Is this Public Relations?

I recently read a case on Starbucks and their Corporate Social Responsibility to coffee farmers and the United States. Starbucks is one of, if not is the largest coffee distributor in the country. They have very strict regulations for the coffee beans that they use in their coffee because they want a specific quality of coffee to represent their business. One of their six guidelines to their mission statement is to “Contribute positively to our communities and our environment.”

As an early company, Starbucks started out by giving back to the community and countries where its coffee was outsourced. In 1999, Starbucks formed an actual CSR department that oversees Starbucks involvement in community, society and environment. They have five areas of focus that include: business practices, environmental issues, community affairs, corporate giving and the Starbucks Foundation. They also recently partnered with Conservation International (CI) which is a company founded outside of Washington D.C. with a mission to conserve Earth’s living natural heritage and its global biodiversity. CI’s efforts focus on the 25 areas of the world identified as “biodiversity hot spots” that are most threatened. CI identified coffee as an important commodity that affected biodiversity and launched a Conservation Coffee Program that will preserve and promote shade-grown coffee. This partnership is a great example of Starbucks CSR because it proves that they really are interested in the environment, not just using it as a mission statement without follow through. (Most of this information came from my Mgt 415 casebook)