Starbucks plans to reduce company’s carbon footprint

After years and years of successful business, Starbucks has decided to take their company in a whole new direction: a dairy free one. CEO Kevin Johnson has announced their plan to replace their dairy products with a vegan alternative. Johnson hopes this will reduce the harmful carbon emissions being put out into the environment by the 31,000 Starbucks shops.

Starbucks and the World Wildlife Fund recently discovered that dairy is partly responsible for the large output of harmful gasses that contribute to illness and health problems annually. In 2018, dairy production was responsible for 21% of the 15.6 million metric tons of greenhouse gases released into the air.

“Alternative milks will be a big part of the solution [to emissions],” Johnson stated in an interview with Bloomberg News. “The consumer-demand curve is already shifting.”

Starbucks admits that a cow’s milk does release the most carbon dioxide of their options, yet it currently still charges 80 cents more for lattes made with dairy free alternatives, such as soy, coconut, and almond milk.

Vegans, environmentalists, people with lactose intolerance, and other customers have been urging Starbucks to eliminate its dairy-free milk surcharge since the chain began offering vegan alternatives years ago. Even adding whipped cream to a drink emits 50 times as much greenhouse gas as Starbuck’s private jet. By 2030, the company hopes to reduce carbon emissions by 50%.

“We know this journey will be challenging, we know we can’t do this alone, and we know this will require others to join us,” CEO Kevin Johnson said in an interview with Bloomberg Green.

This is just one step that Starbucks is taking on their transition to a more environmentally friendly business. They realized how big of a problem their dairy products were on the environment, and decided to make a change. Johnson, along with many others, is excited about the future for Starbucks and hopes his change will make a change in our world as well.