Starbucks pushes first Green Store out of US in Shanghai

As Starbucks celebrates its 50th Anniversary, the brand 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.

The store will feature a ‘Circular Lifestyle Lab’ curating sustainability-themed exhibitions from artists advocating for a more sustainable future for customers to learn from. Meanwhile, over half of the store menu will be plant-based, including the debut of 15 new food items. Customers without their own cups or tumblers can still do their part with the launch of Grande-sized reusable cup.

The Shanghai Greener Store is the first Starbucks store in the Chinese mainland to use recycled and lower-impact building materials such as wood reclaimed from the renovation of other Starbucks stores. It is expected that many aspects of the store interior can be recycled, upcycled or biodegraded. It is also the first Starbucks store in the Chinese mainland to feature a Modular Bar and back-of-house system that can easily dismantled and reassembled in different configurations to enable reuse and recycling.

In a first for a Starbucks store in the Chinese mainland, the iconic Starbucks green aprons will be made from recycled Starbuck PET cups using advanced plastic-to-textile technologies. Each apron achieves approximately one kilogram of carbon reduction in its lifecycle. Meanwhile, this is also the first Starbucks store in the Chinese mainland to offer Sustainable Coffee Classrooms hosted by Starbucks coffee ambassadors.

The Shanghai Greener Store is the first Starbucks store in the Chinese mainland to be powered by renewable energy purchased through a nationally certified platform.

In addition, the store utilizes 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%, compared to a regular Starbucks store of the same size.

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Meanwhile, across selected APAC markets, for a day, Starbucks was offering reusable cups to customers who purchased handcrafted beverage on 28 September as part of its mission waste to landfill by 50% by 2030. In markets of Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, Starbucks customers were served their short, tall or grande beverages in a limited-edition 50th anniversary reusable cup. Customers are encouraged to bring back their cup when they visit Starbucks again to enjoy a discount and redeem additional offers.

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