Starbucks · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with Starbucks

You Might Be an Eco Chick If…..

……you wonder, while working out at the gym, how much energy could be generated by the machines everyone is running/ellipticalling on. And then you try to do some calculations while running, and almost fall off the machine. (And when you get home you remember that someone’s already started a green gym based on that very idea!!)

…..you feel like SUCH an awful person for actually pulling into the drive-thru lane at Starbucks. (Note: I picketed Starbucks when I lived in Berkeley, so just going there AT ALL makes me guilty) Your engine runs, and you can’t back out, you can’t give them your reusable container to fill, and there’s no cinnamon and nutmeg either. FAIL!

…..you can’t figure out what to put your garbage in since you carry your reusable totes and almost never pick up a plastic bag anymore (which you used to use as a garbage can liner).

…..you prefer the scent of a real male human being to that of Dial, Irish Spring, or any other overpowering commercial scent. (And I’m not the only one, though if you’re on the Pill, your natural senses are altered.)

Eco-Chick, enviro guilt, Starbucks

Starbucks Eco-frustration

32 Comments

by Starre Vartan · 04/15/08

Full Disclosure: About once a week I go to Starbucks. I hide my head in shame (hey, I protested Starbucks putting locals out of business in the 90′s) and stand on line for a soy latte. I work and attend grad school in Manhattan, and Starbucks are everywhere AND they always have Silk (sometimes organic but at least GMO-free) soymilk, a necessity for me since I haven’t drunk cow’s milk in god knows how long. And if you’ve been a student, (not to mention a way more than full-time blogger/freelancer/editor), you can relate to my need for caffeine! If given the option, I’ll go to a local coffee place- even go out of my way for one, but sometimes they can be hard to find.

So, my following rant has some substance to it, as a semi-regular customer of the ubiquitous chain (and yes, yes, I’m a bit of a hypocrite. I admit it, so sue me! I swear I never went there until I became a workoholic). But I write this as a real, regular customer, which I think gives it some weight. Here’s my suggestion, since Starbucks has been losing customers recently: Bring back the Mug!

On this entire continent called Europe, you go into any espresso bar or cappucino cafe and if you choose to stay, you get a real mug, teacup or espresso shot receptacle from which to quaff your java fix. And every Starbucks I’ve ever been to has the tables, and seems to encourage people to sit down, but why do those people all have takeaway cups? Paper cup and hot cup protector thingy (recycled, good), plastic top, all of which could be completely done away with if denizens drank from real mugs that could be washed and reused a thousand times. Of course, if you’re getting your coffee to go, you need to use a disposable (unless you have a refillable coffee mug to use of course- but Starbucks has trouble even dealing with these.)

If you’re going to sit down at a coffeehop, you shouldn’t be using a disposable cup. It’s wasteful, and frankly, uncivilized. Drinking out of a proper cup is a more relaxing experience, and reminds us that disposable items should not be an expectation, they should be a convenience, an exception. We should be using disposable ONLY when we really need them, period.

Just imagine where that cup started.

coffee, Fair Trade, Organic, Starbucks

Big Business Can Make a Big Difference!?

6 Comments

by Starre Vartan · 01/14/07

Actually, I am anti-capitalism, BUT I realize I live within a system that’s stuck with the concept, and I’m willing to work within it (which, in my experience has yielded more positive change than trying to overthrow it….or maybe I’m just getting old!) So I was pretty fascinated by the fact that 40 countries on the Fortune 500 list are buying renewable energy – and some in large amounts. As reported by CNN:

The EPA is calling for Fortune 500 companies to double their green power purchases to more than 5 billion kilowatt hours by the end of next year – or enough electricity to run more than 400,000 homes in the U.S. a year.

It’s interesting to see which companies are involved. I’ve copied the whole list here and you can see more after the jump. I like to see that some companies are already at 100% like Whole Foods (predictable) and Liz Claiborne and Apple HQs (not expected!). As the CNN article noted, glaringly absent from the list are Fortune-500 toppers Wal-Mart (yes, I can hate them again!) and Exxon-Mobil.

1. Wells Fargo & Company

Green Power Usage in Kilowatts: 550,000,000
Percent Total of Electricity: 42%
Organization Type: Banking, Financial Services
Provider of Energy: 3 Phases Energy
Type of Energy: Wind

2. Whole Foods Market

463,128,000
100%
Retail
Austin Energy, Community Energy, PNM, Renewable Choice Energy, Sky Energy
Biomass, Geothermal, Small-hydro, Solar, Wind

3. Johnson & Johnson

306,418,000
30%
Manufacturing
On-site Generation, 3 Phases Energy, PECO Energy, Sempra Energy, Sterling Planet
Biomass, Small-hydro, Solar, Wind

4. Starbucks

185,000,000
20%
Food, Food Services
3 Phases Energy
Wind

5. DuPont Company

180,000,000
4%
Chemical
3 Phases Energy
Biogas, Wind

6. Staples

121,404,000
24%
Retail
3 Phases Energy, Avista Utilities, Pacificorp, Portland General Electric, Tennessee Valley Authority
Biogas, Biomass, Solar, Wind

business, car, community, electric, electricity, Energy, Entertainment, epa, Exxon, farm, Food, gas, health, health care, Home, News, paper, sport, Starbucks, Technology, transportation

Starbucks & Oxfam Duke it out over Ethiopia, Madonna and Media Duke it out over Malawi baby

No Comments

by Summer Rayne Oakes · 10/30/06

…Hey, but at least we are seeing more reports on Africa in the papers.

Read more about Oxfam’s claim against Starbucks,
and Starbucks claim against Oxfam.

and of course, Madonna – for all of you OK & US Weekly readers. You must ask yourself, how does Angie make adoption look so easy?

Africa, Baby, Entertainment, fur, Madonna, media, paper, Starbucks

From the Left and the Right: Meeting in the Green

3 Comments

by Starre Vartan · 05/23/06

I may not agree with Greg on every issue, but I love the fact that his explanation for “Why I’m Green” is just a photo essay of him in beautiful surroundings like the above shot.

The Republican party was not always the go-to group when it came to environmental armageddon (not that the Democrats have given any great show on the issue either). Every day I hear of more and more Republicans and Conservatives decrying our current policies, from the Crunchy Con book to the Green GOP site (their tagline is: “Republicans Love the Environment Too: Reconciling Republican Policies with Environmental Conservation), which is run by Greg (above), a New York City-based Repub.

Greg put the GreenGOP blog together to bring us news and information that proves there’s still a green side to the Right, and I’ve gotta show some love to my fellow Earth Lovers, no matter which side of the aisle they find themselves on. After all, it was Republican President Teddy Roosevelt , who once said:

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”

Roosevelt backed up these words by protecting 150 national forests. In all, Roosevelt protected some 230 million acres of national land. (From Environmental Defense’s site.)

On the other side of the fence is the Truth and Progress blog, which is put together by Lori Ehrlich and her team of bloggers. They cover topics from why liberals shouldn’t patronize Starbucks to little-known information about rabbits to personal stories of making life greener.

Lori is an environmental activist (though she doesn’t like that designation) who got her start when her daughter was playing in soot, and tracked it all over her kitchen floor. It turned out the black stuff came from right in her own backyard from a local power plant, and ever since that day 10 years ago, Lori has worked for a cleaner environment for her and her children.

She helped launch two environmental organizations, and was pivotal in brokering the corporate cleanup of a decades- old, power-plant waste site. She led a grassroots delegation to Capitol Hill last year to protest President Bush’s energy plan, provided environmental policy advice to the fledgling administration of Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and has been named an “outstanding activist” of the year by a statewide environmental group. (from this article on Lori.)

I’m proud to add both these thoughtful and well-written blogs to our blogroll here at Eco Chick.