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A protester pbades a caricature of cups of coffee in front of the annual meeting of Starbucks shareholders at McCaw Hall on March 21, 2018 in Seattle, Washington.
For decades, the company has offered a 10 cent discount to customers who bring cups. Despite the longevity of the program, few clients benefit.
"We are very pleased with the progress we have made in innovation," said Rebecca Zimmer, world director of the environment, in an interview. "We also understand that environmental issues and landscape are dynamic and we need to constantly review our strategies and evaluate our goals and targets. We must be aggressive and ambitious in our goals and targets, but also realistic in our achievements.
Last year, the Seattle-based company partnered with McDonald's and Closed Loop Partners to support a competition to find more sustainable cup solutions. Out of nearly 500 global submissions, 12 winners were announced last month.
Some of the winners may soon find their creations in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and London.
"We've looked at these locations and those around the world that are best suited to have an infrastructure suitable for handling cups," Zimmer said.
Part of the testing process involves badessing the ability of suppliers to resize cups and municipal waste management systems. For example, Zimmer said that some compostable cups require commercial composting facilities, which use higher temperatures to break down materials.
The company also caused a stir in July when it announced its intention to phase out plastic straws. Instead of a straw, guests would savor their cool drinks with a new cup lid. Since the initial announcement, the company has reduced by 9% the amount of virgin plastic in the lid, Zimmer said.
Starbucks also announced Wednesday a $ 100 million investment in a venture capital fund and plans to refresh its coffees.
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