Starbucks reassesses climate goals with coffee at the center
Starbucks is taking a “fresh, comprehensive look” at all corporate priorities as part of the Back to Starbucks financial turnaround plan launched by CEO Brian Niccol when he was hired in September 2024.
As a result of that review, Starbucks has embedded sustainability work into its business units to “promote continued accountability among senior leaders for achieving our goals,” said Kelly Goodejohn, chief sustainability and social impact officer, in a blog post. Investments in regenerative agriculture and work that supports the future of coffee and the farmers who grow it are central to that strategy, as the company reassesses its greenhouse gas emissions goal.
The Arabica green coffee beans that Starbucks brews and sells come from coffee belt countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, notably Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Vietnam.
“That’s why our approach, as we get Back to Starbucks, combines operational excellence in our coffeehouses with more focused research development and investment in the regions we source coffee from,” the company said in its 2025 global impact report, published July 1.
Goodejohn, who spent 15 years working on Starbucks coffee sourcing programs before becoming head of social impact, added sustainability in mid-May when Starbucks cut 300 corporate roles and subsumed those responsibilities in the social impact team. The company has been relatively mum about its net-zero emissions reduction plans since Niccol took over. It is reviewing its targets, as required by Science Based Targets initiative guidelines.
Starbucks has nine sustainability pledges, including strict coffee sourcing standards and farmer support initiatives. More than 400,000 farmers follow its strict sourcing guidelines. It recently reached a goal of distributing 100 million climate-resilient coffee trees and aims to pass out 50 million more, to help farmers weather changes in rainfall and temperature.
Green coffee purchases and dairy milk were Starbucks’ two largest sources of emissions in 2025 as a percentage of the total — 12 percent and 13 percent, respectively. That is unchanged since we analyzed the company’s progress in a recent installment of our Chasing Net Zero series.
More than 13,000 Starbucks cafés now meet its strict requirements for energy efficiency, water conservation and waste reduction, which contributed to a 17 percent drop in the company’s operational and electricity-related emissions in fiscal 2025. That’s roughly one-third of all locations, and more than the original goal of 10,000. Starbuck continues to encourage the use of reusable cups — in-store participation increased 77 percent in 2025, according to the new report — and is sticking by its goal of using 25 percent recycled content in its packaging by 2030.
But overall emissions for the world’s largest coffeehouse chain have grown by 7 percent since the 2019 baseline year for its previous pledge to cut emissions, water use and waste in half by 2030.
Whether Starbucks will keep its current plan to cut emissions in half by 2030 will be dictated by evolving market conditions, Goodejohn said. It is actively reviewing that commitment, specifically.
“With respect to the goal on greenhouse gas reduction, we are actively reassessing it while we evaluate the implications of emerging regulations, ongoing updates to relevant standards and other developments, and will share updates soon,” she said.
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