Pickin’ On Starbucks Again

I was reading this article about Starbucks in Reuters with great interest, Green or Greenwashed?

Frankly, I am not sure that any large company can ever be green. No matter how much they try their very existence as a corporation will preclude them being environmentally friendly.

Green belongs to the small, local coffee shops that use “for here” cups and buy their organic, shade grown, bird friendly coffee from a local roaster or roast it themselves. Green belongs to small, family owned companies that operate in communities, support the local communities, and refuse to grow past a certain, controllable point.

The problem with those small green companies is that the big companies that pretend to be green run them out of business. People prefer to save a buck here or there and in this economy who can blame them? And it isn’t just that. If you have ever owned a small business you know that all of the various regulations, inspections, permits, and taxes work together to maintain a high level of stress and frustration. You are expected, as a business owner (at least in a small town) to be nice, friendly, always available, always compliant, and always ready to give your product away for free to friends, neighbors, and city officials.

Companies like Starbucks are corporations. That is an entirely different set of rules. It is sort of the difference between being a work at homemom and a work at an office mom. Both work really hard, and both may be equally talented and successful but the work at home mom will be expected to babysit for neighbors, make cookies for the class party, and keep an eye on all of the latchkey kids for two miles. Different standards apply.

There is a point that you have to choose between your budget and your commitement to green-ness. Pretending like a corporation is green is like pretending a president or other government official really will do something about the environment. They won’t. As long as there are private jets using gallons of fuel, and multiple domiciles with staff I can’t be comforted that they care as much as I do about environment.

Starbucks will always be more interested in growth and profits than environmental concerns. If that wasn’t the case ALL of their coffee would be organic.

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