About As You Sow
As You Sow is dedicated to ensuring that corporations and other institutions act responsibly and in the long-term best interests of the environment and the human condition.
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STARBUCKS CORPORATION
Voting deadline: 3/20/2010Starbucks Corp. has repeatedly emphasized its commitment to environmental leadership, yet has no comprehensive recycled content or container recovery strategy for the plastic, glass, paper and metal containers its beverages are sold in.
Society has been inundated with recyclable materials that are not being recycled. Two-thirds of beverage containers in the U.S. are not recycled but discarded in landfills, incinerated or littered, and thereby diverted from recycling streams. The U.S. recycling rate for beverage containers declined from 53 percent in 1992 to 34 percent in 2006, while sales continued to grow.
We congratulate the company for using 10% recycled paper fiber in its hot coffee cups. But 3 billion Starbucks coffee cups end up in landfills annually because they can’t be composted or recycled due to their plastic coating. (Greenbiz.com, Sept. 15, 2009)
Starbuck received failing grades for its performance on beverage container recycled content and recycling policies in a 2008 scorecard and report published by As You Sow Foundation.
The company has made no commitment to use recycled content in its Ethos brand water bottles or to specific measures designed to increase rates of bottle recovery. Starbucks lags behind competitors who sell bottled beverages, including Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo which both use a significant percentage of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin in plastic bottles sold in the U.S. Nestle Waters North America has introduced re-source, a brand of bottled water with 25% recycled PET content. Pepsi’s Naked Juice brand will use 100% recycled PET plastic in its bottles in 2010.
Significant container recovery rates are possible. In U.S. states with container deposit laws, and countries like Germany and Sweden, beverage container recovery rates of 70 to 80 percent have been achieved. Coca-Cola has set a goal to recover 50% of all plastic and aluminum containers it sells annually by 2015. Nestle Waters has pledged to recover 60% of the plastic bottles it sells by 2018. Starbucks has made no such commitment. Increased recovery can reduce reliance on virgin resins and metals and make more materials available to provide recycled content in new containers.
Increased recycling of containers can also reduce carbon footprint. If all U.S. beverage containers sold in 2005 had been recovered, an estimated 15.6 million metric tons of greenhouse gases could have been avoided. (Waste & Opportunity, As You Sow, 2008)
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APPLE INC.
Voting has ended.Investors increasingly seek disclosure of companies’ social and environmental practices in the belief that they impact shareholder value. Many investors believe companies that are good employers, environmental stewards, and corporate citizens are more likely to generate stronger financial returns, better respond to emerging issues, and enjoy long-term business success.
Mainstream financial companies are also increasingly recognizing the links between sustainability performance and shareholder value. Information from corporations on their greenhouse gas emissions is essential to investors as they assess the strengths of corporate securities in the context of climate change.
Globally, over 2,700 companies issued reports on sustainability issues in 2007 (www.corporateregister.com). Among our industry peers, Dell, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard have taken leadership roles in these areas through publication of comprehensive sustainability reports that address their company’s impacts with regards to issues such as greenhouse gas emissions reduction, toxics, and supply chain working conditions. These companies have provided detailed assessments of greenhouse gas emission exposure and made reduction commitments. Apple, however, lags behind global industry peers on sustainability reporting. It has released some product specific information on greenhouse gas emissions but its usefulness is limited as nearly all other companies use aggregate emission estimates. Apple has not made public greenhouse gas reduction commitments.
The information and communication technologies sector is estimated to contribute between 2-3% of total greenhouse gas emissions. As the industry continues to develop globally, this is set to increase further. Given the industry’s large social and environmental footprint, we feel it is imperative that Apple develop clear policies and programs that address the impacts of its operations on the environment and on society.
