Starbucks' Response

Surprise, surprise! I got a response from Julie S at Starbucks Coffee Company about my posting with respect to their "double-cupping" policies. Seems as though they are doing what they can about the environment ... please read on.

Am I satisfied with the response? Guess so ...


Thank you for contacting Starbucks Coffee Company.

Starbucks white paper cups, used for hot beverages, are made of paper fiber and the industry standard liner (low-density polyethylene plastic). The paper provides the rigidity for the cup, while the plastic layer keeps the paper layer intact by protecting it from the hot beverage. This plastic layer also makes the hot beverage cups unrecyclable in most paper recycling systems. We are continually evaluating alternatives to the current plastic coating, and are currently conducting life cycle assessments for bio-based plastics.

We have spent more than ten years looking for opportunities to decrease the environmental impact of our disposable hot cups, which represent more than half of all the paper we buy. We are now focusing our efforts on addressing the source of the paper we use to make our cups. We believe our biggest impact has come from the introduction of our white 10 percent post-consumer recycled fiber (PCF) hot cups in our U.S. and Canada stores in 2006.

Starbucks was the first company in the United States to use 10 percent PCF fiber in hot beverage cups which, according to Environmental Defense's Paper Calculator, has significantly reduced the amount of wood we use by 11,300 tons - the equivalent of 78,000 trees in the first year alone.

Though Starbucks pays a slight premium for the PCF cups, we believe the long-term impact of using this more environmentally-friendly option is worth the additional cost. Our commitment to corporate social responsibility initiatives such as this underscores our long term investment in continuing to operate our business in a responsible way.

Other actions taken by Starbucks to reduce the environmental impacts of our disposable cups include:

Working to eliminate most double-cupping by utilizing corrugated hot beverage sleeves made of 60 percent post-consumer recycled fiber.
Offering customers a $0.10 discount when they use their own reusable cups. Customers in the U.S. and Canada took advantage of this offer more than 17 million times in fiscal 2006, keeping 674,000 pounds of paper from going to the landfill.
Providing "for here" mugs for customers who choose to enjoy their beverages in-store.

I hope you find this information useful. Thanks again for writing.


Julie S.
Customer Relations
Starbucks Coffee Company

Starbucks - what are ya thinking?

Make no mistake, I am not a tree-hugger ... not by any stretch of the imagination. I still consume what I need, enjoy a good piece of meat, but one thing that I will say, is that I am socially aware and in fact, waste very little.

Pardon the pun, but I have a big beef with Starbucks. Why is it that whenever I go to any Starbucks, and I have gone to approximately 20 in the past 60 days, my hot beverage is double-cupped? In other words, they use 2 cups for every hot drink. If the drink is heated to like a gazillion degrees, is that really necessary? Is hot simply not hot enough?

Just do the math and you'll see the hundreds of millions of cups Starbucks uses every year. Now double that!

Get my picture? I bet.

For a company that prides itself on caring for the environment, I'd be interested in knowing their rationale.

Watch this space for more details.

Vegas - You're a Class Act

I've just returned from yet another trip to Sin City, my first non-business trip there in 5 years. Vegas is a class-act all the way. Here’s why:

First - you pay big bucks and you get incredible quality, and lots of it. Proof positive was the $39.99 buffet at the Wynn. (Imagine having a hotel named after you?). You could choose whether you wanted the Nova smoked salmon with Egyptian capers or the Pacific smoked salmon with the Spanish capers.

Second, their hands are so far in your pockets, AND you feel good about that. When you stop and think about that - it's amazing. They get me to spend big money and feel good. I am a social drinker, but I felt exceptionally good at Tao dropping almost $40 on a martini for me and one for my wife.

Third, everyone was well behaved. For a city where it's always happy hour and that hosts some 300,000 tourists every weekend, I did not see one incident that would have jarred the senses. I guess the steep prices of fun keeps the "riff-raff out".

Finally, the marketing and PR is so damn pervasive - it's so damn good. The spin masters there are able to change your perceptions and guide your behavior - you're putty in their hands. I know it and they know it. I love it

Hey, I can't wait for CES 2009 --- Vegas, I'll be back

These Guys Really Get The Art Of A Special Event

Two Tuesdays ago, after having fed Jason and Amanda breakfast, I duly opened the front door of the house to wait for the carpool to shuttle them off to school. Pretty usual stuff so far. I returned into the house to finish my breakfast. Within a minute or two, Amanda, all of seven and cute as a button flew back into the house. “Daddy, daddy,” she crooned in her syrupy and ever-so-cute juvenile voice. “There’s a party outside and all the neighbors are going to come.”

“Huh”, I exclaimed, looking sleepily up from my dry cornflakes.

With little option, but to join the party, I abandoned by breakfast and headed to the front door. Across the street from our house stood a large awning with two industrious people – neither of whom I recognized - seemingly barbecuing with a bunch of neighbourhood kid gathered closely around.

Hmm? Barbeque for breakfast?

On walking closer, they sure were not cooking anything. Rather the two guys were the Barbeque guys – a company that cleans and refurbishes barbecues. The family had hired them to clean their barbeque. Nothing profound here!

So what do these guys get about a special event? They had two options. There’s nothing glamorous about cleaning barbecues at all. Clean my neighbors' barbecue in his back yard quietly and without fanfare or do it on the street, beneath an attractive awning and create some buzz.

The chose the later option!!

Barbeque Guys, I gottta tell you that what you did was surprisingly low tech, but it sure did create buzz on my street – and by the number of people you attracted and business cards you gave out are anything to go by … you held a great special event.

Best wishes for success

Blogger Burnout

I've just finished reading a really, really scary piece in the New York Times about how bloggers are getting burned out and then dying.

It's at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/technology/06sweat.html?ref=technology

The situation just is not right --- Bloggers are obsessed about breaking the story when it's merely seconds old. Get beaten, even by a second, and you, (as a blogger) risk lost advertising revenues and reputation. In other words, it's a death spiral. And it really is, in that two prominent bloggers Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant, both died as a result of stress-induced heart attacks. Om Malik, also had a heart attack, he was lucky and lived.

So what's happening here? Someone will break a story before it actually happens? Is this what the internet has done to the business of news?

Other prominent bloggers complain about weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing stories.

No good guys. Hang it up. Being first is not worth dying for. No way. Just take it easy and if things slow down to break-neck speeds, that's fine too. The world will wait. After all, today's news is at the bottom of tomorrow's birdcage. Does it really make that huge of a difference whether today begins at 9:03 am as opposed to say 4:11am?

Stuff About Stuff

I wanted to thank my dear friend Collette Kim for sending me a link to one of the best and most effective blogs I have ever seen. It's at www.storyofstuff.com, put together by one Annie Leonard. It's good for adults and for sure very good for children to see this

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

The whole earth matter is very topical right now, due largely in part to Earth Hour last weekend, as well as that the earth is literally falling apart as a result of our selfish attitudes.

And last week, I saw first hand the sloppy attitudes of the average Canadian consumer. Like any health conscious guy, I do work out at my local meat market of a gym. Nothing irks me more than to see someone having washed their hands, tear off like 2 meters of paper towel with which to dry their grubby paws. Yikes... what a waste.

So here's the conversation:

Me: Excuse me sir? (very politely)

Him: What (in an irritated tone)

Me: It would be great if next time you washed your hands you took less towel. We gotta keep some of the earth for our grandkids (even more politely)

Him: Shut the f%&k up, you f#$&*^g tree-hugging idiot!

That pretty much summed it up. Pretty frightening stuff!

Yo musclehead --- wake up!!

Sometimes talent is better than perfection

I was in Vegas a few weeks ago for CES ...WOW! There's too much to see, to do, to eat and enjoy. I also made a number of interesting observations with respect to business. In addition, I did make a couple hundred bucks at the Bellagio, playing poker. It was an interesting game, 4-8 Texas Hold'em with a 1/2 kill. But more about that later.

There's an old saying: "The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."

Well, what can you say about the price of perfection -- or talent?

One of the restaurants at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas offers two cognacs. One is named Perfection. The other is Talent.

The price of Perfection is $695.
But Talent? Talent costs $1,090!
Imagine the bar tender who gets a 20 percent tip for pouring those drinks!

Of course, there's a message here. Which is more important? Talent or Perfection?
One main cause of procrastination is the quest for perfection. People just can finish projects! Sometimes they are so overwhelmed with the idea of being perfect, they can't even get started.

They might be brilliant, but they can't get the job done.

On the other hand, talent is rare. It takes talent to come up with new ideas, see the boundless possibilities and put a plan in place to bring them to fruition.