With more than 17,000 retail locations around the world, we’re intently focused on green building initiatives to help us reach our environmental targets, the flexibility to support our scale and the efficiency to reduce our long-term operating costs. We’ve made significant progress in our efforts, and starting in January 2011, we expect to reach our goal that all of our new, company-owned stores will be built to achieve LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
Green Building
Starbucks joined the USGBC in 2000, and we opened our first LEED®-certified store in Hillsboro, Oregon, in 2005. Shortly after, we were one of the first companies to participate in the LEED for Retail pilot program, leading development of the standard for adapting LEED to new construction and commercial interiors strategies for restaurants and other retail businesses.
In 2009 Starbucks became one of the first retailers to join USGBC’s LEED Volume Certification pilot program. As part of this effort, last year we launched 10 store design and construction projects in six different bioregions 1 and five countries around the world, incorporating various green building strategies. The pilot projects have been audited and approved by the USGBC. We are now able to use the 64 green credits tested and approved from the pilots worldwide to achieve our LEED goal.
In 2010 Starbucks built six new or renovated company-owned stores that achieved LEED certification in the United States and Canada. We also have eight stores outside North America that have either achieved or will be registered for LEED certification in early 2011: in Portugal, Spain, Japan, France, Germany and the Philippines. In addition, our global Support Center in Seattle and our roasting plant in Sandy Run, South Carolina, have both earned LEED certification.
Inside LEED stores, customers will find reused, recycled and locally sourced elements, as well as innovative features that conserve water and energy. For example, at our University Village store in Seattle, the community table is made of wood from a fallen tree recovered from a nearby neighborhood. At our Paris Disney location in France, the countertop material contains recycled mobile-phone parts. In Fukuoka, Japan, rainwater collected from the roof of our store is used to nourish the surrounding landscape.
While our goal specifically addresses new, company-owned stores, we’re proactively looking for opportunities to leverage environmentally friendly practices in all of our construction projects. With more than 70 LEED accredited professionals on our global store development team, we will be working to provide licensees and other business partners with guidance on design plans and construction.
1 a bioregion is an area where climatic conditions have remained essentially consistent over a period of 30 years.
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Goals |
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Beginning in December 2010, build all new, company-owned stores to achieve LEED® certification |
In 2010 we completed the pilot phase for the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Volume Certification pilot program, with our 10 store design and construction projects audited and approved by the USGBC. ON TRACK
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