I am naming this page “Pro-Starbucks” not because I am 100% for all of the corporation’s endeavors, but because I believe that they are an example of a corporation that looks for elements beyond profits. I am providing some of the major reasons that I feel that Starbucks is not as evil as some may believe.

Environment

It is obvious that Starbucks is conscientious of its external environment, the environment outside of the organization itself. An obvious example is their coffee cups comprised of 10% post-consumer fiber and their coffee cup sleeves comprised of 60% post-consumer fiber. It is important to remember that is likely more expensive for Starbucks to incorporate such cups. My conjecture is based on the premise that the majority of coffee merchants use the traditional Styrofoam cups, which utilize a cheaper, but older production process. Since they can be produced quickly in volume with economies of scale, their cost to purchasers is likely to be much lower. Conversely, the supplier of Starbucks' cups is likely using a costlier production process, which reflects the costs required to recover and relocate recycled products to a plant, breaking them down, reengineering them into the Starbucks cup, printing the cups, and so forth. As a result, the more advanced production process is reflected in the costs seen when Starbucks purchases the more "green" product. As more companies adapt the newer production techniques used to make things such as “green” cups, the technology becomes cheaper and more efficient over time. Starbucks is making an effort to reduce the coffee industry’s reliance on Styrofoam cups, which are produced in highly polluting plants and take several years (if not hundreds) to decompose. Companies are not ignorant of the external environment, and realize that the customer is the backbone of their business. As countries become more developed, they pay more attention to the environmental conditions surrounding them. Most people do not want to see the toxic plumes of smoke arising from the local Styrofoam plant, but until others follow Starbucks lead, Styrofoam will continue to be utilized as a result of demand. So while Starbucks is impressing the customers, they are also contributing to the longevity of their customers by using a product that is less detrimental to human health (i.e. toxic plumes of smoke from the Styrofoam plant) and promoting the health of the natural environment (utilizing products that are partially derived from recycled resources that could be otherwise sitting in a landfill somewhere). They also hope to pass environmental consciousness onto their consumers that are reading the cups and sleeves which explicitly state their use of post-consumer fiber. When I pay 5 bucks for a coffee, at least I know that some of that cost is a reflection of the higher costs that Starbucks is paying for its “green” cups.

Economic Stimulation

Starbucks has provides thousands of jobs and employment opportunities to people across the world. I concentrated in Economics under my Social Sciences degree from Florida State University and I can go into great detail about the economic benefits of Starbucks, but I will keep it simple. First, according to Wikipedia.org, Starbucks employs 125,000 employees to support its many business internal business functions. Second, the demand for Starbucks coffee trickles down those outside of the organization. For instance, Starbucks relies on and also provides jobs for people raising coffee beans, transporting the beans to appropriate facilities, transporting the beans to its many locations, and so forth. Starbucks also stimulates other areas of the economy, including marketing and production segments required to sustain the company.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Starbucks makes it known that it supports corporate social responsibility, an emerging but important trend in the business world. For example, Starbucks highlights its efforts on its website. The webpage discusses Starbucks efforts to do things such as stimulate business owned by women and minorities, investing in various community projects, and donating to military personnel. These are only some of the company’s efforts to promote CSR, which can be viewed in its entirety at Starbucks CSR