STARBUCKS has announced the certification of its first Greener Store in Jamaica as the company accelerates the international expansion of its open-source Greener Store Framework intended to reduce global carbon emissions, water usage, and waste sent to landfills by 50 per cent by 2030. Located in Mall Plaza, Kingston, and operated in partnership with Caribbean Coffee Traders Limited (CCTL), the store will help reduce Starbucks’s environmental impact by providing customers with a range of options suited to their preferences, while ensuring sustainable practices and materials.

The Mall Plaza Greener Store adheres to the Starbucks Greener Store Framework through a more efficient use of resources, including water waste management, use of responsible materials, and sustainable waste management techniques. The store is designed to reduce water usage by 30 per cent through a combination of proper sizing of water heaters, filters, and low-flow plumbing fixtures and processes. The store is also energy efficient with 100 per cent LED lighting fixtures throughout the store. The use of responsible materials during construction emits less toxins with low-embodied carbon values, while the HVAC equipment demonstrates high efficiency to meet American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards.

Approximately 50 per cent of store partners (employees) are Greener Apron certified through the Starbucks Global Academy and are contributing towards the company’s planet-positive future. CCTL is committed to donating 100 per cent of coffee grounds to customers through the Grounds for Your Garden Program, a sustainability initiative driven by Starbucks partners in stores to provide customers with coffee grounds to nourish their plants.

“Having our first certified Starbucks Greener Stores in Jamaica brings us one step closer to achieving our sustainability goals as a global brand and we are happy to play our part,” said Roxanne Dixon-Rose, regional director of Caribbean Coffee Traders Limited. “This is a remarkable step towards a sustainable future, and we look forward to having more stores certified. We are proud of our Green Apron certified partners for their passion in becoming sustainability ambassadors and exercising ecofriendly practices in stores to reduce our carbon footprint.”

Starbucks Greener Store Framework was co-developed with World Wildlife Fund to accelerate the transformation of retail towards lower-impact stores that demonstrate reductions in carbon emissions, water usage, and landfill waste. Starbucks has committed to building and retrofitting 10,000 Greener Stores globally by 2025, a major step in leveraging its goal to accelerate the global movement towards a more sustainable future.

Since announcing the international expansion of Greener Stores in September 2021, Starbucks has implemented a global framework of design, construction, and operations standards to certify new Greener Stores around the world. As of March 2023, Greener Stores have been certified in more than 20 markets globally in Latin America and the Caribbean, this includes Argentina, Mexico, Bahamas, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay, in addition to Jamaica.

“With a company of Starbucks scale – any one action, no matter how small, has the potential for massive impact,” said Michael Kobori, Starbucks chief sustainability officer. “I’m so proud to see our Greener Stores framework continue to scale for good globally. The programme we have created will continue to move us closer towards our resource-positive goals.”