Starbucks Ci Case

In present times it is important to invest in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). It is important due to several reasons like the preservation of natural recourses and fair treatment to workers of big companies. So at first glance, it can be mentioned that the collaboration between Starbucks and CI was very valuable due to collaboration of their respective fields. However a further in depth analysis of this alliance will be given, that might question the value of the alliance.

The alliance with Conservation International was formed for the following reasons: to promote coffee growing practices that would enhance the environment and produce high quality beans. Also the alliance was an important part of Starbucks business and social strategy of strengthening the well being of small coffee producers. A further description of the two companies and their common activities will be given below. This will enable us to understand why the alliance of the two companies is so important.

Starbucks created a CSR department that could oversee the CSR activities of the company. The CSR department consisted of 5 areas: business practices, environmental issues, community affairs, corporate giving and the Starbucks foundation. In 1994, the CSR department started with a budget of $50,000, and in 2002, that budget went up to $6 million. In 2001, Starbucks had donated $7,3 million in cash and kind. According to the Starbucks CSR department senior vice president, 75% to 80% of the consumers rewarded corporations that were being corporate social responsible. 20% of the consumer punished corporations that were not being corporate social responsible. Also, according to Howard Schultz it is important that a company maintains a delicate balance between: fiscal responsibility, shareholder value and a company’s heart, soul and benevolence that it needs to maintain even in down times. As one can understand now, being corporate social responsible was very important for Starbucks.

And so Conservation International (CI) enters the scene. CI was an organization dedicated to the conserving the environment as well as its global diversity and to demonstrate that humans can live peaceful and in harmony with the nature surrounding them. CI worked together and had alliances with other institutions to achieve its goals. During the 90’s CI determined coffee as an important commodity that harmed biodiversity and conservation. The reason for this was that 25 million acres of rainforest was cut for coffee plantations and this trend continued. That is why in 1996, CI launched a pilot conservation coffee program with three cooperatives located in the buffer zone of the El Triunfo Biospehere Reserve in Chiapas, Mexico to preserve and promote shade grown coffee. The program also aimed to prevent further deforestation in the buffer zone. So organizations that were being corporate social responsible were important to CI due to the same goals and