Starbucks is highlighting major coffee sector and community milestones in its latest annual impact report, including the distribution of 100 million coffee trees, more than $100 million in farmer financing and new investments in retail staffing.
Yet the company’s Fiscal 2025 Global Impact Report also marks a broader reset in parts of Starbucks’ sustainability agenda, with some previously stated environmental and diversity targets now absent or being reconsidered.
The report also shows that the company’s total carbon footprint has grown rather than shrunk since the baseline year for its marquee 2030 climate target, which calls for a 50% absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from Starbucks’ direct operations and value chain. The company says it is now “actively reassessing” that goal.
Sustainability Goal Reset
Published July 1, the report covers the first full fiscal year under Starbucks’ “Back to Starbucks” strategy, which the company says is focused on coffee, craft and the coffeehouse experience.
Starbucks said it took a “fresh, comprehensive look” at its sustainability goals based on previous progress, lessons learned and external conditions. In the appendix, the company states that its current board-approved sustainability goals “supersede and replace all Sustainability Goals previously disclosed by Starbucks.”
Those nine current goals now fall under coffee, packaging, water stewardship and climate. They include sourcing coffee through Starbucks’ in-house C.A.F.E. Practices verification program, distributing 50 million more coffee trees by 2040 and supporting 100,000 coffee farmers in adopting regenerative agriculture practices by 2040. The company has also pledged to reduce virgin plastics in all packaging by 5% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline.
Starbucks appears to have made a major timeline revision tied to deforestation-free coffee procurement. In an August 2025 statement, the company said it planned to “pursue” deforestation- and conversion-free status for its “strategically sourced” coffee and cocoa by Dec. 31, 2025. The company defined that category as coffee and cocoa purchased through direct or directed-buy models for core products and handcrafted beverages served in Starbucks stores. The new report uses similar language but moves the target to the “end of 2026.”
Coffee and Farmer Support
Starbucks said it reached its 2017 goal to distribute 100 million coffee trees selected for performance in changing climate conditions by the end of 2025. The trees were donated to farmers in El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.
The company also reported $100.1 million in cumulative loans deployed through the Starbucks Global Farmer Fund and said 99.15% of its coffee in FY25 came from farms and supply chains that meet C.A.F.E. Practices standards.
According to the report, the number of farms with current C.A.F.E. Practices validation fell to about 383,000 from nearly 442,000, a drop of roughly 13%.
The report’s language around C.A.F.E. Practices sourcing has also shifted from past reports. Previously, the company’s stated goal was to “source and verify 100%” of coffee through C.A.F.E. Practices, while the newly adopted goal commits only to sourcing coffee “from farms and supply chains that meet C.A.F.E. Practices standards,” with no percentage attached.
Climate and Renewable Energy
The results on emissions were less favorable. Starbucks said it reduced Scope 1 and 2 market-based greenhouse gas emissions 17% from its fiscal 2019 baseline. Yet those categories make up only about 4% of the company’s total carbon footprint.
Scope 3 emissions — which represent roughly 96% of the total footprint and account for indirect value-chain emissions such as shipping, dairy, farming and manufacturing — rose 8% over the same period. Combined, Starbucks’ total emissions are now 7% higher than in fiscal 2019, even as the company’s stated goal is a 50% absolute reduction by 2030.
The report says the company is now “actively reassessing” the 2030 target, citing regulatory shifts, evolving standards and unspecified “headwinds that impose significant challenges.”
Retail Labor and Diversity
Under its “Opportunity” section, Starbucks touts new labor investments tied to its stated goal of being the “best job in retail.” It does not mention Starbucks Workers United, a collective bargaining impasse or allegations of unfair labor practices pending before the National Labor Relations Board.
A section on “listening to partners” says the company gathers feedback through surveys and forums “while monitoring actions related to wages, hours or working conditions for compliance with our legal obligations,” without naming the union campaign or unfair-labor-practice allegations tied to it.
The company said it began investing $500 million in additional worker hours and expanded rosters across North America, doubled paid parental leave for eligible U.S. retail employees to up to 18 weeks and piloted a new coffeehouse coach role.
The report is also silent on a diversity pledge that had a 2025 deadline. Starbucks previously committed to having Black, Indigenous and people of color make up at least 30% of U.S. corporate roles and at least 40% of U.S. retail and manufacturing roles by the end of 2025, tying inclusion and diversity metrics to executive compensation at the time. That commitment does not appear among the report’s nine current goals.
Find the full report here.
Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.
Related Posts
Nick Brown
Nick Brown is the editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.
Comment