Starbucks Improve Triple Bottom Line

With the growing concerns about the impact industrialization has on the environment, several companies have been working hard to implement certain environmentally friendly and socially responsible business practices. One such company is Starbucks. Starbucks, known mainly for its innovative approaches customer service and originality of their specialty coffee selections, is now gaining different type of popularity for the part that it has been playing in participating in a more socially responsible business practice. Starbucks’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) aim has certainly lead to an improvement in their triple bottom line --- a calculation in the business practice that holds the company responsible not only to their stakeholders, but to everyone else who is either directly or indirectly involved with it, including its part in the protection of the environment.

In fact, in 2008, in collaboration with the Conservation International, Starbucks launched a new initiative to develop and replicate a sustainable coffee management project in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, the main objective of which was to “…increase the capacity of coffee farmers to better respond to the effects of climate change, optimize coffee production and increase household income” (Rahmadani, 2011, para.5). Farmers in Sumatra experienced serious problems due to changes in the weather patterns, leading to less suitable conditions for growing coffee.

That same year, Haward Schultz, the CEO of the corporation, announced “renewed focus on customer experience and innovation…” (Paryani, 2011, p. 6). But, Starbucks’ involvement in the improvement of coffee production is not the sole initiative, and is not the only change in its timeline of success. The company came a long way since its initial inception in 1971. From humble beginnings to becoming one of the largest chains of coffee houses worldwide, the company has consistently looked for new strategies to not only succeed in its...