As Starbucks celebrates its 50th Anniversary, the company is expanding its Greener Store Framework to help reduce its environmental impact and leverage its scale for good to accelerate the global movement towards a more sustainable future.
Starbucks is opening its first Greener Store outside of North America in Shanghai, China with a focus on circularity. The Shanghai Greener Store has been designed and built to reduce waste, repurpose goods and serve as a platform for future innovation.
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The Shanghai Greener Store uses recycled materials and industry-first responsible materials, achieving a balance between functional use, spatial aesthetics and circularity.
Wood reclaimed from the renovation of the Beijing Sanlitun Taikooli Flagship store were used to craft the countertop of the Experience Bar, steps of the “stadium seating”, as well as door handles, giving material that would have otherwise gone into landfills a new lease of life.
Wood recovered from stores in Shanghai was used to make table tops, while table bases are made from recycled materials combined with recycled red bricks reclaimed from stores.
The Greener Store also features a Modular Bar and Back-Of-House system constructed to enable reuse and recycling. Made of modules for different functions, the modular design allows the store to quickly adjust the bar layout, by adding, removing, or replacing bar modules to achieve different functional combinations such as ordering, beverage production, food display, and more.
The customised setup enhances efficiency while envisioning a future-forward construction that can enable full reuse, avoiding landfill waste. Modules can be easily dismantled and reassembled in different configurations in case of future renovations or remodeling. At the ‘end of life’, modules that meet reuse standards can be refurbished and used again, hence reducing waste.
The store also provides a more convenient environment for Starbucks partners (employees), featuring a back-of-house wall system that connects the bar and storage space. It facilitates front-flow of materials such as ice and cups and the back-flow of waste. This reduces the number of trips partners have to make between the bar and storage area, improving operational efficiency and enabling partners to focus on connections with customers.
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In addition, the store utilises Internet of Things (IoT) and smart technologies. Air conditioners can be switched on and off automatically according to the store’s operating hours, and the lighting can be automatically adjusted to different preset modes for different times of the day. Through these technologies, the store is expected to reduce carbon emissions by around 15 percent, compared to a regular Starbucks store of the same size (2019 baseline scenario).