- Ryan Stark
Starbucks ditches dairy and strives to become eco-friendly
As people are becoming more environmentally conscious, Starbucks is adapting with plans to ditch dairy for vegan milk options in an effort to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide produced by the company.
An audit on Starbucks conducted by sustainability consultant Quantis and the World Wildlife Fund discovered that dairy products were the biggest responsibility for the chain’s production of carbon dioxide. In response, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson decided it was time for the company to permanently swap dairy products for vegan milks, such as almond milk and soymilk.
According to an article from Bloomberg, Starbucks aims to cut down 50% of its carbon production, water withdrawal and waste sent to landfills by 2030. This will likely cause a huge change of pace for the café chain since it was responsible for emitting 16 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, using 1 billion cubic meters of water and wasting 868 metric kilotons of coffee cups and other trash in 2018, according to Bloomberg.
Starbucks has offered vegan milk options since 2016, and according to Vegan News Now, Johnson said 15 to 20 percent of Starbucks customers worldwide already choose plant-based milk for their beverages.
While this is all admirable of Starbucks, many vegans are not going to be satisfied because they are concerned about the cost of drinks rising. On February 6, INSIDER reported that vegans have been holding sit-ins at Starbucks to protest the “vegan tax,” or the extra money vegans pay to have their coffee made with plant-based milk. There are no reports as of now on how Starbucks’ environmental efforts will affect the cost of their drinks.
This is going to be an interesting change to the world’s largest coffee chain. Starbucks has already begun to test vegan products at many of their locations. Stop in your local Starbucks today and ask to try one of their new vegan drinks: The Almond Milk Honey Flat White, the Coconut Milk Latte, and the Oat Milk Honey Latte.