Starbucks Corp is aiming to add more plant-based food and drinks to its menu as part of the company's latest plan to become more environmentally friendly, chief executive Kevin Johnson has said.
Over the past year, with the rise of companies including Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, "plant-based" has become a food industry buzzword and several major brands and restaurants have raced to offer such products. The plant-based meat substitute category is expected to be worth $140 billion in the next decade, according to Barclays.
Starbucks - which sells sausage breakfast-sandwiches, chicken wraps and smoked salmon bagels with cream cheese - did not say by when it would start offering plant-based items. A spokeswoman told Reuters that the company is exploring meat alternatives for its breakfast menu, but declined comment on potential suppliers.
Starbucks also said that it is aiming to eventually shift to reusable packaging from single-use cups and plastic, and invest in better waste-management.
Targets
For now, the world's largest coffee chain has laid out targets for 2030 including halving landfill waste from stores, and carbon emissions from its direct operations and supply chain. The targets were informed by research from the World Wildlife Fund and sustainability consultant Quantis, Starbucks said.
Starbucks, which uses about six billion cups a year at its more than 30,000 outlets, has failed in the past to meet some of its own environmental goals including making 25% of its cups reusable by 2015. The target was revised to serving 5% of its beverages in personal tumblers by 2015, which Starbucks also missed.
The Seattle-based company's abundant use of containers, lids and straws has been criticised by consumers as well as activist groups for decades.
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