Building greener stores.
This video highlights the collaboration between Starbucks design team and local artists and craftsmen
We're always looking for ways to improve the environmental performance of our stores. It’s a big part of our commitment to environmental stewardship – it’s also one way we’re working to significantly reduce our environmental footprint by 2015, a Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ goal.
For us, 'greening' our stores means designing, building and operating them in ways that reduce our impact on the planet. We're incorporating everything from sustainable building materials and furnishings to energy- and water-efficient measures into our store designs.
What we've been doing.
One big first step toward our goal is to have all new company-owned stores worldwide be third-party certified green, using the LEED® green building program, beginning in late 2010. LEED – which was developed by and is overseen by The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) – is short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
LEED was originally established to green-certify individual office buildings, but it needed to be adapted for retailers – especially for retailers like Starbucks that build multiple, similarly designed buildings.
Since 2001, we've helped lead the work with other retailers and the USGBC to create a system to certify retail stores and store prototypes. This volume-certification process will pre-certify our green stores at the design, construction and operational strategy level. This will permit efficient and effective expansion of our green store program to multiple locations. We'll then be held accountable through spot checks and continued review to ensure we are meeting the high standards we’ve set for ourselves. This process will increase our certification speed and help us reach our goal by 2010. We also believe that green stores will substantially reduce operating costs.
Our ongoing efforts to green our stores include a mix of design elements:
- Conserving energy by allowing air-conditioned stores to reach 75 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 72 on warm days
- Saving water by using high-blast nozzles to clean pitchers instead of running water
- Installing low-flow valves throughout the store
- Installing cabinetry made from 90 percent post-industrial material (where available), with no added formaldehyde
- Improving lighting efficiency
- Using recycled flooring tiles
- Using wood products that are Forest Stewardship Council–certified (where available)
- Using paints with lower amounts of volatile organic chemicals
Hurdles.
We’re excited about our ambitious goal to certify all our new company-owned stores green beginning in late 2010. However, the journey is not without its challenges.
For example, in China where we plan to build green certified stores, Forest Stewardship Council–certified lumber is not readily available without shipping it from overseas. That comes with a large carbon footprint. So in this case, we’re choosing to go with products that can be sourced regionally to lower our carbon impact, knowing we’ll have to look elsewhere for additional LEED credits.
We acknowledge there are tradeoffs with every decision, and we feel that ultimately this is the right decision. We’ll continue to work with the U.S. Green Building Council as they address these same challenges to come up with the most sustainable building solutions for our business.
We’ve heard from thousands of our customers that having recycling available in our stores should be a top priority. We agree it’s important – and that’s why one of our Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ goals is to have recycling available in all our stores by 2015. But we also understand that the energy our stores use to operate the heating and air conditioning units, store lighting and coffee-brewing equipment has a far greater impact on our total environmental footprint than our cups and packaging. We’re looking into ways to help our customers and partners (employees) understand that addressing recycling is really just the first small step in minimizing our stores’ environmental impacts.
What we’re working on.
We’re working to ensure all of our new company-owned stores worldwide will be LEED certified beginning in late 2010. Initially, we are piloting specific strategies in several new stores that are registered to be LEED certified.
In spring 2010 we’re planning to open 10 pilot stores that will be registered LEED certified in six different bio-regions. These pilots will test a variety of strategies to reduce energy and water use without adding significant additional store construction costs.
A few of these specific strategies within the environments we control include:
- Adjustable low-energy lighting systems
- Continuing to use green materials and finishes
- Recycled construction, finish and casework materials
- Dual-flush toilets and low-use water faucets
- Drought-resistant native landscaping that may remove the need for irrigation after the first 12 months
