Starbucks Case 2

Starbucks Case: PRE-LAB

Topic: Corporate Social Responsibility

Go to the company website (www.starbucks.com) and find the latest corporate social responsibility annual report. Choose one of the key areas in the report and describe and evaluate what the company has done in this area.

Energy and Water

Starbucks has focused on reducing their energy consumption while advancing renewable energy sources. They set a goal in 2008 to purchase renewable energy credits equal to 50% of the electricity of all the North American Starbucks by the year 2010. They achieved this goal last year by more than double their renewable energy certificate (REC) purchases. This made Starbucks one of the top five green power purchasers in the country. They have set a new goal to once again double these renewable energy sources by 2015. The main focus is set to replacing incandescent and halogen lighting with LED lighting. They also focus on monitoring and controlling heating, ventilation and air conditioning. In the future they plan on reducing their carbon footprint even more by replacing equipment and appliances with high efficiency alternatives. This will hopefully lead to their goal of a 25% reduction by 2015.

Starbucks relies on water for making all their coffee and tea beverages as well as running equipment in the stores. During the last 2 years their water consumption has been reduced by 22%. They are well on their water to reaching their 25% goal by 2015. They have eliminated their excess consumption by getting rid of dipper wells and replacing them with a hand-meter faucet. By replacing this faucet in all the US and Canadian stores, allowing 100 gallons of water per day to be conserved.

I think that Starbucks is making a good effort to reduce water and energy consumption. However many of their efforts are implemented for the USA and Canada only. It would be nice to see them trying to influence changes to their stores worldwide.

Course Concepts-Review the chapter 4 and name and briefly describe how at least 3 course concepts relate to CSR examples from a case or report.

CSR-

Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as a firm's obligation to do the right things and act in ways that are good for society. As for Starbucks this is demonstrated through their initiatives made to better the environment. For example, works to protect the rainforest.

Socio-Economic View-

Socio-Economic view is the view that manager's social responsibility is more than just about making profits. It includes protecting and improving society's welfare.

For Starbucks this view is seen in goals that they set as a company beyond simply a gain for the organization. For example, Starbucks require its stores to donate to local causes and charities.

Greening of Management-

This is the recognition by businesses of the link between decisions and activities and their impact of the natural environment. Starbucks shows this through their continuous efforts to improve their methods in order to conserve water, energy and help the environment.

IN-LAB

Which of the four approaches to CSR outlined in Exhibit 4-1 of your textbook on pg. 101 do you think that Starbucks is using? Explain. Please use specific examples from a case to support your answer. Specifically how are stage 3 and 4 different?

Starbucks placement on the Corporate Social Responsibility is in my opinion at Stage 3. However, they are currently trying