Materiality – what matters most.
Since 2001, Starbucks has reported on our social, environmental and economic impacts. We consider a number of factors in deciding which data and stories are most important to share and report. One determining factor is the materiality – or the importance an issue or performance metric has both to our business and our key stakeholders. This framework helps us assess what matters most to our audiences both inside and outside the company.
Our Global Responsibility Report for fiscal year 2008, a key component of the Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ website, focuses on the work we are doing in our three main Starbucks™ Shared Planet™ commitments: ethical sourcing, community involvement and environmental stewardship. These are the areas of greatest importance to Starbucks, our customers and partners (employees), as well as non-governmental organizations and investors. We also know health and wellness and workplace practices are of considerable interest to our stakeholders. Information about these key topics can be found on Starbucks.com.
How we determine materiality.
Our process for determining materiality for our Global Responsibility Report involves assessing Starbucks significant economic, environmental and social impacts, and then factoring in how these impacts substantively affect or influence our stakeholders. We included a variety of inputs – both internal and external – to ensure we are aligned with the materiality principle of the Global Reporting Initiative regarding content. These inputs include:
- Customer feedback.
- Company objectives, strategies, policies, programs and risk factors.
- Partner (employee) surveys and other input.
- Shareholder resolutions and anecdotal feedback.
- Input gathered through stakeholder dialogues.
- Informal input from coffee suppliers.
- Media coverage and blog discussions of issues.
- Stakeholder feedback from previous reports.
- Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) recommended topics and data for inclusion.
After reviewing these inputs, we compiled a list of issues, and prioritized each one based on the following criteria:
- The importance of the issue to – and potential impact on – Starbucks.
- The importance of the issue to – and potential impact on – customers, partners and other stakeholders.
- The amount of reasonable control Starbucks has over an issue.
The result is a comprehensive report that we hope addresses the issues most critical to our social, environmental and economic impacts. As always, we’d appreciate your feedback on how we’re doing.
