Our commitment to being a responsible company includes our efforts to be open and honest about the successes and challenges we face pursuing that commitment – with our customers, our partners (employees) and the communities where we do business. Each year since 2001, our reports on our corporate social responsibility efforts – which we now call global responsibility – have told the story of our journey and progress related to Starbucks social, environmental and economic impacts.
This year we're creating a better experience for you by incorporating our fiscal 2008 report throughout the Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ website. You can also customize a report printout based on your interests with the build-your-own report feature.
Thank you for taking the time to check in on what we're doing. We invite you to share your thoughts with us with our survey so we can continue to improve our approach.
About our report.
Scope
The report for fiscal 2008 focuses on our three Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ commitments: ethical sourcing (buying), environmental stewardship and community involvement. We have also included helpful links to information and resources found on Starbucks.com and in past reports regarding our financial, corporate governance, workplace and diversity policies and performance.
In developing this report, we've covered topics and issues that we believe are important to Starbucks and our stakeholders. We either share information about those topics in the body of the report or direct readers to other resources.
What we report has also been informed by the Global Reporting Initiative G3 Guidelines, a set of internationally recognized sustainability reporting standards. These key criteria are outlined in our GRI Index.
A high-level summary of our progress on Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ commitments is contained in our Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ scorecard.
Boundaries
The report content is focused largely on Starbucks U.S. and Canada company-operated retail stores and global supply chain operations – areas that represent the majority of Starbucks social, environmental and economic impacts. Our system for reliably collecting and reporting related data does not currently encompass all of our operations. For now, anecdotal information is included for international operations, licensed store operations and joint ventures, where available and relevant. A notable exception to this is information on total coffee purchases, which is for all Starbucks brands and retail stores, including Starbucks Coffee, Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia.
Reporting Year
Starbucks fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007 – September 28, 2008), unless otherwise noted.
Currency
All references to currency are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted.
Previous Reports
http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/csr.asp
Information Integrity
Starbucks management is responsible for the preparation and integrity of the information being reported for fiscal 2008. Through a system of internal controls, including a comprehensive verification process involving internal subject matter experts, we believe this information fairly represents our global responsibility activities and performance results for the fiscal year 2008. External verification is provided by Moss Adams LLP. Read the Moss Adams Independent Assurance Report.
Forward-Looking Statements
Our reporting on global responsibility for fiscal 2008 includes forward-looking statements about the company's business and the company's future business plans, initiatives and objectives. These forward-looking statements are based on currently available operating, financial and competitive information and are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties. Actual future results may differ materially depending on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, coffee, dairy and other raw material prices and availability; successful execution of the company's transformation strategy, restructuring, cost reduction and other initiatives; fluctuations in U.S. and international economies and currencies; the impact of competition; the effect of legal proceedings; and other risks detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the "Risk Factors" section of Starbucks Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 28, 2008. The company assumes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements.
Being a responsible business is a commitment that is embedded in our culture and reflects the core values expressed in our Mission Statement
"We feel now is the time to invest – truly and authentically – in ways to help create a better future for the world we share."
