Starbucks is Cutting Emissions and getting Consumers to Ditch Dairy

Starbucks is waking up to the nightmare of adding dairy products to their drinks, and that is something to admire! We are now witnessing the plant revolution taking hold in major corporations and it’s fantastic!

Adding whipped cream to millions of Starbucks Corp. drinks emits 50 times as much greenhouse gas as the company’s private jet. Overall, dairy products are the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions across the coffee giant’s operations and supply chain.

Starbucks target is to reduce its carbon emissions by 50 percent in 2030, including waste sent to landfills. Those are just two findings from Starbucks’s unveiled environmental assessment, Starbucks the cafe chain is targeting 50 per cent reductions in carbon emissions, water withdrawal and waste sent to landfills.

“We know this journey will be challenging, we know we can’t do this alone, and we know this will require others to join us.” CEO Kevin Johnson
“Alternative milks will be a big part of the solution, Johnson said. “The consumer-demand curve is already shifting.”

Tackling this the company is testing plant-based ingredients and wants to lower the cost of plant alternatives by helping suppliers boost output.

Starbucks in 2018 was responsible for emitting 16 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, using 1 billion cubic meters of water and dumping 868 metric kilotons — more than twice the weight of the Empire State Building — of coffee cups and other waste. The audit was conducted with sustainability consultant Quantis and the World Wildlife Fund.

*We all know the huge impact of Livestock and the environment. It takes 1,000 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of milk. Not to mention, the greenhouse gas emissions, nitrous oxide, dioxins, antibiotics and feces in waterways; water pollution, pesticides sprayed on cows, ocean acidification, desertification, species extinction, rainforest destruction, wildfires from droughts. Studies listed below are from Cowspiracy facts and studies.

The time is now to eliminate animal products and grow into a livable planet.


Sources: Source: Financial Post
California News Forum

Studies:
Water Usage for Dairy/Livestock

Hoekstra, Arjen Y. “The water footprint of food”. Water for Food.

Mekonnen, Mesfin M. & Hoekstra, Arjen Y. “A Global Assessment of the Water Footprint of Farm Animal Products”. Ecosystems (2012) 15: 401-415

“Livestock’s Long Shadow: environmental issues and options”. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome 2006

Transportation exhaust is responsible for 13% of all greenhouse gas emissions.  

Greenhouse gas emissions from this sector primarily involve fossil fuels burned for road, rail, air, and marine transportation.

“Livestock’s Long Shadow: environmental issues and options”. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome 2006

Environmental Protection Agency. “Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data”. 

Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

Goodland, R Anhang, J. “Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change were pigs, chickens and cows?”

Goodland, Robert & Anhang, Jeff. “Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change are…cows, pigs and chickens?”. WorldWatch. November/December 2009

Hickman, Martin. “Study claims meat creates half of all greenhouse gases”. Independent. November 2009

Hyner, Christopher. “A Leading Cause of Everything: One Industry That Is Destroying Our Planet and Our Ability to Thrive on It”. Georgetown Environmental Law Review. October 23, 2015. (New)

Methane is 25-100 times more destructive than CO2 on a 20 year time frame.

Shindell, Drew T, et al. “Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions”. Science. 326, 716 (2009)

Vaidyanathan, Sayathri. “How Bad of a Greenhouse Gas is Methane? The global warming potential of the gaseous fossil fuel may be consistently underestimated”. Scientific American. December 22, 2015.

Methane has a global warming potential 86 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame.

Shindell, Drew T, et al. “Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions”. Science. 326, 716 (2009)


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