starbucks corporate social responsibility essay

Starbucks CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility

Starbucks CSR programs and initiatives are led by Michael Kobori, chief sustainability officer for the world’s largest coffeehouse chain. CSR initiatives for Starbucks cover wide range of business aspects and employee relationships such as supporting local communities, educating and empowering workers, gender equality and minorities, energy and water consumption, waste reduction etc.

CSR Programs and Initiatives

Starbucks Supporting Local Communities

• Starbucks Community Store program aims to assist local non-profit organizations in their efforts to provide education and training to achieve poverty eradication for the young segment of population. The company plans to open 100 Community Stores by the end of 2025.
• Starbucks has cooperated with non-profit organizations, community leaders and organizational stakeholders to provide more than 520,000 hours of volunteering service around the globe. [1]
• The global coffeehouse chain runs FoodShare food donation program in all company operated stores in US and Canada. 10.4 million and 1.2 million meals were donated in US and Canada respectively in FY21.

Starbucks Educating and Empowering Workers

• Starbucks College Achievement Plan is an education program that allows employees to obtain online degrees from Arizona State University. Approximately 2500 employees earned their degrees via this program in FY21 alone
• It has been noted that “at the height of the global financial crisis, when other companies were cutting HR costs wherever they could, Starbucks invested in staff training, including coffee tastings and courses that ultimately qualified for credit at higher education institutions” [2]
• In FY21 the company oversaw more than 136000 course enrolments in Starbucks Coffee Academy and more than 55,000 course completions since launch.

Starbucks and Gender Equality and Minorities

• At present about 40% of Starbucks US employees are minorities and 65% are women.
• Among vice presidents, 48% are women and 15% are minorities.
• The global coffeehouse chain aims to achieve at least 30% BIPOC representation and 50% representation of women for all enterprise roles by 2025.

Diversity in Starbucks Corporate Roles [3]

• Starbucks previously achieved and currently maintains 100 percent pay equity in the U.S. for women and men and people of all races for partners performing similar work
• There are 12 partner networks within the company such as Armed Forces Network, Black Partner Network, Disability Advocacy Network and others
• The global coffeehouse chain has achieved and maintained 100% pay equity for women and men and people of all races performing similar work in the U.S. and achieved and maintained gender equity in pay in global company operated markets Canada and Great Britain.
• The multinational chain of coffeehouses received 100% score on the Disability Equality Index.

Energy Consumption by Starbucks

• Greener Store format in North America consumes 30% less energy compared to traditional stores
• 66% of company-operated stores are powered using renewable energy
• The world’s largest coffeehouse chain is committed to reach to 100% renewable energy in its global operations

Water Consumption by Starbucks

• The company plans to ensure that 50% of water it uses is conserved or replenished by 2030
• In FY21 water withdrawals in operations reduced by 11% compared to the base year of FY19
• Greener Store format in North America use 30% less water compared to traditional store formats

Waste Reduction and Recycling by Starbucks

• During the past five years Starbucks Japan has turned tons of spent coffee grounds into compost and feed for cows
• The global coffeehouse chain aims to reduce the waste it sends to landfill by 50% by 2030.

Carbon Emissions by Starbucks

• The world’s largest coffeehouse chain aims to achieve 50% absolute carbon reduction in scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse (GHG) emissions in all direct operations and value chain by 2030
• The company plans to become carbon positive i.e. store more carbon than it emits by year of 2030.

Starbucks and Sustainable Sourcing 

• The company has 10 Farmer Support Centres in Latin America, Asia and Africa
• Starbucks purchase of coffee from the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo helped more than 4,500 small-holder farmers to more than triple their incomes.
• In FY21 99.9% of tea sourced by Global Coffee, Tea & Cocoa, the company’s global coffee sourcing team, verified as responsibly sourced
• Starbucks doubled the Global Farmer Fund to USD 100 million. Since FY18, USD 54.8 million in loans has been deployed.

Starbucks Corporation Report contains a full analysis of Starbucks corporate social responsibility including Starbucks CSR issues. The report illustrates the application of the major analytical strategic frameworks in business studies such as SWOT, PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces, Value Chain analysis, Ansoff Matrix and McKinsey 7S Model on Starbucks . Moreover, the report contains analyses of Starbucks leadership, business strategy, organizational structure and organizational culture. The report also comprises discussions of Starbucks marketing strategy and its ecosystem.

[1] Starbucks Global Responsibility Report (2014)

[2] Leinward P. & Davidson, V. (2016) “How Starbucks’s Culture Brings Its Strategy to Life” Harvard Business Review, Available at: https://hbr.org/2016/12/how-starbuckss-culture-brings-its-strategy-to-life

[3] Global Environmental & Social Impact Report 2021 , Starbucks Corporation

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Starbucks Corporate Governance, Social Responsibility and Environmental Claims, Essay Example

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The fact that Starbucks 2011 Global Reporting Initiative Performance Indicators showed that it had attained a B+ rating, despite having reporting deficiencies in stakeholders engagements, ratio of standard entry level wages and to local minimum wage at significant operational locations, procedures for hiring and the promotion of management from the local community, discharge issues, greenhouse gas emissions measurements, waste management cost and measurement issues, analysis of business for risk of corruption, unresolved regulatory and legal issues and product responsibility, are reasons enough to question that validity of these claims it had made on this and even earlier reports.

Superficially it could be argued that the company was given this grade by the SEC because a number of these issues that it had not supply the required information was either not applicable or the entity lacked the capacity at the time of reporting to make the submission. Additionally, when an analysis is done on Starbucks materiality matrix, which classify issues as important and very important with respect to their significance to external stakeholders and the impacts on the company, and outline of where the emphasis of the company was centered and it reflected which activities it was focusing on.

According to the Global Reporting Initiative Performance for 2011, Starbucks indicated that coffee purchasing practices, especially ensuring Fair Trade Certifications, pursuing company growth and expansion, addressing health and wellness issues, monitoring workplace practices, managing the prices paid to coffee farmers and suppliers, ensuring respect for human rights, securing the long term availability of high quality coffee and supervising coffee purchasing practices, were the areas where the company was focusing its attention (Starbucks Corporation, 2006).

GMI ESC analysis of Starbucks in 2010, indicated a high level of governance, based on the principles the company outlined, principles that differentiate clearly the roles of its Board and that of management. Within Starbucks the analysis infer, resides an open market for control as well as a solid commitment for social responsibility initiatives, but the company accounting practices in the area of lease accounting relationships with retail entities, restaurants and wireless tower industries, were found unsatisfactory and required immediate and effective remedies, based on the SEC recommendations (Starbucks Corporations, 2011).

Base on these arguments, Starbucks was given an overall C rating by the GMI, for both the local and the global market levels, with governance and environmental responsibilities indicating subcomponents achieving C and D ratings respectively, contributed to this less than satisfactory results that were obtained.

Critically however, Rick Cohen (2011) of NPQ Nonprofit Quarterly, while lauding Howard Schultz on the production of his autobiography for achieving the number one status on the New York Times best selling list, bemoaned the fact that it was disappointing that at the book signing that the Starbucks President and CEO had not made available copies of company’s tenth annual CSR report for distribution.

Most of this report Cohen asserts, focused on Starbucks’ effort to reduce its corporate and environmental footprints via LEED lighting initiatives, the purchase of renewable energy, and the reduction of water consumption rates. Further according to Cohen, the company informs that it was working on the ethical sourcing of its coffee purchases by liaising with Conservation International, to establish social and economic guidelines, facilitating financing for farmers in coffee growing communities, and to purchase 84% of the coffee berries produced under the Coffee and Farmers Equity (CAFÉ) practices (Cohen, 2011).

In terms of its Social Responsibility, Starbucks according to Cohen (2011) had built up an astonishing 191,000 hours in community volunteers’ services through Hands on Network and several other entities, while financially it had distributed $ 22.4 m consisting of $10.3 m in cash, $6.3m in kind to community building initiatives including RED community, and $5.4m in grants through its foundation.

These philanthropic acts makes Starbucks CSR model according to Cohen (2011), a worthy recipe for replication by other companies, because it represent a mix of environmental sensitivity, global development, disaster relief, employee community service, and small grants through its retail outlets. However in terms of CSR and other responsibilities, Cohen wondered if there were hidden downsides to this seemingly highly successful publicly owned global enterprise (Cohen, 2011).

It was noted that Cohen’s recognition of Starbucks CSR model had compared favorably with GMI ratings standard , in that with respect to social responsibility the company was given a high performance rating of A and B respectively nationally and globally in 2011.

On the other hand GMI and Starbucks had provided details on CSR downside issues, that perhaps may escape the consumers and stakeholders who are not observant reviewers. They both pointed out that the company was engaged in a number of lawsuits, two of which involved the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for violating the Americans Disabilities Act by not accommodating to the needs of disabled workers, and a contract termination case brought by Kraft, who was seeking an injunctive relief in the US District Court in New York, to prevent Starbucks from terminating the distribution agreement until the dispute can be resolved through arbitration proceedings (Starbucks, 2011).

Starbucks in its Global Responsibility report had claimed that it hoped to achieve a number of goals by 2015, and have provided details to its stakeholders for their assessment and evaluations., and make comparisons with its own responses which fell into four performance assessment categories, namely goals on track, needs improvement, did not achieve and achieved.

In terms of goals that were on track for 2015, Starbucks claimed that (a) the plan to ensure 100% ethically source coffee, (b) investment in farmers and their communities by increasing loans to $20 m. (c) improving farmers access to carbon markets and helping them to generate additional income while protecting the environment, (d) building new company owned stores to achieve LEED certification, (e) development of comprehensive recycling solutions for its paper and plastic cups by 2012, (f) to reduce water consumption by 25% in company owned stores.(Starbucks 2011).

Statistically, the company provided its evidence to substantiate its accomplishment, and some of them include confirmation that it had currently achieve 84% ethically sourced coffee, invested $14.6m as loans to farmers, sold 5,000 tons of carbons credits, developed 10 new stores that were approved and audited by USGBC as pilot programs for LEED certification, tested recyclability of cups in New York and had presently achieved 21.6 % reduction in its water consumption rate (Starbucks, 2011).

However, measurement and independent confirmation, of the latter in particular were not available were not available and would prove difficult, between bearing in mind the global involvement of the company and the cost to pursue these measurement as well as the accuracy and reliability of data that would be submitted to any agency given this responsibility.

The company had also claimed that improvement was needed with respect to its drive to mobilize partners and customers to contribute 1 million hours of service, implement the front of the store recycling of company owned stores and the serving of 25% of beverage made in re-usable cups by 2015. Performance in the latter two on review, were rather poor in terms of goals set and the current status (Starbucks, 2011).

Starbucks water consumption goal was originally set for 2010 but this was not achieved, and as such the company announced a reset of this goal for 2015. However, it was able, base on it claims that a total of 53,000 young people to innovate and take actions in their communities five years ahead of schedule (Starbucks 2011).

The success rate of Starbucks as well as the number of goals that were categorized as on target and those that needed improvement may well have justified the GMI C rating given to it in for its global operations in 2011.

A close look at how Starbucks provided the information indicators for independent assessment of its Global Reporting Performance showed that the company had done excellently, when it was compared to the Global Reporting Initiatives Guidelines.

According to Global Reporting Initiative (2012) , G3 Guidelines for sustainable performance indicators to be assessed, should include provisions for economics, environmental and social components, and the latter should be subdivide to accommodate submission for labor, human, rights, society and product responsibility.

The components of Starbucks report included an organizational profile, report parameters, governance, commitment and engagement, economic performance, environmental performance indicators, as well as labor and decent work performance, human rights performance, and product responsibility performance indicators (Starbucks, 2012).

Additionally, accommodation was provided for the status of each indicator at the time of the reporting, in that Starbucks authorized personnel could inform stakeholders and management whether each criteria in question were being completely or partially reported on, not applicable, or the information was not available (Starbucks, 2012).

Starbucks replicated the Global Reporting Initiate Guideline to the point where areas of interest in the report could be accessed directly by clicking on the page number on the table of contents, and the reporting principles, as they relate to part 1 and 2, were completely congruent with the required format (Starbucks, 2012).

In an independent assurance report on Starbucks company Global Responsibility Annual Report for 2011, Moss-Adams LLP, after outlining its responsibilities in the coffee purchasing section and the farmers support section of the company activities, and on describing the methodology it had applied to authenticate the data it received, opined that all the materials used to compile this type Starbucks report were fairly presented for the period under review (Starbucks, 2011).

The evidence gathering procedure of Moss-Adam LLP seem to justify its claim, in that the process include testing the effectiveness of the internal reporting systems used to collect and compile information on the data, reviewing relevant documentation including corporate policies, management and reporting structures and performing specific procedures on samples to confirm the validity of data by visiting locations in Switzerland and Seattle in Washington (Starbucks, 2011).

In another evaluation of Starbucks that could be considered favorably, independent yet limited in scope, Governance and Accountability Institute Inc (2012), while using its online Performance Scorecard, found Starbucks claim to have achieved 84 % of its coffee ethically sourced, up from 81.9 % in 2009 to be accurate under the CAFÉ practices in 2010. The report was also confirmed by Scientific Certification Systems (Global Accountability Institute Inc, 2012).

The way stakeholders view companies’ impacts on the natural environment have to be managed through implementation of specific strategies, because such perceptions, according to Hart (1995), Russo and Fouts (1997), and Berman et al (1999), can be crucial to their performance as well as durations of life. However, according to Chatterji, Levine and Toffel (2007), many companies in recent time and with varying degree of success, have attempted to improve their environmental image by reducing the harmful effects of their actions on the environment, but it can be very difficult for stakeholders and consumers to evaluate these impacts, especially when access to the information required are severely limited.

In the case of Starbucks, the validity of its claims has to be compared to that of independent experts in the CSR industry to see how well they are able to withstand the scrutiny as well as the response of customers and stakeholders.

Starbucks was given an A grade rating by GMI for being socially responsible globally, but Manning (2012), writing for the National Women Organization, has accused Starbucks along with Pizza Hut and MacDonald as among major companies in Saudi Arabia who were reportedly upholding gender apartheid in their stores.

According to Manning (2012), these companies have made a number of changes to their business practices in deference to the customs of Saudi Arabia, and these practices include maintaining segregated seating in their restaurants, having separate entrance for male and female, as well as in the case of Starbucks, a changing of its mermaid logo, which the country leaders regard as indecent.

Double standards and apartheid are certainly printed on Starbucks, according to Manning (2002). These accusations has served to challenge the company 2012 report in which it touts Social Responsibility on its website, as the philosophy of contributing positively to communities near its franchise, but has openly refuse to change its way of doing business in this Arab country. The company president for this region has also gone on record, and in violation of its social responsibility philosophy, to say that he will not interfere with the local social, cultural and political matters of Saudi Arabia (Manning, 2002). On the basis of this decision, the validity of the grade A rating given to Starbucks must be questioned from an ethical perspective.

Environmental Leader (2012) has noted in its assessment that Target, Starbucks, General Mills and Ford have all featured significantly in the rankings of the most ethical companies across 38 sectors globally by Ethisphere Magazine. This magazine has honored these companies because they have demonstrated commitment to ethical practices within their specific industry category, by translating ethical words into actions.

Starbucks was the only honoree in the Restaurant and Café category, and was chosen on the basis of how well its ethics compliance programs were aligned with best practices, case laws and the guidance set out in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, according to Environmental leader (2012).

In addition, Ethisphere Magazine had also taken into account Starbucks’s and other awardees legal compliance and litigation track records, their reputation in the market place, governance and corporate citizenship which include environmental stewardship, supply chain management, corporate philanthropy, and concrete examples of local, national, industry or global initiatives (Environmental Leader, 2011).

Starbucks may have received Ethisphere Magazine four years in a row by engaging in practices that will ensure it will be honored, but the validity of its awards should have been questioned when it unethically challenge the Ethiopian Government for two years, as that country sought to obtain trademarks in USA and other countries for its coffee produced in Yirgacheffe, Harrar, and Sidamo, according to an independent study conducted by Depass of Duke University in 2010 (Depass, 2010)

The Ethiopian government found out it had to wait on the court’s decision on a similar application made one year earlier by Starbucks, before its case in the USA could be considered. In an effort to expedite the process the government lawyers went to Starbucks with a request that it withdraw it application, but the company refused to accommodate such a decision (Depass, 2010).

Starbucks action by applying for the trademarks to ensure its control the brands for these coffees ahead of the true owners showed that it had great business savvy and foresight on one hand, but selfishness and poor ethicality on the other hand.

Questions were asked as to how could Starbucks a, company that had dedicated itself to selling ethically produced and traded coffee, and that had built a reputation as a model company committed to the environment and well being of coffee grower among other claims, could not find itself refusing the request to drop its application for branding rights from one of the poorest country in the world (Depass, 2010).

Ethiopia had also ranked the 97 th worst country to do business in by the World Bank and 137 by Transparency International on its corruption perception index, according to Depass (2010).

Starbucks greed manifested when it was pointed out that the coffee it was selling was earning $25 per kilo above what the Ethiopian farmers were receiving for their crops, and the exclusivity of the trademark would give it an advantage over its competitors while it was shipping the product from a nation in which 80% of its population was living off less than $2 per day (Depass, 2010).

In fairness to Starbucks it had recommended to the government of Ethiopia that it would be more economically beneficial if it pursues a geographic certification marking, because that would enable the product to bear the trademark depicting the location, but not prevent Starbucks from branding rights. It went further to highlight a similar situation with Idaho potatoes, Blue Mountain and Kona coffees (Depass, 2010).

The Ethiopian Government had the support of several nongovernmental organizations that were involved in labor rights issues, but notable among this group as Oxfam who openly took on Starbucks by bringing to light the fact that coffee growers around the world were getting as high as 45 % of the retail price for their products compare to 5-15% which the Ethiopian farmers were getting (Depass, 2010).

Oxfam information showed while Starbucks was getting worldwide acclaim for its performance as a highly socially responsible corporate citizen, it was in fact exploiting the labor of the Ethiopian coffee farmers, and clearly violating its goal of ethically sourcing 100% of the coffee it purchases by 2015. Additionally it showed the ratings that were being showered on this company were also questionable, as they were based on information Starbucks supplied rather than on form independent sources.

In the final analysis Ethiopia and Starbucks brokered an agreement in 2007, whereby the company agreed to promote the country’s coffee in its stores, develop agronomic center across the country to help farmers improve their profitability, in exchange for ownership of the brand and not paying royalties to the Ethiopian government (Depass, 2010)

However it was questionable whether Starbucks would have arrived at this agreement without the exposure given to its poor ethics by the Ethiopian Government and nongovernmental agencies like Oxfam, which was also able to send 70,000 faxed letters of complaints to Starbucks executive in the African region (Depass, 2010).

The ratings given by international organizations may not be a true reflection of the actual practices of companies that operate globally as well as nationally, as has been evidence by the case with Starbucks. This company had achieve rating as high as A for being socially responsible, yet in the Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and with lawsuits in the US , there were questions regarding its motives and the adequacy of performance.

Starbucks was even conducting questionable lease accounting practice with entities like other restaurants, retail outlets and wireless tower industries.

In order for the true positions of these companies to be brought to light, more access to information must be given to consumers and other vital stakeholders, whose importance in shaping their profitability and lifespan has been alluded to by Chatterji et al (2007), and will be vital going forward.

This role of information dissemination and the independent analysis of companies that may be engaged in green lighting activities, whereby environmental claims are made to ensure consumers embrace the right perceptions, but in reality, like in the case of Starbucks in Saudi Arabia, companies may be supporting policies that are in violation of their ethical principles, should be done by media houses, nonprofit organizations and other independent analysts, that are above industrial bribery and are committed to promoting the truth for the benefit if the public.

Companies then like Ethisphere, would have second thoughts in the awards it make annually, as more balance would be available in terms of companies true positions on cooperate governance, and environmental and social responsibility, and the grading awarded in the long term would become more reflective of what is prevalent in the operating environments even as far as Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia.

Cohen, R. (2011). “Corporate Social Responsibility and Starbucks” NPQ Nonprofit Quarterly www.nonprofitquarterly.org/component/content/article.html?id=114166

Manning, Nicole. (2002). “US Companies Support Gender Segregation in Saudi Arabia” National Organization for Women www.now.org/nnt/summer-2002/gender.html

Starbucks Corporation (2011) “Starbucks Global Responsibility Report Goals and Progress 2010” www.starbucks.com/static/pd/goals_progress-scorecasrd.2011.pdf

Starbucks Corporation (2012) “Starbucks Global Responsibility Report Goals and Progress 2011” www.starbucks.com/static/pd/goals_progress-scorecasrd.2011.pdf

Governance and Accountability Institute Inc (2012). “Trend watching: Company Sustainability Scorecards from Brand Marketer with High Public Profile-McDonalds and Starbucks” Issue 6 Article 3 www.ga.institute.com/ga-institute-update-newsletter-internal/article/ga-update-16a3012012trendewatching-company-sustainability

Global Reporting Initiative (2012).” G3 Guidelines Overview” www.globalreporting.org/reporting/latest-guidelines/g3-guidelines/pages/default.aspx

Russo. M.V. & Fouts, P.A. (1997). “A Resource –Based Perspective on Corporate Environmental Performance and Profitability” Academy of Management Journal Vol.40 Issue 3 pp.534-559

Hart, S. (1995). “A Natural Resource-Base View of the Firm” Academy of Management Review Vol.20 pp.986-1014

Chatterji, A.K., Levine, D.I., Toffel, M.W., (2008). “: How well do Social Rating actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility” Working Paper series University of California, Berkley CA www.escholarship.org/uc/item/66w2n385#page-2

Berman, S.L., Wicks, A.C., Kotha, As., Jones, T.M. (1990). “Does Stakeholders Orientation Matters? The Relationship between Stakeholders Models and Firm Financial Performance” Academy of Management Journal Vol.42 pp.488-506

Environmental Leader (2011). “Ford Starbucks among Most Ethical Companies” www.environmentalleader.com/2011/03/17/ford-starbucks-aqmong-most-ethical-companies/

Depass, Donald. (2010). “Starbucks vs. Ethiopia: Corporate Strategies and Ethical Sourcing in the Coffee Industry” The Keenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University www.duke.edu/web/keenan/casestudies/starbucks.pdf

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Starbucks Stakeholders, CSR & ESG

Starbucks Corporation manages stakeholder interests through programs for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals that match issues relevant to the foodservice industry. These issues, such as the ecological and social trends shown in the PESTLE/PESTEL analysis of Starbucks , encourage businesses to integrate corporate citizenship, sustainability, and green business practices into their strategies. In this case, the coffeehouse company advocates CSR-focused social movements, especially those pertaining to sustainability. Based on Archie B. Carroll’s description of corporate social responsibility, Starbucks accounts for the interests of stakeholders, because the company is viewed as a citizen of society. The coffee business has a corporate citizenship approach that addresses multiple stakeholder groups, such as employees and farmers.

The effectiveness of social responsibility strategies influences long-term success and the satisfaction of business goals and objectives based on Starbucks’ mission statement and vision statement . The company’s CSR, ESG, and stakeholder management programs support strategies for leadership in the coffeehouse industry.

Starbucks’ Stakeholders & CSR/ESG Initiatives

Starbucks’ corporate social responsibility practices address the concerns of different stakeholder groups. These CSR and ESG practices are similar to those of other large multinational companies in food service and other industries. Starbucks’ corporate citizenship approach deals with the concerns of its stakeholders, as follows:

• Employees (baristas, partners) – highest priority
• Suppliers (supply firms, coffee farmers, and others)
• Environment and communities
• Governments

Employees . Starbucks prioritizes employees in its corporate social responsibility efforts. As stakeholders, employees are interested in better working conditions, job security, and higher wages. This prioritization agrees with Starbucks’ organizational culture (company culture) and its emphasis on the employees-first attitude. The company sets its employees’ wages above the legally mandated minimum wage. Also, Starbucks boosts its corporate citizenship performance for this stakeholder group by giving scholarships to employees, in partnership with Arizona State University.

Customers . Starbucks considers customers among its top stakeholders. The interests of this stakeholder group are high-quality service and products, such as coffee and other beverages. As the world’s most popular coffeehouse chain, Starbucks effectively addresses these interests through its corporate social responsibility efforts. The company extends its corporate culture to customers at its cafés. For example, warm and friendly relations are emphasized in the company and in how baristas interact with customers. This approach enhances Starbucks’ service quality and customer experience. Also, the company has stringent standards and requirements for its supply of raw materials, like coffee beans. These quality standards contribute to the business strengths shown in the SWOT analysis of Starbucks . Thus, the coffee company’s corporate social responsibility strategy accounts for the interests of this stakeholder group of customers.

Suppliers . Starbucks suppliers include wholesale supply firms, coffee farmers, and other vendors or producers. The main CSR/ESG interest of this stakeholder group is the profitability of business relations with the coffeehouse chain. For example, coffee farmers aim to increase their yield to generate more revenues while supplying Starbucks. The company’s corporate citizenship approach addresses coffee farmers and related stakeholders through a supplier diversity program that aims to include more suppliers from around the world, while stabilizing the supply chain. Moreover, the company’s Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFE) program requires transparency among wholesale suppliers to ensure that coffee farmers are properly paid. Starbucks’ operations management , particularly supply chain management, supports these multi-pronged corporate social responsibility efforts for the interests of this stakeholder group of suppliers.

Environment and Communities . Starbucks has corporate social responsibility programs for ecologically sound, sustainable, and green business operations. The company’s CAFE program leads to higher biodiversity and shade quality in certified coffee farms. Currently, most of the company’s supply comes from CAFE-certified farms. This situation reflects sustainability goals as the business improves its coffeehouse chain operations. Other corporate social responsibility efforts include support programs for communities, such as through the Starbucks Foundation. These multiple programs and initiatives enable the coffee company to improve its corporate citizenship status while benefiting the stakeholder group of communities and the environment.

Investors . As a business, Starbucks Corporation must address investors as stakeholders. In the corporate social responsibility context, investors are interested in the economic benefits of the coffeehouse chain, particularly in terms of dividends and share price. As a responsible business, the firm maintains dominant and profitable global operations in the coffeehouse industry, thus satisfying investors’ need for profitability and business growth. Also, to address this corporate social responsibility, Starbucks keeps improving its competencies to protect the business against competitors, including coffeehouse firms, like Tim Hortons and Costa Coffee, as well as foodservice businesses, such as Dunkin’, McDonald’s McCafé , Wendy’s , Burger King , and Subway . These competitors offer food, coffee, and other drinks that affect Starbucks’ strategies for sustainability and corporate citizenship.

Governments . Starbucks’ social responsibility efforts address the interests of the stakeholder group of numerous governments, considering the company’s global presence. The coffee business complies with rules and regulations but has been criticized for its tax practices in Europe. Starbucks uses a network of locations in different European countries to exploit tax advantages. Thus, the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts can be improved to better address this stakeholder group.

Starbucks’ Corporate Citizenship: CSR & ESG Performance, Actions

Starbucks has satisfactory corporate social responsibility performance in addressing the interests of most of its stakeholders. The foodservice company satisfies most of the concerns of its stakeholder groups, like customers, employees, suppliers, the environment and communities, and investors. However, the corporation can improve its CSR and ESG performance by reaching a 100% CAFE-certified ethical supply chain to maximize the benefits for communities and the environment. Starbucks can also improve its corporate citizenship performance in addressing governments by improving its tax practices, compliance, and related governance areas. These are areas where the coffeehouse chain can implement changes to boost its corporate social responsibility performance to satisfy its stakeholders.

• Fatima, T., & Elbanna, S. (2023). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation: A review and a research agenda towards an integrative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 183 (1), 105-121.
• Park, J. G., Park, K., Noh, H., & Kim, Y. G. (2023). Characterization of CSR, ESG, and corporate citizenship through a text mining-based review of literature. Sustainability, 15 (5), 3892.
• Siyahhan, B. (2023). Stakeholders and corporate social responsibility: What makes firms tip over to CSR investments? Managerial and Decision Economics, 44 (3), 1436-1453.
• Starbucks Coffee Company – Building Supportive & Sustainable Communities .
• Starbucks Coffee Company – Education .
• Starbucks Corporation – Form 10-K .
• Starbucks Corporation – Our long-standing efforts to put our partners first .
• Starbucks Ethical Sourcing – Coffee .
• The Starbucks Foundation .
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Corporate Social Responsibility of Starbucks

Introduction and organization overview.

In the face of various aroused challenges, including global warming and the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate social responsibility (CSR) acquires increasing importance for the prosperity of business and society altogether. In these contexts, Starbucks Corporation can serve as an exemplary entity with active CSR clearly determined and consistently conducted by the leadership for more than two decades.

Description

Starbucks Corporation is an American international coffee company that represents itself as one of the largest chains of coffeehouses in the globe, with over 32,000 coffee shops in 83 countries (“Company profile,” 2020).

Core Business

The company’s business revolves around 30 blends of premium coffees that can be enjoyed either store, on-the-go, or at home. In particular, the products comprise handcrafted beverages, such as hot and iced espresso drinks, such as teas, and fresh-brewed coffee, and fresh food, namely, sandwiches, yogurt, baked pastries, and many others (“Company profile,” 2020).

Mission Statement

Starbucks’s mission: “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” (“Company profile,” 2020). The mission can imply the significance of community and cohesion of people who can be inspired with a cup of quality and sustainable coffee.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiative

Evaluation of the initiative.

The company developed its C.A.F.E. practices that include a system of 249 indicators. Currently, C.A.F.E. practices contain about 400,000 coffee farmers in 30 countries, which allows for enhancing working conditions and intending over a million hectares of land for sustainable practices (“C.A.F.E. Practices,” n.d.). Thus, this plan is ethical because the company strives to follow the ethical sourcing practice standards approved by Conservation International.

Demonstration of CSR

C.A.F.E. Practices demonstrates CSR by promoting the transparency and sustainability of coffee growing practices and supporting coffee farmers and their workers and families. Kang and Namkung (2018) state that Starbucks’s CSR enhances consumers’ long-term relationships with that company. In this case, the given practice positively reflects Starbucks’s reputation, attracting new investors and valuable stakeholders, including committed employees. On the other hand, the company teaches farmers sustainable and simultaneously profitable practices.

Recommendations / Conclusion

Altogether, the given CSR plan has a beneficial effect on numerous communities in developing countries, encouraging farmers and collaborating companies to lead sustainable policy. Nevertheless, Starbucks could simplify its criteria to expand its coverage to a higher number of people. Besides, the company can offer education of their ecologically advantageous practices for all communities by cooperating with local governments tightly.

C.A.F.E. Practices: Starbucks approach to ethically sourcing coffee . (2020). Starbucks. Web.

Company profile . (2020). Starbucks. Web.

Kang, J. W., & Namkung, Y. (2018). The effect of corporate social responsibility on brand equity and the moderating role of ethical consumerism: The case of Starbucks. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research , 42 (7), 1130-1151. Web.

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Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility & Marketing Mix

Introduction

Organizations employ numerous strategies to build their reputations and market themselves in competitive global markets. This assignment will focus on marketing mix and corporate social responsibility (CSR) because they are two crucial concepts that organizations utilize in ensuring that they gain significant market share and dominate competitive markets. Marketing mix constitutes strategies that organizations modulate to influence consumer purchasing decisions. Isoraite (2016) explains that organizations focus on product, promotion, placement, and price strategies in improving the purchasing experience of customers.

CSR is a management strategy that enables organizations to ethical activities and operations, which consider social, economic, environmental, legal, and philanthropic factors in a given business environment. According to Godos-Díez, Cabeza-García, and Fernández-González (2018), CSR is a competitive strategy that organizations utilize to improve their economic, social, and environmental aspects. As the application of these concepts of the marketing mix and CRS in organizations, this assignment will explore them using the case study of Starbucks.

This case study is relevant since Starbucks is an international organization with various brands in diverse global markets. Overall, the purpose of this assignment is to describe marketing mix and CSR and highlight their importance to organizations with the view to apply them in the case study of Starbucks.

Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is a primary marketing tool that enables managers to improve the experiences of consumers, as well as influence their purchasing decisions. Using the marketing mix, organizations control the way they design products, distribute, promote and price them (Isoraite 2016). The exposition of these concepts of the marketing mix, namely, product, placement, promotion, and price, would highlight their relevance to modern businesses.

Product is an essential element of the marketing mix since it considers the nature of goods and services availed to customers in the market. Features that determine the value of a product in the market design, the technology employed, utility, quality, brand, packaging, and guarantees offered to customers (Isoraite 2016). A marketable product should have an appealing design, employ modern technology and provide composite utilities for customers to enjoy diverse functionalities and get value for their money. Al-Badi (2018) explains that organizations should vary the features and attributes of their products in response to the needs and wants of the target consumers and competitive market environment. Therefore, the ability of organizations to generate products that match the needs and wants of customers reflects their competitiveness in markets.

Placement of products in strategic locations for customers to view and purchase is an essential concept of the marketing mix. Factors that determine the distribution and placement of products are market locations, distribution channels, logistics, and inventory methods (Isoraite 2016). Organizations have to ensure that their products reach target markets in time for customers to make purchases. According to Kawa and Maryniak (2019), the life cycle of products, outbound logistics, warehousing, locations of markets, and nature of products determine if organizations employ lean or agile logistics in distributing and placing their products at strategic stores for customers to access and purchase.

Promotion is also an integral element of the marketing mix because it influences customer awareness. Having the right product and placing it at the strategic shopping centers does not guarantee sales without customer awareness. Promotion informs, convinces, and prompts the target customers of the availability of a new product in the market for them to view, purchase and experience its utility (Erdil and Ozdemir 2016). Strategies employed in the promotion of products include advertisement, sales promotion, direct marketing, word-of-mouth, leaflets, exhibitions, trade fairs, posters, and gifts (Isoraite 2016: 31). Promotion does not only create awareness, but it also builds loyalty among customers, leading to customer retention and expansion of market share.

The price of a product is a significant element of the marketing mix because it influences the sales and purchasing power of customers. A pricing strategy depends on the cost of production, degree of competition, market share, perceived value, and the level of differentiation (Al-Badi 2018). Organizations can employ different pricing strategies, depending on the nature of products and the prevailing conditions in the markets.

The typical pricing strategies are based on the levels of demand, cost, premium, and competition (Toni et al., 2017). The demand-based method fixes prices according to consumer needs and preferences, the cost-based technique focuses on gaining profit margins, the premium-based strategy relies on branding, and the competition-based method ensures organizations remain competitive in the market.

Corporate Social Responsibility

CSR strategy plays a central role in business because it ensures that organizations undertake their activities while remaining accountable to shareholders, society, and the environment. The focus of CSR strategy is to ensure the achievement of customer satisfaction and loyalty by complying with economic, ethical, environmental, and philanthropic requirements.

Economic Responsibility

Financial responsibility is one of the aspects of CSR, which ensures that there prudent utilization of capital and profits by organizations. Since organizations are profit-making entities, they have the economic responsibility of ensuring that shareholders reap profits from their investments (Galant and Cadez 2016). Through economic responsibility, organizations do not only focus on profits but also fiscal progress for the benefit of employees, society, and the general economy (Galant and Cadez 2016).

In this view, organizations should remain transparent and accountable to shareholders in all investments. In addition to generating profits for shareholders, organizations should meet other financial obligations, such as paying their employees well, remitting taxes to the government, and settling debts with their suppliers. In essence, economic responsibility is a CSR practice, which demands the management of organizations to invest their capital and generate profits.

Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability is a critical aspect of CSR since it protects natural resources from overexploitation, depletion, and pollution. Natural resources, such as land, water, air, and energy, are prone to misuse by organizations, resulting in adverse effects on the environment. Owing to the scarcity of natural resources, organizations should ensure that they consume them in a sustainable manner (Abbas et al., 2019). The objective of environmental sustainability is to optimize the consumption of natural resources in generating profits while protecting the environment. In modern society, the increasing use of renewable resources and decreasing consumption of natural resources indicate how organizations adhere to environmental sustainability (Batista and Francisco 2018). Thus, organizations adopt green strategies to protect the environment and ensure there is sustainable use of natural resources.

Ethical and Legal Responsibilities

Business activities are subject to prevailing laws and legislation, which ensure that businesses undertake ethical practices. According to Hategan et al. (2018), organizations ought to perform their business activities in ways that respect the rights of employees, other businesses, the community, society, and the environment. Organizations should adhere to labor laws by providing decent working conditions, paying employees well, allowing employees to join trade unions, and cultivating favorable industrial relations.

Violation of laws and regulations has significant consequences on organizations because it attracts lawsuits and penalties, which have adverse effects on the reputation and legal standing. Moreover, organizations have ethical obligations to ensure that they use clean energy, consume natural resources sustainably, recycle materials and protect communities and the environment from pollution.

Philanthropic Responsibility

Given that organizations derive their resources from the environment, employees, communities, and society, they have an obligation to make meaningful contributions. Organizations can perform philanthropic activities, such as donating money, offering volunteer activities, conserving the environment, providing medical care, or educating needy children (Iwannanda, Sudarmiatin, and Adiputra 2017). CSR of philanthropic responsibility allows companies to have a positive impact on people, communities, and the environment in which they operate and make profits.

Case Study: Starbucks

Starbucks is a contemporary business case that employs marketing mix and CSR strategies in its commercial activities. In this section, the assignment provides an analysis of Starbucks by examining its marketing mix and CSR strategies.

Marketing Mix of Starbucks

Starbucks employs a marketing mix by providing different products to meet the unique needs of customers. The strategy of product differentiation is evident because Starbucks offers drinks, food, home coffee, and shopping bags. According to Starbucks (2019), coffee, tea, smoothies, baked food, and Frappuccino as major products it offers to customers in diverse markets across the world. These products make Starbucks stand out in the competitive markets because they are not only quality but also satisfy the diverse needs of customers. To ensure that customers have access to its products, Starbucks has opened stores in various cities and towns globally.

Starbucks (2019) reports that it has improved accessibility to its products by opening over 30,000 retail stores in more than 80 varied markets. In addition to retail stores, Starbucks market its products in cafes. To keep in tandem with technology, Starbucks utilizes mobile apps, which allow customers to place their orders in various cafes.

In marketing its products, Starbucks uses diverse strategies of promotion. Advertising, word-of-mouth, sales promotions, and public relations are common strategies that Starbucks uses in promoting its products across the world. In advertising, Starbucks uses print media, television, websites, and social media. Starbucks provides quality goods and services for customers to get the most exquisite experience and persuade them to spread positive word-of-mouth in different social settings. When introducing new products into the market, Starbucks uses sales promotions and public relations. In pricing its products, Starbucks adopts a premium pricing strategy (Haskova 2015).

Promotional strategies have enabled Starbucks to build a reputable brand with a considerable number of loyal customers. Since Starbucks prides itself as the best coffee café, its brand has attracted customers from high-end markets. Based on its notable brand and quality of coffee, Starbucks offers premium prices, and customers are willing to purchase their products. Premium pricing strategy has ensured that Starbucks remains as the leading competitive brand of coffee.

CSR Strategies of Starbucks

Starbucks is one of the leading companies globally in the use of CSR strategies in the business world. The analysis of an economic aspect of CSR shows that Starbucks is a profitable company, which allows stakeholders, employees, and farmers to get substantial benefits from their inputs. Starbucks earns revenue of about $25 billion, and the share index has increased four times in the past eight years, from approximately $23 in 2010 to $80 in 2018 (Starbucks 2019).

The increase signifies the economic responsibility of Starbucks in empowering its stakeholders, shareholders, and economy. The analysis of environmental responsibility shows that Starbucks exhibits a high level of CSR. Starbucks recycles its mugs and straws to protect the environment from pollution, as well as utilizes 20% of electricity from renewable sources (Starbucks 2019). To conserve water, Starbucks employs mechanical dishwashers. Since Starbucks produces considerable amounts of greenhouse gases, it has partnered with conservationists in planting trees and preserving habitats to alleviate climate change.

Starbucks complies with the ethical and legal requirements of diverse business activities. Since Starbucks relies on raw materials sourced from farmers, it ensures that ethical practices apply in the farming process. In central Africa, Starbucks initiated support centers where it empowers farmers and communities to provide quality cocoa and coffee. In its philanthropic responsibility, Starbucks established its foundation and tasked it with the obligation of undertaking charitable activities (Starbucks 2019). For example, Starbucks Foundation donated millions of dollars to support youth, employees, communities, farmers, and the provision of clean water.

Summary and Conclusion

The analysis of the case study of Starbucks shows that it employs the marketing mix and CSR strategies to build its unique brand across the world. The notable overlap of the marketing mix and CSR strategies is that they are potent tools of brand development globally. Starbucks offers various quality products, such as coffee, tea, and baked food, and sells them in over 30,000 retail stores and cafes across the world. Starbucks also promotes its products using print, online, and television media. Since Starbucks offers quality products and has a notable brand image, it employs a premium pricing strategy.

This form of pricing strategy has enabled Starbucks to remain competitive in the high-end markets of the hospitality industry. Further analysis of the case study reveals that it uses a CSR strategy in marketing and branding its products. Starbucks is economically responsible since it generates profits to shareholders, pays its employees well, earns increasing revenue, and contributes to the fiscal growth of the country it operates. In the environmental aspect of CSR, Starbucks has made elaborate efforts of using green energy, recycling waste products, conserving water, and preserving habitats. In its operations, Starbucks ensures that farming practices are ethical and legal, and it undertakes philanthropic activities of empowering farmers, communities and providing clean water.

Reference List

Abbas, J., Mahmood, S., Ali, H., Raza, M. A., Ali, G., Aman, J., Bano, S., and Nurunnabi, M. (2019) ‘The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices and Environmental Factors through a Moderating Role of Social Media Marketing on Sustainable Performance of Firms’ Operating in Multan, Pakistan.’ Sustainability 11(3434), 1-33. Web.

Al-Badi, K. S. (2018) ‘The Impact of Marketing Mix on the Competitive Advantage of the SME Sector in the Al Buraimi Governorate in Oman.’ SAGE Open 8(10), 1-10. Web.

Batista, A., and Francisco, A. C. (2018) ‘Organizational Sustainability Practices: A Study of the Firms Listed by the Corporate Sustainability Index. Sustainability 10(226), 1-13. Web.

Erdil, S., and Ozdemir, O. (2016) ‘The Determinants of Relationship between Marketing Mix Strategy and Drivers of Export Performance in Foreign Markets: An Application on Turkish Clothing Industry.’ Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences 235(1), 546-556. Web.

Galant, A., and Cadez, S. (2016) ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance Relationship: A Review of Measurement Approaches.’ Economic Research 30(1), 676-693. Web.

Godos-Díez, J., Cabeza-García, L., and Fernández-González, C. (2018) ‘Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Internationalisation Strategies: A Descriptive Study in the Spanish Context’. Administrative Sciences 8(57), 1-20. Web.

Haskova, K. (2015) ‘Starbucks Marketing Analysis.’ CRIS Bulletin 1(1), 11-28. Web.

Hategan, C., Sirghi, N., Curea-Pitorac, R., and Hategan, V. (2018) ‘Doing Well or Doing Good: The Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Profit in Romanian Companies.’ Sustainability 10(1041), 1-23. Web.

Isoraite, M. (2016) ‘Marketing Mix Theoretical Aspects.’ International Journal of Research 4(6), 25-37. Web.

Iwannanda, R., Sudarmiatin, S., and Adiputra, W. J. (2017) ‘Philanthropic Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 7(6), 876-886. Web.

Kawa, A., and Maryniak, A. (2019) ‘Lean and Agile Supply Chains of E-Commerce: Empirical Research.’ Journal of Information and Telecommunication 3(2), 235-247. Web.

Starbucks (2019) About Us: Starbucks Company Profile. Web.

Toni, D. D., Milan, G. S., Saciloto, E. B., and Larentis, F. (2017) ‘Pricing strategies and levels of impact on corporate profitability. Revista de Administração 52(1), 120-133. Web.

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BusinessEssay. (2022, December 13). Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility & Marketing Mix. https://business-essay.com/starbucks-companys-marketing-mix-and-corporate-social-responsibility/

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Starbucks Case Study

This paper explores Starbuck’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Today’s businesses must act like decent social citizens while still being profitable. As such, being socially and ethically responsible is expected for Starbucks rather than being used as a differentiator to gain organizational legitimacy or only focusing on profitability. In order to better understand how Starbucks adopts CSR, a highly successful worldwide coffee corporation, its CSR initiatives will be analyzed. Also, this paper leads off by briefly presenting the company’s scope, strategy, CSR approach and external environment, such as stakeholders. Generally, the motives behind CSR activities are presented as being too philanthropic, which can cause the stakeholders to suspect ulterior hidden motives. This potential issue could be addressed by providing information illustrating how the different initiatives benefit Starbucks by creating value, such as profit or shareholder value. On the contrary, it can be argued that Starbucks is addressing this aspect by emphasizing its long-term commitment to the various projects, as well as it stresses an integrated approach to CSR, which indirectly indicates that there are economic motives behind, seeing as the CSR initiatives are part of the overall strategy. But drawing upon the theoretical framework, it is evident that Starbucks should emphasize the economic motives more clearly, by providing additional contextual cues, which will support stakeholders’ interpretation of the hereof and diminish possible scepticism.

Starbucks Case Study explains how Starbucks is involved in a wide range of CSR initiatives, including philanthropic community service projects, programs for ethical sourcing, measures to protect the environment, and programs that welcome and promote diversity. In order to maintain its long list of business ties with numerous NGOs and CSR groups, Starbucks must adhere to several sets of moral, social, and environmental norms along its whole value chain. Starbucks is also mindful of how to frame its CSR communication to meet the requirements and expectations of various stakeholders. It embraces the opportunities of online communication, such as two-way communication and multimedia elements.

This case study analyzes Starbucks’ CSR strategies in order to respond to Starbuck’s CSR strategies. To conduct this study, part of the analysis focuses on Starbucks’ message content and the various communication channels the company employs to explain its CSR initiatives to its various stakeholders in order to satisfy the needs of particular stakeholders as well as the attention paid to how the communication is framed including what is highlighted and made salient (Crawford, 2020). Starbucks’ CSR report will be examined using the standards established by online market research firm MORI regarding what various stakeholder groups look for in CSR reports. This is because the key target audience for the CSR reports has very different needs and expectations than the primary target audience. Also, the research will be conducted to determine Starbucks’ CSR effectiveness and recommend the most effective CSR that Starbucks can adopt.

Starbucks can take several actions, such as strictly adhering to recycling laws, conserving energy and water, and starting programs that address global climatic changes to ensure CSR since the business is dedicated to being environmentally friendly in all its operations.

According to the case study, Starbucks has adopted crucial strategies for its CSR programs. The three fundamental pillars of ethics, community, and the environment form the foundation of the company’s CSR. The business is very supportive of coffee farmers. “The organization offers farmer assistance centers and bridge loans to help farmers get through the growing season till they can earn money at harvest” (Crawford, 2020). In order to address locals’ needs, Starbucks successfully collaborates with farmers. Additionally, the business is devoted to ensuring that its goods are produced and distributed ethically and responsibly; thus, by doing its business in an environmentally sustainable manner, the corporation is making great strides in reducing its negative environmental effects.

Starbucks is particularly effective because it strongly emphasizes investing in the people and communities it works with to impact the areas it serves positively. For instance, decreased turnover is a key factor in the success of investments in social support and environmental challenges. Moreover, a good platform for bringing organizations closer to the local people for their social and economic growth is provided by increasing employee advocacy towards the organizations. Similarly, Starbucks’ CSR program promoted societal change, increased awareness, and helped to establish trust.

Some relevant CSR actions include giving to charities, participating in fair trade, making investments with social and environmental considerations, improving labor practices, lowering carbon footprints, and implementing ecologically friendly laws (Liang & Renneboog, 2020). Starbucks and other large businesses must demonstrate corporate social responsibility in how they run their operations, treat their employees, manage their impact on the environment, support their employees and the community, and prepare for eradicating poverty and promoting equality in their business practices. The businesses must also commit to conserving the environment, create a well-defined business code of ethics, closely follow their workplace safety and health programs, ensure their suppliers fulfill their standards, and exercise caution when donating money to charitable causes.

Based on the analysis of Starbucks’ CSR, it is clear that the company is actively involved in several CSR initiatives, including support for coffee farmers, commitment to local communities, concern for the environment, adherence to official CSR standards, and diversity acceptance (Valuiskaya, 2019). Due to potential accusations of opaque CSR communication, this could be problematic for Starbucks. Starbucks’ long-term commitment to various CSR initiatives is constantly underlined, and its integrated approach clearly demonstrates economic motivations given that its CSR strategy is a component of its broader business plan.

Starbucks should emphasize a combination of its current motives, such as containing both financial and moral and legal motives because all initiatives have strong ethical motivations, which also include charitable ones. Through a comprehensive and holistic approach, as well as in conjunction with the success of its suppliers, Starbucks’ CSR are primarily conveyed in an indirect manner. Contrarily, it could be argued that Starbucks is addressing this issue by highlighting its long-term commitment to the various projects and an integrated approach to CSR, which inadvertently hints at the existence of financial motivations given that the CSR initiatives are a component of the overall business strategy. However, using the theoretical framework as a guide, it is clear that Starbucks should emphasize the economic motivations more strongly by offering more contextual signals, which will reinforce stakeholders’ assessment of the situation and reduce any potential CSR doubt.

Crawford, C. M. (2020). New Products Management (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher

Education (US). https://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781260512014

Liang, H., & Renneboog, L. (2020). Corporate social responsibility and sustainable finance: A review of the literature.  European Corporate Governance Institute–Finance Working Paper , (701).

Valuiskaya, E. (2019).  Corporate Social Responsibility in Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer Companies: Nucor Corporation and Starbucks Corporation Case Studies  (Doctoral dissertation, University Honors College Middle Tennessee State University).

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Corporate Social Responsibility at Starbucks Research Paper

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The business activities of any company are undertaken day in day out. These activities usually involve the employees and other stakeholders who play different but significant roles in the company. To ensure the company achieve its objectives and goals, the companies usually ensure that the interaction between them and their employees.

The employees are the one who are directly connected to the production and offering of the goods and thus their conduct and performance is of great importance. When undertaking the production the company releases some by-products such as smoke which when released into the atmosphere would lead to pollution. These by-products do not only affect the company and its employees only but also the community at large.

The company is supposed to act in a way in which its operations does not have negative effect on the environment and the community because failure to be responsible in its actions could make the stakeholders and community at large to lack confidence and good faith in it. This paper seeks to consider the social and corporate responsibility activities undertaken by Starbuck Company to ensure it fairs well in the market as well as getting a good reputation.

Social and corporate responsibility

This responsibility is not mostly expected to be driven by external forces but should be in-built in the company structure and strategy of undertaking its duties. It is mainly mandated to avoid the negative impacts that may result from the performance of activities of the company. This responsibility helps the community in expanding and developing in the activities they undertake as the negative effects from their surroundings which are companies have been taken care of.

There are companies and multinational companies which sometimes neglect it. To ensure that the companies undertake them, the government usually takes that responsibility. There are various benefits associated to undertaking the corporate and social responsibility as is evident in Starbuck Company. This is due to very strategic steps taken by the company in addressing the needs of all the stakeholders involved and the community at large (Brennan and Mullerat, 2005).

Importance of corporate and social responsibility

The operation of the business usually takes into the behavior of the employees and the governance to be very crucial. When the employees behave in an ethical manner, they usually strengthen the good relation between the company and the customers. This increases trust of the customers in the company activities and results in increased sales. Starbuck Company has instilled good ethical behavior among its employees.

These have resulted in good relation between the company, its employees and the customers who play a significant role in the continuous growth and development of the company. The customers and the general public thus view the company as being part of them. Most companies fail in executing this responsibility because they usually view it as a liability and thus take it to be totally separate from the business.

There has been a shift of company’s employees from one company to the other. This can be attributed to the fact that good companies are found to be favored by best employees. This has resulted in companies not undertaking their corporate social responsibility losing some of their best employees due to the reputation they usually have in comparison to others.

This usually leads to reduced performance and efficiency in the company’s activities which may lead to huge losses incurred and even business collapse and closure. The investors are usually very careful of any investment they make. The corporate and social responsibilities are usually viewed as having future prospects of business expansion and thus would be preferred by the investors.

In the current world, every activity including the customers preference is dynamic, thus for a company to be on a better position in the case of such occurrences, then the relationship between it and the customers should be good. This is because the business growth requires both short term and long term investment strategies which help to eliminate some setbacks and improvise ways of handling them.

In the previous years, corporate and social responsibility was viewed as a liability. This is because some of the revenues collected by the company were directed to it instead of being channeled back to the business operations to reap more profits.

The argument of the problem was challenged by the fact that the overall business success was not dependent only on the short term profits of the company. As a result of proper education on the idea, there has been continuous improvement in its execution. Due to the negative effects it had on the environment, some intervention was necessary. There are various rules that have been formulated to help us save our environment.

Barriers to corporate and social responsibility

Although companies such as Starbuck have been able to implement the corporate and social responsibility, it may not be an easy activity for other companies. The cost of implementing it is usually high. Thus in case the company is suffering from financial crisis, it would not venture in such an investment. The financial constraint in companies is one of the challenges to the implementation of corporate and social responsibility.

Time is an important resource which once lost is not recovered. The implementation of it is not an instantaneous process but would require some time and patience for the results to be achieved. The time could be used for other business activities which when viewed on short term basis would be more profitable. Thus the requirement for long periods of time to accomplish it is seen to deprive the comp0any a useful resource and the company usually prefer to use it differently.

Most companies do not like the impacts of some laws to them. The carrying out of the corporate social responsibility requires that adherence to some rules is mandatory. These rules are aimed at providing guidelines on how the responsibility is to be undertaken. They bring sanity and avoid exploitation. Due to the strict regulations and bureaucracy of undertaking it, some companies do not adhere to them. This has been responsible for the neglect of the responsibility.

At Starbuck Company, the importance of corporate and social responsibility is well understood. This has led to the company incorporating the corporate social responsibility in all its day to day activities from the farmers to the coffee customers drinking it. They are involved in activities that give back to the community. Due to the significant part each stakeholder plays in the overall success of the company, the company treats them very well.

This is very good in motivating them and increases trust in the company by the stakeholders. There are various activities undertaken by the company in regard to corporate and social responsibility and they include ethical sourcing, environmental stewardship and community involvement. All these activities are aimed at different stakeholders and they are directed into the activities they undertake.

Ethical sourcing

In the undertaking of services and goods from a certain company, most of the customers are concerned about where the goods came from. If the source is convincing, then there is increased trust in the customers. This usually to good cooperation between the customers and the company and thus the company realizes increased sales. There are various labour standards that are set in different regions depending on the resources and technology available.

Adhering to these standards in collection of the raw materials used in the company and processing are of importance in ethical sourcing. Thus ethical sourcing takes into account all the personnel involved in these processes and their affair in relation to the company. These include their salaries, safety and working conditions among others. There are some companies which undertake discrimination and use of child labour. This is not right and is against ethical sourcing (Fellner, 2008).

One of the main results of ethical sourcing is gaining an upper hand in the market. This is attained by increased trust in the customers and other stakeholders. It is one of the aspects responsible for creating brand loyalty in a product. The customers are fully satisfied and thus do not see the need of looking for other alternatives.

Due to the improved reputation, the company is in a better position to attract investors. The investors play an important role in financing the business so that it can undertake its activities without straining its resources. Ethical sourcing improves the workers morale due to transparency. This is very important in the overall production as motivated employees usually perform better and are always in the urge to improve in their undertaking. This spirit is very essential.

Undertaking ethical sourcing usually requires company’s dedication of some of its resources. These activities usually require money, time and human resource which are some of the most important resources of the company.

There are regulations which are used in undertaking ethical sourcing. The activity requires well informed human resource. This thus means that more human resource is required to undertake it. The workers of the company involved usually require good salaries according to the stipulated rules. This is not usually an easy task to many companies.

Due to the numerous activities involved, there is an increase in the cost of production. The rise of the production cost usually requires the company to increase the sale price of the commodities or goods. Increasing the prices may result in the customers looking for other alternatives which may be cheaper. Thus it is very important to consider the prices the customers are willing to buy the commodity at so as to improve the sale by maintain the customers already there and attracting others (Henley and Derickson, 2007).

In ensuring that ethical sourcing is undertaken, then regular inspection is necessary. This usually enables one to see areas that need immediate responses due to the various failures. There is no institution or company that is one hundred percent efficient and thus such failures are bound to occur. In realizing the failures, the company undertakes the necessary improvements. These failures are very useful in that they assist the company in not making them again as they are a learning experience.

There are organizations that usually provide guidance on the undertaking of ethical sourcing. Some of the examples include Oxfam and United nations. These organizations are very good in consultation and they usually undertake ethical sourcing. Due to large demand of the resources required, the activity can be distributed. This requires the company to start with minor changes which usually makes other activities to be easily handled.

Taking into account all the above factors about ethical sourcing has been done by Starbuck Company. The company is dedicated on offering the best services it can to the farmers who sell the products to them to the customers taking the coffee. The company is usually keen in making sure that they purchase the best coffee. They take into account the growing practices used. To ensure that the company gets the best coffee, there have been guidelines about the growth of coffee.

These measures are intended that its growth does not have negative effect on the people and the environment. These guidelines are mainly referred to as the coffee and farmer equity practices. They usually give guidelines on production quality, economic accountability, social responsibility and environmental leadership. The standard that the company wants to uphold in the community is usually expressed by these guidelines (Xomba, 2010).

The prices that the producers usually sell their products are one of the important aspects in their interactions with the companies. The farmers usually use the resource in improving their production methods. The farmers are able to buy the necessary pesticides and other chemical that boosts their production.

The best chemicals are usually environmental friendly as they usually have minimized effects on the farmers and the environment about them. The pay from the sale also put the farmers in a position to be able to undertake more training of the activities they undertake. The money is used to educate the farmer’s children who usually improve the future human resource. This ensures the presence of a better and informed human resource which would help to improve the economic and literacy level of the society.

In selling their products to Starbuck, the farmers are usually grouped into given organization. The company is usually responsible for requesting the members to organize themselves into these groups. When in these groups the members are in position to air their views on whatever aspects they would like to be addressed.

In these groups the company usually assists the community in making some of the social amenities they require. For example Starbuck has assisted in the making of many health centers across the globe. These hospitals have been of great help to the community in relation to their health problems.

There are some services or machinery that are of significance importance but are not available to the farmers at their regions. Starbuck has assisted the farmers in purchasing the machinery through their financial support, technical support, informational support or a combination of them. This is usually aimed to provide long term economic benefit to the community.

Starbuck has been making and modifying the guidelines with conservation international. These modifications have been good in making sure that the guidelines are able to accommodate the varying forces in the market as well as the environment. To make the necessary adjustments the company usually reviews reports compiled by other parties who are not attached to the company’s activities after which they undertake the research for themselves.

This usually assists in getting the various perspectives the other parties view their activities so that they can pinpoint easily the areas that need improvements. This is of great importance to the farmers, suppliers and the employees who usually air their views on what they usually feel to be oppressing them. The presence of such guidelines assists the company in its undertaking and thus should be adopted by all other companies.

Starbuck has been of great help to society and the community at large. It has incorporated the various stakeholders in activities such as community service. These activities are mainly aimed at raising the standards of the community. In the past years the company has been dedicating some of its hours in community service. Due to the good result achieved from it, the company has been dedicating more and more hours to community service.

This usually increases the interaction between the company and the society. The company usually has a direct look into the challenges of the community so as to be able to know how to integrate the idea in their production. The customers usually view this dedication in a very positive way. It makes the customers to feel that their presence is recognized and appreciated by the company. This good interaction has good returns in the long run for the business and the community as well (Xomba, 2010).

Environment

The environment is one factor affecting any field of operation ranging from agriculture to communication. Starbuck is a company whose backbone of its operation is agriculture. Agriculture entails the growing of crops on our land for either subsistence or commercial use. Most of the raw materials bought by star buck need some processing before consumption. These are mainly cash crops such as coffee and tea. In the growing of the crops, the environmental conditions are very important.

In the presence of good environmental condition such as the required humidity, rainfall, sunlight and nutrients, the crops usually thrive very well and are very productive. There are activities that are taken by companies and individual that interferes with the environment. Interfering with environment usually alters the seasons making it unfavorable for the crops to grow. This has very great economic setbacks to the Company and the farmers. Thus there is necessity of undertaking activities that do not destroy our environment.

There are some waste products that can be recycled. Doing so usually reduces the quantity of wastes released into our environment. Starbuck Company has been recycling some of its byproducts to make better use of them. It started implementing this idea some years back. In recycling a company usually takes into consideration the quantity of the material that can be recycled.

Most of the company has been implementing the activity by making sure that the package in which they pack their products are mostly made of a single material. This usually increases the amount of material that is recovered. In the case of the packaging being made of different materials, then the recycling requires that there be someone to oversee the separation of the materials.

Recycling usually require more labour force and thus is not implemented by many companies. This usually requires more resources from the company. Instead of undergoing this cost the company usually looks for other alternative available that could be cheaper. On the other hand most people do not have the proper information on recycling.

Due to lack of this information, the company usually does not undertake it although it may have been economically viable. Proper information about the process should be availed to companies because recycling could assist in taking care of their wastes. There are also other people who are unaware of the recycled products. This combined with the lack of consistent supplies usually make some companies not to undertake it (Wilcox, 2007).

Recycling usually makes what could be considered a waste to the people to be of help to them. This usually reduces the quantity of raw materials used. In the search and collection of the raw materials, the natural environment in which they are located is usually interfered with. This interference may have negative effects in our environment such as interfering with our soil profile, ecology and vegetation cover among others.

Starbuck Company has incorporated recycling to be part of its activities. This is usually aimed at minimizing the negative effects the y may have on our environment. The company has been facing various challenges in the implementation on all its stores across the globe. This is mainly due to the resource requirement and the control of the land on which they operate their businesses by the owners.

In such cases, the landlord has major control of the activities carried on his land and thus undertaking any activity will be under the consensus of the party intending to undertake it and the owner. Due to the large cost incurred in recycling, Starbuck has been looking for other parties to undertake the activity together. In this regard, it has been working with local authorities who are mandate to undertake and ensure proper disposal of waste materials.

In the recycling of these materials, they are usually classified as either organic or non-organic. The coffee by products can be used as a form of manure in the farms. This usually increases the nutrients available to the crop for their growth. The products can also be used for keeping off some insects away as well as removing grease from greasy hands.

Thus instead of letting the byproduct to go as a waste, they have good economic returns. The company has been using the process to recycle waste products. This is to be accelerated if more customers are to use the recycled cups. In the recent years, the company has been addressing the issue by encouraging the customers to reuse their cups.

This has been achieved by offering a discount on the price of their products on the customers who reuse their cups. For many customers who are to take the coffee in their stores, they are encouraged to use other cups. This is because the more the numbers of these cups are used, the higher the rate of our forest cover is used. These cups are mainly made from tree products. Although there has been continuous progress in the recycling, more has to be done to cater for the number of stores without the facility.

Energy conservation

Energy is any important resource required in the running of machine and other equipments in a company. This thus means that there should be means of ensuring that there is fair use of the energy available. In many company the energy usually takes a large amount of the resources. This is usually achieved by use of more efficient machines. Due to improved technology, more and more efficient machines are being produced.

A switch into the use of these machines would ensure reduced and efficient energy consumption. There has been ongoing research of the availability of other alternative sources of energy (Dunning and Thumann, 2008). Some of the alternative sources of energy include the sun and the wind. These resources are freely available in nature and their availability is almost a guarantee in various parts of the world.

Their use has no negative effect on our environment. At Starbuck, there have been numerous attempts to reduce the energy use and increase efficiency.

The use of alternative energy sources usually is very effective in handling power shortages by ensuring that the business activities are not adversely affected. The company has changed to the use of energy saving lighting system in the stores and the use of more efficient machinery in its activities. The purchase of these alternative sources of energy has reduced the quantity of electricity it uses.

Water Conservation

Water is a basic necessity in the existence of a human being. In the industries it is used in almost all activities. The water is not always easily accessible and thus good measures must be undertaken to avoid its wastage. The water conservation is usually aimed at ensuring that the available water is used efficiently. Technology is one of the key aspects in water conservation. Through it there have been developments on how to best use the available water resource by the use of various equipments.

Efficiency in use of water is mainly aimed at ensuring water sustainability, energy conservation and habitat conservation. In the provision of water to the companies, energy is usually used to pump it there through machinery. If this water is then misused, then the energy used goes to a waste. The use of water efficiently ensure that the rate of withdrawal of the water from its sources is not more than the rate it is being replaced. This thus ensures that our environment is safe with the aquatic life not being interfered with.

In the previous years Starbuck used to use running water in undertaking its activities. This meant that a lot of water went into waste. This led to major challenges on the company in administering its social responsibility. Due to overwhelming need for the company and the society for it to administer its social and corporate responsibility, new measure were implemented.

The company used controlled water usage instead of the use of running water. The washing of the utensils and other equipments was changed to the dipper well system. This ensured that not much of the water available was used for the activity. In the purchase of their new equipment, water efficiency is considered. This is achieved due to the continuously evolving technology.

Green Stores

The building style and technology used usually affects the environment either directly or indirectly. To avoid the negative effects there has been continuous improvement in the building technology. This usually gives room for carrying out the day to day activities of the stores with minimal effect on the workers and the surrounding. The main items under consideration in the construction are energy conservation, water conservation and the use of recycled materials.

In the conservation of energy Starbuck company has use and designed the store to allow the access of natural lighting and the use of efficient lighting system equipments. In the conservation of water the building installs very efficient valves. These valves usually control the rate of flow of water. The building materials are chosen in such a way that the recycled materials are use instead of using wood products.

Climate change

There have been continuous changes in the climatic conditions of differing regions in the world. This has been attributed to the various activities that have affected the natural environment. The impacts of these activities are felt on all the sectors of the economy. Being an agricultural dependent company, Starbuck has tried to work hand in hand with the farmers.

The farmers are encouraged to maintain their environment clean and not to exploit the forests. These moves have had positive results and if implemented by all people across the globe irrespective of the agricultural practices they undertake, then there would be significant improvement on our environment.

Corporate social responsibility is an expensive activity with numerous positive results on the company and the society at large. Starbuck Company has been continuously improving on its undertaking of corporate and social responsibility. The process has not been smooth as it has been faced with challenges.

Some of the areas it has improved on include water conservation, energy conservation, material conservation and the issue of climate change. Despite these positive steps undertaken there is much more that the company can undertake to improve its corporate and social responsibility.

Brennan, D and Mullerat, R. (2005). Corporate social responsibility: the corporate governance of the 21st century . London: Kluwer Law International.

Dunning, S and Thumann, A. (2008). Plant engineers and managers guide to energy conservation. Georgia: The Fairmont Press.

Fellner, k. (2008). Wrestling with Starbucks: conscience, capital, cappuccino . New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Henley, K. and Derickson, R. (2007). Awakening Social Responsibility: A Call to Action Guidebook for Global Citizens, Corporate and Nonprofit Organizations . Cupertino, USA: Happy About.

Wilcox, C. (2007). Recycling . Minneapolis: Lerner Publications.

Xomba. (2011). Starbucks Social Responsibility. C.A.F.E. Practices. Retrieved from: https://www.xomba.com/

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Essay On Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Customers , Coffee , Starbucks , Environment , Responsibility , Sociology , Business , Social Responsibility

Published: 02/20/2023

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Establishing a social responsible business environment has become obligation for most organizations rather than being used as a marketing strategy. This is as a result of growing stakeholders’ needs and expectations that prompts organizations to operate their businesses while observing ethical values and benefits that their operations has to the stakeholders. Being a global organization, Starbucks actively observes corporate social responsibility actions to all the stakeholders by ensuring that their operations creates a positive impacts on the stakeholders who include the employees, consumers, suppliers, environment and the community, shareholders and the government. Starbuck’s CSR strategy relies on three main pillars including the community, environment, and ethical outsourcing. This article provides a detailed summary of how Starbucks has implemented their corporate social responsibility practices to the two major stakeholders; consumers and the environment. The paper also analyzes the ethical practices of Starbucks and highlights some of the measures that the company could implement to improve the current CSR practices. With the increased global concerns on the issue of environmental degradations, many organizations including Starbucks have made it their responsibility to adopt practices that promote environmental sustainability. Starbucks has adopted several measures in ensuring that their business operations are environmentally friendly in addition to ensuring that the process used to produce the raw materials is environmentally sustainable. This is achieved by purchasing raw materials which include coffee, cocoa and tea which is grown in a hundred percent responsible manner by use farming methods that are highly organic and maintain high levels of biodiversity. As a way of encouraging sustainable farming methods, over ninety percent of the raw materials supplied to the company are those certified by the Starbucks Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFÉ). Another method that Starbucks has implemented corporate social responsibility towards environmental improvement is their strategy of ‘going green’ through upgrading their stores into more environmentally sustainable. The first effort of implementing the strategy took place when the organization renovated their store in Manhattan by replacing old fixtures with new equipment that conserves energy and reduces waste. The new equipment has become successful in conserving energy, materials and reducing water consumption in addition to adopting the use of reusable and recyclable materials such as cups and wrapping papers. As Werther and Chandler (2010) states, most organizations are afraid to install energy and waste efficient equipment due to the involved initial costs, without understanding the fact that the long term impacts are more beneficial both to the organization, community, and the environment. This one of the risk that Starbucks has undertaken to promote environment sustainability as the company aims at renovating more of its store to adopt the use of energy efficient equipment. In addition to promoting environmental sustainability, Starbucks’ corporate social responsibility is portrayed by the way they treat customers’ needs and demands. The products and services offered to the customers portray high sense of responsibility, customer oriented and quality and this has made Starbucks gain a reputable brand image both locally and in the global market. Carrying out research to understand customer demographics have enabled the company to be socially responsible through adjusting their equipment to accommodate customers with different physical needs especially people with disability. This is implemented by remodeling the stores to accommodate the needs of the customers with a disability such as lower the height of the counters, adding, at least, one entrance that facilitates the needs of disabled persons and providing constant training to the employees concerning the need to provide equal services to all the customers. Promoting the health of the customers is another corporate social responsibility that Starbucks exercises. As a result of changing consumer needs, tastes and preferences whereby consumers are becoming more health-conscious, Starbucks has made it their responsibility to provide healthier drinks with low calorie content while retaining the original flavors. Some of the products that are health conscious include the ‘skinny’ version of almost all the drinks that have less than half the calories as compared to the original drinks. Providing quality customer service is the main social responsibility that has gained a positive reputation that has created a wide customer base for Starbucks (Liu and Liu, 2009). This is coupled with the customers’ royalty program whereby the company rewards the customers by giving them promotional meals depending on the number of points accumulated in the membership royalty card. Ethical practices have enabled Starbucks to establish a responsible business environment and demonstrate their corporate social responsibility to the stakeholders. This is despite the fact that the costs involved are relatively high for instance installing energy efficient equipment and purchasing certified coffee only. In addition, working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that lobby for consumer and environment protection has helped Starbucks to transform its corporate culture to create a business environment that is socially and ethically responsible. Despite the success, Starbucks needs to improve in pricing their products whereby customers complain that the products are relatively higher than the competitors. The company also needs to provide constant training especially to the new employees on the disability etiquette as a way f retaining the corporate social responsibility to the consumers and the community in particular.

Liu, S. & Liu, L. (2009). Implementing corporate external social responsibility strategies through organizational design and operation. Journal of International Business Ethics, Vol. 2(1), 79-83,119. Werther, W. B., & Chandler, D. (2010). Strategic corporate social responsibility: Stakeholders in a global environment. NY: Sage Publications.

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6 Examples of Corporate Social Responsibility That Were Successful

• 06 Jun 2019

Business is about more than just making a profit. Climate change, economic inequality, and other global challenges that impact communities worldwide have compelled companies to be purpose-driven and contribute to the greater good .

In a recent study by Deloitte , 93 percent of business leaders said they believe companies aren't just employers, but stewards of society. In addition, 95 percent reported they plan to take a stronger stance on large-scale issues in the coming years and devote significant resources to socially responsible initiatives. With more CEOs turning their focus to the long term, it’s important to consider what you can do in your career to make an impact .

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business model in which for-profit companies seek ways to create social and environmental benefits while pursuing organizational goals, such as revenue growth and maximizing shareholder value.

Today’s organizations are implementing extensive corporate social responsibility programs, with many companies dedicating C-level executive roles and entire departments to social and environmental initiatives. These executives are commonly referred to as chief officers of corporate social responsibility or chief sustainability officers (CSO).

There are many types of corporate social responsibility , and CSR might look different for each organization, but the end goal is always the same: Do well by doing good . Companies that embrace corporate social responsibility aim to maintain profitability while supporting a larger purpose.

Rather than simply focusing on generating profit, or the bottom line, socially responsible companies are concerned with the triple bottom line , which considers the impact that business decisions have on profit, people, and the planet.

It’s no coincidence that some of today’s most profitable organizations are also socially responsible. Here are six successful examples of corporate social responsibility you can use to drive social change at your organization.

Check out our video on corporate social responsibility below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

6 Corporate Social Responsibility Examples

1. lego’s commitment to sustainability.

As one of the most reputable companies in the world, Lego aims to not only help children develop through creative play but also foster a healthy planet.

Lego is the first, and only, toy company to be named a World Wildlife Fund Climate Savers Partner , marking its pledge to reduce its carbon impact. And its commitment to sustainability extends beyond its partnerships.

By 2030, the toymaker plans to use environmentally friendly materials to produce all of its core products and packaging—and it’s already taken key steps to achieve that goal.

Over 2013 and 2014, Lego shrunk its box sizes by 14 percent , saving approximately 7,000 tons of cardboard. Then, in 2018, the company introduced 150 botanical pieces made from sustainably sourced sugarcane —a break from the petroleum-based plastic typically used to produce the company’s signature building blocks. The company has also recently committed to removing all single-use plastic packaging from its materials by 2025, among other initiatives .

Along with these changes, the toymaker has committed to investing $164 million into its Sustainable Materials Center , where researchers are experimenting with bio-based materials that can be implemented into the production process.

Through these initiatives, Lego is well on its way to tackling pressing environmental challenges and furthering its mission to help build a more sustainable future.

Related : What Does "Sustainability" Mean in Business?

2. Salesforce’s 1-1-1 Philanthropic Model

Beyond being a leader in the technology space, cloud-based software giant Salesforce is a trailblazer in corporate philanthropy.

Since its outset, the company has championed its 1-1-1 philanthropic model , which involves giving one percent of product, one percent of equity, and one percent of employees’ time to communities and the nonprofit sector.

To date, Salesforce employees have logged more than 5 million volunteer hours . Not only that, the company has awarded upwards of $406 million in grants and donated to more than 40,000 nonprofit organizations and educational institutions.

In addition, through its work with San Francisco Unified and Oakland Unified School Districts, Salesforce has helped reduce algebra repeat rates and contributed to a high percentage of students receiving A’s or B’s in computer science classes.

As the company’s revenue grows, Salesforce stands as a prime example of the idea that profit-making and social impact initiatives don’t have to be at odds with one another.

3. Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission

At Ben & Jerry’s, positively impacting society is just as important as producing premium ice cream.

In 2012, the company became a certified B Corporation —a business that balances purpose and profit by meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.

As part of its overarching commitment to leading with progressive values, the ice cream maker established the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation in 1985, an organization dedicated to supporting grassroots movements that drive social change.

Each year, the foundation awards approximately $2.5 million in grants to organizations in Vermont and across the United States. Grant recipients have included the United Workers Association, a human rights group striving to end poverty, and the Clean Air Coalition, an environmental health and justice organization based in New York.

The foundation’s work earned it a National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy Award in 2014, and it continues to sponsor efforts to find solutions to systemic problems at both local and national levels.

Related : How to Create Social Change: 4 Business Strategies

4. Levi Strauss’s Social Impact

In addition to being one of the most successful fashion brands in history, Levi’s is also one of the first to push for a more ethical and sustainable supply chain.

In 1991, the brand created its Terms of Engagement , which established its global code of conduct regarding its supply chain and set standards for workers’ rights, a safe work environment, and an environmentally friendly production process.

To maintain its commitment in a changing world, Levi’s regularly updates its Terms of Engagement. In 2011, on the 20th anniversary of its code of conduct, Levi’s announced its Worker Well-being initiative to implement further programs focused on the health and well-being of supply chain workers.

Since 2011, the Worker Well-being initiative has been expanded to 12 countries, benefitting more than 100,000 workers. In 2016, the brand scaled up the initiative, vowing to expand the program to more than 300,000 workers and produce more than 80 percent of its product in Worker Well-being factories by 2025.

For its continued efforts to maintain the well-being of its people and the environment, Levi’s was named one of Engage for Good’s 2020 Golden Halo Award winners , the highest honor reserved for socially responsible companies.

5. Starbucks’s Commitment to Ethical Sourcing

Starbucks launched its first corporate social responsibility report in 2002 with the goal of becoming as well-known for its CSR initiatives as for its products. One of the ways the brand has fulfilled this goal is through ethical sourcing.

In 2015, Starbucks verified that 99 percent of its coffee supply chain is ethically sourced , and it seeks to boost that figure to 100 percent through continued efforts and partnerships with local coffee farmers and organizations.

The brand bases its approach on Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFE) Practices , one of the coffee industry’s first set of ethical sourcing standards created in collaboration with Conservation International . CAFE assesses coffee farms against specific economic, social, and environmental standards, ensuring Starbucks can source its product while maintaining a positive social impact.

For its work, Starbucks was named one of the world’s most ethical companies in 2021 by Ethisphere.

6. New Belgium Brewing’s Sustainable Practices

New Belgium Brewing has always been a proponent of green initiatives . As early as 1999, it was one of the first breweries to use wind power to source 100 percent of its electricity, significantly reducing its operational carbon footprint.

In Harvard Business School Online’s Business and Climate Change course, Katie Wallace, New Belgium Brewing's chief environmental, social, and governance (ESG) officer, elaborates on the company’s sustainable practices.

"We have biogas here that we capture from our process water treatment plant," Wallace says in the course. "We make electricity with it. When we installed our solar panels on the Colorado packaging hall, it was the largest privately owned solar array at that time in Colorado. And today, we have many other sources of renewable electricity and have invested quite a bit in efficiencies."

New Belgium Brewing also turns outward in its sustainability practices by actively engaging with suppliers, customers, and competitors to promote broader environmental change. These efforts range from encouraging the use of renewable resources in supply chains to participating in policy-making discussions that foster industry-wide sustainability. For example, it co-founded the Glass Recycling Coalition to improve recycling nationwide after recognizing sustainability concerns in the bottling industry.

New Belgium's commitment to corporate social responsibility is an ongoing process, though. The brewery continues to set ambitious targets for reducing waste, conserving water, and supporting renewable energy projects to build a more sustainable future.

The Value of Being Socially Responsible

As these firms demonstrate , a deep and abiding commitment to corporate social responsibility can pay dividends. By learning from these initiatives and taking a values-driven approach to business, you can help your organization thrive and grow, even as it confronts global challenges.

Corporate social responsibility is critical for businesses today. It enables organizations to contribute to society while also achieving operational goals. By prioritizing social responsibility, you can build trust with your stakeholders and leave a positive impact.

Do you want to understand how to combine purpose and profit and more effectively tackle global challenges? Explore our online business in society courses , including Sustainable Business Strategy and Business and Climate Change , to learn more about how business can be a catalyst for system-level change.

This post was updated on May 30, 2024. It was originally published on June 6, 2019.

About the Author

Starbucks Csr (Corporate Social Responsiblity)

Corporate Social Responsibility of a company: Starbucks Starbucks, the largest coffeehouse company in the world, is a company that tries to make business in a socially responsible way. The firm is not only about making coffee but also about treating with dignity the clients and the environment where they are operating into. Hereby, we will discuss the different actions undertaken by Starbucks in order to be socially correct. One word that could best describe the mission of the company is «commitment».

Starbucks Csr and Commitment

First, Starbucks is commited to its origins. It invests great amounts of money that benefit coffee producers, as well as the natural environment. By doing that, it helps to improve the lives of coffee farmers and at the same time they protect the environment where they cultivate their beans. Moreover, Starbucks supports the preservation of the environment. It tries to reduce waste from its operations and to recycle, in order to have a healthier planet.

Some examples are the use of environmentally friendly products, the recognition that the fiscal responsibility is crucial to the future of the world’s environment, and the measure of the progress for each project.

In addition, Starbucks shows its commitment to its partners. Therefore, it provides a great working environment by treating each employee with respect and dignity. Furthermore, it embraces diversity by recruiting people from all over the world. Last but not least, the coffeehouse does not forget the local communities.

Its purpose is to contribute to those communities by encouraging its partners to become active participants in the place where they work.

Proficient in: Company

“ Thank you so much for accepting my assignment the night before it was due. I look forward to working with you moving forward ”

In conclusion, Starbucks is a company that respects people, the environment, and consequently, the planet. The coffeehouse could be a great example for other companies that do not care about social issues and just try to increase their profits. If other companies followed the way that Starbucks is operating, the world would become a better place to live. Bibliography: http://gr. starbucks. com/en-US/_Social+Responsibility/_Social+Responsibilities/Environment+Mission+Statement. htm

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