israeli military
March 20th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
The problem that I see with green or eco coffee is that it is from the third world and many third world countries have little or no way of checking that the farmer has not used chemaical fertilizers.
I live on the nature island of Dominica and can guarantee the coffee here as it is such a small scale operation. My resort Dominica Eco Resort serves exclusively organic and Eco friendly coffee (I actually walk to buy it) produced locally and am wondering which other countries can guarantee their coffee?