Starbucks announced over $50 million in planned investments ahead of its 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to further its ambitious aim of cutting its water and waste footprints in half by 2030. As part of a combined private and public sector engagement, a new round of investments is a significant step towards scaling innovative solutions to improve water access and minimise trash transported to landfills, said the press release.
Currently, two billion people live in water-stressed areas around the world. Starbucks has committed to prioritising action in high-risk basins through collective action and supporting watershed health, ecosystem resilience, and water equity to support its expanded water commitment of 50% of water withdrawal conserved or replenished across its direct operations, stores, packaging, and agricultural supply chain by 2030.
Starbucks is utilising its worldwide reach and collaborating with other major firms that are members of the United Nations Water Resilience Coalition, as well as the public sector, to unlock crucial finance for progress towards UN SDG 6. Starbucks made a $25 million initial anchor investment in WaterEquity’s Global Access Fund IV in collaboration with other business peers and the United States International Development Financing Corporation. With this commitment, Starbucks is leading the way in an innovative approach to water stewardship to inspire more firms to invest in water action. Starbucks is considering additional contributions, bringing the overall investment in water access, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) to $50 million.
Starbucks’ latest partnership with WaterEquity will benefit low-income populations in South and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America by providing microfinance loans to purchase WASH products and services such as household toilets, water filters, and tap connections. Innovative efforts like this build on The Starbucks Foundation’s long history of WASH investments worldwide and help the company reach its new promise to improve WASH for 5 million people. In addition to its investments, the company continues programmatic work in high-risk basins with renowned NGO partners such as WWF, TNC, Water.org, and WaterAid.
Starbucks announced a $10 million investment in Circular Services to minimise landfill trash and encourage innovative efforts to convert to a circular economy in the United States.
Circular Services is the largest privately held recycling company in the United States. Starbucks’ investment will help them reduce the quantity of valuable recyclable material going to the trash in the United States. Circular Services use cutting-edge technology to improve the sortation, processing, and reuse of valuable commodities such as consumer packaging, organics, textiles, electronics, and others for continuous reuse in domestic supply chains.
This investment will provide recycling access to Starbucks outlets and collaborate with key waste industry players to collaborate on recycling solutions for package types with restricted access to recycling programmes, such as Starbucks hot cups.
Starbucks’ investment is part of a collaborative collective that includes Microsoft, Nestlé, PepsiCo, SK Group, Unilever, and Brookfield Renewable, all of which are working to scale circular economy infrastructure to catalyse additional corporate capital and accelerate the growth of innovative partners who will champion the circular economy of the future.