Starbucks announced today that it’s going to slash the greenhouse gases it emits and waste it sends to landfills in half over the next decade. It’s also committing to conserving or replenishing 50 percent of all the water it draws for its operations and coffee production by 2030.

The company also unveiled longer-term strategies to get greener, like switching to reusable packaging and putting more plant-based products on its menu. But it hasn’t yet set a deadline on those initiatives, and there are few details on how the company is going to meet its targets. By its 50th anniversary next year, it plans to unveil more specifics on its environmental goals.

Starbucks has a murky record on achieving its sustainability goals. It met its 2015 deadline to purchase enough renewable energy to power all its company-operated locations in the US and Canada. But in 2008, it also set out to serve 25 percent of its drinks in reusable containers by 2015. A few years after it set that self-imposed deadline, Starbucks dropped that goal to 5 percent. By 2018, it served just 1.3 percent of its drinks in personal reusable cups, despite a decade-long effort to get its customers to switch. If this history is any indication, meeting some of their new goals is going to be a challenge, especially when it comes to reusable packaging or containers.. Read Full Article - The Verge, January 21, 2020