Social Impact : Starbucks's Social Responsibility To Consumers

Starbucks prides itself on making a commitment to ethics and sustainability. One of its efforts towards that commitment is creating the Shared Planet website, which focuses on Starbucks efforts environmental efforts along with community involvement. The site provides timelines and updates as the company achieves their social responsibility goals (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2015). Starbucks focus on business ethics and social responsibility has the ability to provide financial advantages for the company. In recent history, Starbucks set out a goal to ethically source 100% of its coffee by 2015 (Ritter, 2014). While these efforts have to be accurately accessed to ensure that it is not only socially and environmentally safe, all decisions

Two reasons Starbucks has been so concerned with social responsibility are the negative impact on the company if they aren’t and the financial and nonfinancial rewards because they are. According to our textbook, Starbucks has been engaged in responsible business practices almost from day one of operation.

Starbucks celebrates 40 years with 17,000 stores in more than 50 countries (Goals & Progress, 2010). Starbucks thrive on their values as a company to improve the lives of people who grow their coffee, neighborhoods where the company does business, and they care for the environment (Goals & Progress, 2010). Starbucks strives to incorporate good business practices and ethics across the globe not only for the enhancement of the company but also for the enhancement of the stakeholders and the communities the company impacts. Starbuck’s mission statement is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit. As said by Howard Schultz, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, in the 2010

Starbucks is committed to being social responsible. They have created a strategy based upon three pillars: Community, Ethical sourcing, and the Environment. Star bucks begin their business in 1971, since beginning their business the company has focused on responsibility and ethically change.

Starbucks has been around for more than four decades, and from the very beginning it has worked hard to operate in an ethical manner. Starbucks ranked as Fortune Magazine’s fifth most socially responsible company in 2012. There are a number of good reasons for the high ranking. The company looks for better ways to develop sustainable production of its coffee. It has set in place some guidelines it calls C.A.F.E Practices, ensuring environmental leadership, economic accountability, and product quality. Starbucks also supports Ethos Water, which provides clean water to more than a billion people

In this current economic Era, it has become more evident with time, that being someone who is ruthless and unmoral is more popular, moral, profitable and more essential to being successful. This is the known motto of many of the big cooperate heads, they do this so they can far exceed their goals. Goals of making the highest profit by any means. But not all Big corporations are like this. We now have companies like Starbucks that are setting a new standard towards being Socially Responsible and globally conscious. Starbucks has been known to make huge amounts of profits over something as simple but yet so complicate as a cup of coffee. Starbucks is hugely involved towards bring social justice into its supply chain and while doing so also want to have a positive impact in the communities they enter. Starbucks isn’t the only company that’s doing something different, then the set path of “success” all ready drawn out by others.

Starbucks is active in several different humanitarian efforts. Whereas the humanitarian donations of an organization cannot be proven to create an ethical company, there does appear to be merit in these efforts. Starbucks donates its time, money, and effort to promote preserving the environment, literacy, human rights, and AIDS research. With this much humanitarian donations, Starbucks gains the appearance of an ethical and moral position in its industry.

Starbucks answers this demand for social responsibility through what they call a “global responsibility” report which addresses what the role and responsibility of a public for-profit company should be (Starbucks.com, Global Responsibility). It is structured in a point by point 20 page report detailing their stance on issues at home and abroad. Some of the pages in the report links to some of their other web pages that explain the topic in question in more detail. Their report follows GRI standards relatively well. Aspects such as strategy/analysis, organizational profile, report parameters, and governance/commitments/engagements are well covered. Their economic, human rights, society, and environmental performance

Generally, Starbucks is viewed in an in a positive light, however they have made a few decisions that were unethical behind the eyes of public. One of the faulty decisions that Starbucks made was when they implemented a policy of “keeping a tap running non-stop.” (Balakrishnan) Because of this policy, they wasted over 6 million gallons of water every day. This amount of water could have helped millions of people in third world countries as having access to clean drinking water is a major concern. Additionally, many countries were facing drought, and Starbucks was just wasting the water down the drain. When questioned about this practice, Starbucks response was that they leave the water on for hygienic reason, however this was illogical because the tap water that was left on was primarily used for washing utensils, so they would have to use dish soap anyways. On the other hand, if it was used for only a quick wash of the utensils, they could have implemented a motion sensor tap so it turns on only when the employees needed it. This decision was extremely neglectful, however after public outcry, they implemented steps to decrease water usage. Since this practice was exposed in 2008, they have reduced their consumption by 17.6 percent in 2011. The reduction is due to implementation of “hand-metered water system” and “low-use water faucet[s].” (Starbucks)

A cup of coffee in the morning seems like such a simple pleasure and certainly not one that a person would generally associate with ethical issues like social responsibility, or global corporate citizenry. However, a cup of coffee is actually a serious ethical issue. Coffee is one of the commodities that are still grown in some areas in conditions that are similar to slavery or sharecropping. Moreover, coffee shops, like many fast food service establishments, employ people at the entry level into the job market, increasing the possibility of worker exploitation. Fortunately, as the world has become more globalized, consumers have become increasingly aware of the global implications of their local actions. Therefore, some companies have taken significant steps to act in a globally responsible manner, aware that being solely or primarily motivated by profit is not necessarily a sustainable business model. Starbucks was one of the first companies to embrace corporate responsibility as one of its primary corporate goals. It extended this corporate responsibility to a global environment when it committed to purchasing coffee in a more ethical manner. In many ways, Starbucks has embraced Harvard University's Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative's definition of corporate social responsibility, in that Starbucks "goes beyond philanthropy and compliance and addresses how companies manage their economic, social, and

Starbucks is at this point a household name in many countries. This small Pike Place; Seattle, WA partnership founded in 1971 has gone from a retail coffee bean and equipment store to a huge publicly traded company that has set sites that rival that of McDonald 's. However, the Starbucks ' Grande mocha latte was a long transition in the making. The original partnership of three; English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker, were in the business of roasting coffee beans and selling the equipment to turn those beans into high-end coffee, not that of biscotti and mocha.

Starbucks is an extremely popular chain coffeehouse that originally began in Seattle, Washington in 1971. Starbucks currently has over 17,000 stores and its mission is to “inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” (Starbucks 2017). Starbucks utilizes it mission statement through various CSR strategies. CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR is a method that businesses can utilize to benefit society. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) focuses on many types of stakeholders and outcomes, including stakeholders outside of the organization and outcomes that go beyond financial results (Aguinis 2017). According to the Starbucks website, Starbucks announced a set of ambitious goals,

Starbucks is renowned for its morality due to their innovative sustainability and environmental policies and operations. They strive to go beyond mandated regulations by implementing ethics as part of their core practices. However, no matter how flawless their code of ethics is; they, too, face ethical issues and commit unethical acts. First, they are responsible for putting small, local coffee shops out of business which creates a uniform retail culture throughout cities. Second, they advertise to provide 100% fair trade coffee when it is not truly 100% fairly traded. Third, they use hormone added milk that is detrimental to the human body as well as the environment. Fourth, they set unrealistic, unattainable recycling goals, so they were unachievable; in turn, their trustworthiness is hindered and their reputation is tarnished. Lastly, it was revealed that Starbucks discovered ways to avoid paying taxes in the UK. To this day, Starbucks continues to be recognized as an ethical company. Although sometimes controversial, they are innovatively striving to positively change the ways of society and business operations.

In the today’s business world, there are many strategies being used to run businesses. In the recent past, the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has grown rapidly.

Starbucks acted ethically after their financial scare by upgrading their coffee equipment for their customers. Also, Starbucks added a new menu item to offer customers a more dynamic selection in their stores. Starbucks began to think more along the lines of a small mom and pop coffee shop to fit in with the local stores. To continue, Starbucks plays a significant ethical role within the community. Starbucks donates too many charitable causes within the community. Also, Starbucks allows their customers to provide feedback about their local coffee shop. Due to this ethical behavior, Starbucks gains new customers by offering them a place to relax and give their input on their