Starbucks has scaled back several of its environmental targets and reduced sustainability staff as part of a broader effort to cut $2 billion in costs under its new leadership. The coffee company, once regarded as a frontrunner in corporate climate commitments, has revised or abandoned goals related to water use, waste reduction, and carbon emissions.
The company first announced ambitious sustainability objectives in 2020 under then-CEO Kevin Johnson, emphasizing environmental responsibility as central to its business model. However, many of those targets have been removed or modified in Starbucks’ most recent Global Impact Report published this summer. The report replaced previous pledges with a “more focused set of sustainability goals,” though it did not explicitly detail which commitments were altered or discarded.
Notably, Starbucks omitted its previous goal to halve water use in operations and coffee production. While the company still maintains a separate target to assist 5 million people in obtaining clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, operational water use reporting was substantially narrowed—from roughly 500 billion liters annually reported earlier to 53 billion liters under the latest measure. The report also excluded any updated targets or data concerning waste sent to landfill, after disclosing an increase in landfill waste to 681,000 tonnes in 2024, a 6% rise since 2019.
Packaging goals have also been downgraded. Starbucks had aimed to reduce the use of “virgin fossil fuel-derived sources” in customer packaging by 50% by 2030 but now targets only a 5% reduction in virgin plastics across all packaging. The previous commitment to make half of customer packaging from recycled materials has been lowered to 25%, contingent upon the availability of recycled content.
The company retained its ambition to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 2019 levels by 2030, including indirect “scope three” emissions from supply chain activities. However, Starbucks indicated it is “actively reassessing” this target due to evolving regulations, new standards, and other challenges, and plans to announce a revised “science-aligned goal” and strategy by early 2027. According to the report, total emissions rose by 7% in 2025 compared to 2019, partly reflecting company growth and increased beverage sales, including cold drinks served in plastic cups that are difficult to recycle.
While environmental advocates have criticized the rollback in commitments, Starbucks continues to promote its sustainability efforts at public events such as New York’s Climate Week. The downsizing of the sustainability team, including job cuts affecting former chief sustainability officer Marika McCauley Sine’s position and others involved in ethical sourcing and environmental initiatives, occurred alongside the company’s ongoing cost reduction program under CEO Brian Niccol, who took the helm in 2024.
Former employees and sustainability advocates note a shift in corporate priorities, suggesting that deeper sustainability goals no longer drive strategy to the extent they once did. Despite this, Starbucks maintains some legacy goals, including making all customer-facing packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2030 and exceeding its target of having more than 10,000 stores certified with green standards by 2025.
The company said its renewed approach reflects lessons learned and a reassessment of the external environment amid a changing landscape for corporate sustainability commitments in the United States.