Coffee retailing giant Starbucks revealed in its 2025 Impact Report that it is “actively reassessing” its 2030 value chain emissions reduction target, as it evaluates “the implications of emerging regulations, ongoing updates to relevant standards” and the impact of headwinds posing challenges to the achievement of its goal.
Starbucks initially unveiled its climate goal in 2020, targeting a 50% reduction in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030, on a 2019 basis.
While the company’s impact report indicates that it has succeeded in cutting operational emissions, with Scope 1 and 2 falling 17% since 2019, and in reducing its overall emissions intensity by 3%, however, wider value chain emissions have continued to climb, with Scope 3 rising by 8% since 2019. With Scope 3 accounting for over 90% of overall emissions, Starbucks has seen its GHG footprint grow by 7% overall since 2019.
The reassessment of the goal comes as the company takes “a fresh, comprehensive look at our sustainability goals,” according to a blog post by Starbucks’ Chief Sustainability and Social Impact Officer Kelly Goodejohn, as part of the company’s ‘Back to Starbucks’ strategy initiated by CEO Brain Niccol.
Goodejohn, who recently added the Chief Sustainability function into her role, added that Starbucks has also embedded sustainability-related work “into the business units to promote continued accountability among senior leaders for achieving our goals.”
The report highlights Starbucks nine key goals, including the 2030 emissions reduction goal, other climate targets to support 100% of company-owned operations with renewable electricity, and to pursue deforestation-free status for coffee and cocoa, as well as other coffee supply chain, sustainable packaging, and water stewardship goals.
While noting that it has met several of its goals, the company acknowledged in the report that “in others, we learned more about what it takes to drive lasting change across a complex, global business.”
Purchased goods and services accounts for the majority of Starbucks’ emissions footprint, with the company listing coffee farming and dairy as key contributors.
While acknowledging “actively reassessing” the 2030 goal, Goodejohn added that “we intend to continue to take action designed to manage our greenhouse gas emissions across our operations and supply chains, and to transparently report on our progress.”
