Starbucks becomes the Greenest Company in the World

Starbucks has over 23,000 stores worldwide, and has converted a number of the locations into being eco-friendly. Starbuck’s business model to become more environmentally friendly has finally paid off. They opened a new location that is the 700th LEED-certified location worldwide, which established Starbucks to be the most eco-friendly company. Starbucks plans to double the amount of LEED-certified locations by the end of 2016, with over 1,200 certified stores.

Starbucks first initiated their plans to convert store locations to be LEED- certified in efforts to rebrand their “chain” image. They hope to win back consumers by producing a “hip” coffee atmosphere where the furniture is slid wood, employees are wearing artisan aprons and siphons LED-equipment. However, even with these efforts, many critics still label Starbucks to be similar to “the Cheesecake Factory” with chain-like atmospheres.

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