Starbucks: Community, Ethical Sourcing, And Environment

* The organization has strong ethical values and an ethical mission statement as follows, 'Starbucks is committed to a role of environmental leadership in all facets of our business.'

Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. Starbucks has lived up to that motto each and every year and with such great numbers and great feedback the company keeps on growing in the right direction. Starbucks is well known around the world for delivering fast, efficient coffee in all forms. From their frappachino’s, to their brew coffee and ice tea they are definitely the set example that other company’s in their area follow. They live by six principles that they practice each and every day they represent there coffee which has always been there passion to deliver

“To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time ("Starbucks", 2012).” Starbucks mission is to not only provide the highest quality of coffee but also make a positive impact on the world. Ethisphere Institute over the last six years has selected the World’s Most Ethical Companies and Starbucks has made the list every year. What are the key components that make Starbucks one of the most ethical companies in the world? Starbucks has developed the Standard of Business Conduct guide for their financial environment, as well as the behavior of their employees. Starbucks uses strict regulations and a variety of audits to ensure their

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

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.

In today’s business world, companies have changed. Companies are looking to adjust to their business and community expectations by making changes in the technological machinery and devices they use to reduce the company’s negative environmental impact. In order to sustain economic businesses, companies should not only concern about the financial benefits, but also ethic firms have to care about people, society, and the environment as well (Elkington 72). A portion of their profits goes to programs in charge of reducing any negative effects and promoting sustainable and social development. This social responsibility has been implemented with the purpose of satisfying the company’s and the community’s necessities in order to create a good and long-term win-win relationship. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming essential for today’s company’s success. Corporations have the obligation of developing strategies that will benefit employees, customers, and the community. Today we will focus on how Starbucks has made use of its corporate social responsibility to succeed in the business world and how Dunkin Donuts is still trying to stay in the market. After oil, coffee is the second most valuable commodity in the world. More than 50 percent of Americans drink coffee everyday — three to fourcups each, more than 330 million cups a day and counting (Neal).

Starbucks mission is to "inspire and nurture the human spirit-- one person, one cup, and one neighbourhood at a time.”

Starbucks is a large organization that upholds many standards when it comes to their financial environment. Upholding ethical standards within a business is important if a business wants to become successful and maintains their credibility, Starbucks does not just operate on one ethical standard but eight different ones. They are all different sources that are used for different reason within the company. Starbucks has two specific organization standards they go by that deal with their financial portion of the business. Transportation, manufacturing, and supplies are the main ethics codes this organization deals with to earn financial stability. Starbucks has a zero tolerance policy that deals with human trafficking as well as forced labor for individuals. Suppliers play a major financial part within this company, and are held to higher standards when doing financial business. The supplier code of conduct is an ethical handbook, which states the ethical standards that a supplier must comply by. Suppliers as well as the organization have to comply by these standards in order for them to keep ethical financial standards.

Starbucks had been rank as one of the World’s most principled companies around the world (Ethisphere, 2013). As the people are holding the corporation to the highest ethical and social responsibility, these are becoming the expectation of their consumers. Having all these responsibilities in mind, Starbucks is striving to enact its own Corporate Social Responsibility, guidelines for bettering stakeholders in its communities (Starbucks, 2013). Today the company not only focusing on the communities they are operating, but trying to make a huge impact globally. By doing so they are working with Non-governmental organization. Starbucks had been focusing on social responsibility since in 2009; one of the areas the company had been focusing is the Fair-Trade coffee selling. (Reis, 2009).

“Starbuck’s mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” (as cited in Our Company, 2014). Starbucks vision is to “Establish Starbucks as a premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow” (Shah, Hawk, & A, 2011) In order to perform our mission and see our vision we must conduct business by the following values:

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.

Starbucks is one of the top leading coffee sellers in the world. With more than 17,000 stores in more than 55 countries, Starbucks has created the ultimate brand and coffee shop (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2015). Building Starbuck’s name was a process performed by the founder Howard Shultz that focused on quality ethics and good coffee. One of the main aspects of Starbuck’s culture is its mission. Starbucks brand has been ranked number 16 in the Fortune’s one hundred companies to work for because of its honorable, ethical back-round (Lemus, von Feigenblatt, Orta, & Rivero, 2015). However, like all businesses, Starbucks has encountered some ethical issues along the way of their success.

Starbucks is striving to build a better company by expanding our focus in three areas that can have a significant impact. These areas include working with farmers to develop a future, bringing green retail to a global scale, and building opportunities for the younger generation.

Starbucks is one of the largest known coffee distributors within the United States. Their mission statement is “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time”. Their objective is to be one of the most well known and respected brands around the world. With 21,366 stores around the world, operating in 65 countries, they are a major company that has influence on the economy in the United States and around the world (Starbucks 2015).

I think Starbucks is so concerned with social responsibility in its overall corporate strategy because of its founder Howard Schultz. After reading about Howard Shultz it is clear to me that one of the reasons this company does so well is because of the high standards he holds himself and his company to. As a young boy he witnessed what his father had to go through in order to put food on the table for his family. He saw the struggles his dad had to endure while working for a company that did not put their employees first. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell pg 400) It was for this reason that he has such a strong ethical position. Howard is a long-time advocate for increased awareness in business ethics. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell pg 398). He gave a speech at Notre Dame in 2007 and spoke to the students about the importance of balancing profitability and social consciousness. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell pg 398) It seems apparent that Howard is very concerned about the well-being of the employees, customers, environment and the community as a whole. According to Starbucks Website (2016) the core values and mission statement is as follows: “With our partners, our coffee and our customers at our core, we live these values” (Starbucks website 2016)