Starbucks Launches Two Initiatives to Reduce the Environmental Footprint of its Stores Worldwide
Starbucks has announced two store-design programs aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of the company's existing stores as well as that of its new stores. Utilizing the U.S. Green Building Council's Volume Certification Pilot Program, the company has set a goal for every new company-owned store to be LEED certified beginning in late-2010. Also, in collaboration with General Electric, Starbucks is currently deploying high efficiency LED (light emitting diode) lighting to each of its 8000 existing company owned stores worldwide, and it will incorporate this lighting into its new stores as well. Both of these initiatives will move the company closer to its corporate goal of an overall reduction in energy use by 25% by the end of 2010.
The USGBC's Volume Certification Pilot Program allows retailers like Starbucks to achieve LEED certification of many stores that incorporate similar environmentally sensitive practices on a cost- and time- efficient basis. Under the program, retailers develop a number of "pilot" stores according to LEED standards. When the pilot stores are audited and approved, the environmental strategies implemented in the stores are integrated into the retailer's standard prototype for the store in the region. As the retailer brings new stores that conform to the prototype online, LEED certification is awarded based largely on the retailer's self-reporting that the new store implements the approved environmental strategy, which is confirmed through spot checks and audits.
Under the Volume Certification Program, each new store must individually achieve LEED certification according to standard LEED criteria. However, the program provides a streamlined process where numerous projects for a single retailer will implement similar or identical environmental strategies. Starbucks, Wachovia, and Starwood Hotels are among the participants in the Volume Certification Pilot Program. The USGBC credits Starbucks with significantly contributing to the development and refinement of the Volume Certification Program.
Starbucks currently has 10 pilot stores under development in North America, Europe and Asia. The approval of the strategies implemented by these stores will allow Starbucks to meet its goal of securing LEED certification for all new company owned stores by late-2010.
Starbucks also recently announced its LED Lighting Conversion Program. Starbucks has stringent color-quality requirements for its store lighting. As recently as 2008, the company explored the feasibility of replacing the incandescent and halogen lighting in its existing stores with high efficiency LED lighting, but found no commercially available solution that met its criteria. Then, Starbucks approached GE about developing an appropriate solution from scratch. As a result, GE developed a high efficiency LED lighting product that meets Starbucks' color-quality criteria and integrates well with Starbucks' store design and its existing fixtures. To date, the LED lighting has been installed in over 1000 stores in the United States. The company will roll out the lighting solution to its international stores in March, 2010, with the goal to complete the conversion in its more than 8000 company owned stores by the end of 2010.
Starbucks estimates that the LED lighting alone will reduce in-store energy use by 7 percent, which will contribute to its overall corporate goal of a 25 percent reduction in energy use by the end of 2010. GE believes that collaboration with Starbucks on the project will benefit other GE customers as well.
For more information on Starbucks participation in the LEED Volume Certification Program, you can check out the company's website at www.starbucks.com/sharedplanet. For more information on how the LEED Volume Certification Program can help your company, contact Whiteford Taylor & Preston.