Starbucks celebrates diversity, sustainability, and frontline workers

In the year 2020, Starbucks announced its vision of a resource-positive future, which aims to give back more of the resources to the planet than they use. Many elements of the long-term strategy have been implemented and put into practice by Starbucks in the past year.

For a more sustainable future

Over the past year, several plant-based menu options have become available to guests, such as the Vegan Pumpkin Spice Latte that gained popularity rapidly, or the holiday favorites, the Vegan Toffee Nut Latte and the Vegan Gingerbread Latte.

From the very beginning reducing ecological footprint and focusing on sustainability have been of paramount importance to the coffee chain, which is why it has been placing special emphasis on reusable cups since the beginning of 2019. The reusable cup offers guests an eco-friendly coffee experience, which Starbucks seeks to encourage with various promotions and discounts. During the pandemic the company introduced contactless service in its stores, in which the guest places their reusable cup or thermos in a mug and the barista touches only the ears of the mug and thus prepares the drink. From the end of August, also in the name of the fight against plastic, Starbucks is waiting for those who want to have coffee in Hungary with a new kind of straw-free lid.

Sobras! created in the spirit of environmental awareness, made its debut with the café chain. The application allows anyone to book a package from selected stores of the coffee chain, contributing to the fight against food waste. The Sobras! app allows guests to book food and beverages that are no longer sold that day at a discounted price, the products can be picked up at the store of their choice.

Quick adaptation to the situation

Like many other companies, including the Starbucks coffee chain, the pandemic that erupted in the spring forced them to adapt quickly to a new situation. Home delivery has been available from the café chain's stores since the summer of 2019, however, in response to the pandemic in the spring, Starbucks made home delivery available in additional stores from March 2020 thus contactless courier services are now available from 29 Hungarian shops. At the beginning of the year only one, however by the end of the year Starbucks is working with two delivery partners to help their guests order their favorite products to their homes.

Starbucks pays special attention to the situation arising due to the coronavirus, which places an additional burden on Hungarian healthcare. The coffee chain therefore decided in March 2020 to support stakeholders with its own tools. Twice in the past year, once in the spring and in the second wave of the pandemic in the winter Starbucks has supported front-line health workers with coffee donations.

A diverse future

The company will continue to build towards its resource-positive future in the coming year as well as will continue to support everyday heroes fighting the virus with its own tools. This year again will also announce the highly successful poetry competition, which provides an opportunity to young generation of poets to introduce their work to a wider public.

Starbucks continues to focus on environmental awareness and the reduction of ecological footprint and is making further efforts both in the fight against plastics and against food waste, with keeping sustainability in mind.

In 2021, the company will focus on celebrating openness, acceptance, and diversity. After the last challenging year, empathy for each other has become more important this year than has ever been before. Starbucks aims to draw attention to each other’s acceptance and support through several creative and unique initiatives.

“We have also been challenged by the situation over the past year, but we have not lost sight of what really matters: we have always aimed to support our guests and partners to feel safe despite the precarious situation. We are proud to have achieved our goals and to have taken real, important steps towards a more sustainable future,” says Fanni Kerek, Starbucks Hungary brand manager. - “It won’t be any different this year. We have entered the new year steadily, confidently, and optimistically, putting a very important issue on our flag. Diversity has always been present in the shops of the cafe chain, but it will receive even more emphasis this year. We want to draw attention to the importance of accepting each other, no matter who you are and where are you coming from, we only say, “Good to see you!”

Mars Launches #HereToBeHeard Campaign to Advance Action on Gender Equality

Mars, Incorporated today launched #HereToBeHeard, a new global crowdsourcing campaign that elevates the voices of women from all intersections – including race, age, sexuality, religion and ability – to help shape a more inclusive business environment and create a world where all women can thrive. As part of the company’s Full Potential platform for action on gender equity in its workplaces, sourcing communities, and the marketplace, #HereToBeHeard asks women everywhere: “What needs to change so more women can reach their full potential?” The responses will inform the concrete actions Mars will take – both within its value chain and in broader society – to close the gender opportunity gap.

Currently, women make up 51 percent of the world's population and contribute $28 trillion to the global GDP, and yet so often their voices go unheard. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the United Nations estimated it would take more than a century to close the gender opportunity gap. Now, the pandemic has set progress for gender equality back by 25 years. Its impact has been particularly devasting for women in minority groups who for far too long have been overlooked in the conversation.

The initial phase of Mars’ #HeretoBeHeard campaign, which will run through March, will focus on collecting women’s voices; after which the submissions will be analyzed by the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative (FOMI) at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. The results will be shared with the world in a study by Oxford this summer and will inform the policies Mars can implement and advocate for in its commitment to unlock opportunities for women.

Victoria Mars, Mars Board Member and ambassador of Mars’ Full Potential program: “Women have played a powerful role in our history and leadership at Mars. But we have more to do. We’re striving to empower more women within our workplace, and across our extended value chain.

“The magnitude and urgency of gender inequality in society demands more action. If global business doesn't listen and step up now, then when? Business can have an outsized impact on driving change at scale. At Mars we’re seizing this opportunity to expand the conversation and drive action. The #HereToBeHeard movement is about ensuring that all women’s voices have a chance to be heard and translating what we hear into impact plans that advance gender equality.”

“Over the course of the last few years, we have been proud to see a growing number of women leaders in our management teams. The region Hungary/Czech Republic/Slovakia/Romania is proud to be part of this ongoing transformation and in our Mars Central Europe Leadership Team, 5 out 10 members are women. What is even more important is that we continue to work on understanding why the gender gap exists and how we can address it – our #HereToBeHeard campaign takes this approach to the broader society” – said Brian Ayling, CEO of Mars Central Europe.

The data collection will also support the action plans of Mars’ Full Potential platform. Launched last year, the program aims to drive gender equality for all. By putting inclusivity and diversity at the heart of its efforts, Mars has:

• Achieved gender pay equity across its workforce of 130,000 Associates, more than half of which are women.

• Progressed to 43 percent gender-balance across business leadership teams, with a target of having 100% gender balance across leadership teams.

• Expanded its partnership with humanitarian aid agency CARE to empower 50,000 people in cocoa sourcing communities, the primary beneficiaries of which are women.

• Been working with the Geena Davis Institute and UNStereotype Alliance to eliminate gender bias and stereotypes in its advertising.

• Embraced transparency in articulating the company’s gender commitments and progress, which can be found here.

We want to hear your voice. Visit beheard.mars.com to learn more, complete the short survey and continue the conversation with #HereToBeHeard.

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ABOUT #HERETOBEHEARD

#HereToBeHeard is a global campaign from Mars, Incorporated which drives change on gender inequality, in support of Goal Five of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It is part of Full Potential, Mars’ platform for action on gender which aims to empower women and close the gender gap in the places we work, the communities where we source our ingredients and in the way we create our advertising. For more information on the Full Potential platform and the #HereToBeHeard survey, visit beheard.mars.com and mars.com

Global Pandemic Puts Trust to the Test

2021 Edelman Trust Barometer Reveals a Rampant Infodemic is Fueling Widespread Mistrust of Societal Leaders

Business Replaces Government as Most Trusted Institution and Seen as More Than Twice as Competent

The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that people don’t know where or who to turn to for reliable information. A majority of respondents believe that government leaders (57 percent), business leaders (56 percent), and journalists (59 percent) are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false. The global infodemic has driven trust in all news sources to record lows with social media (35 percent) and owned media (41 percent) the least trusted; traditional media (53 percent) saw the largest drop in trust at eight points.

Business (61 percent) has emerged as the most trusted institution, replacing government (53 percent), which fell substantially since its 11-point surge in our mid-year update last May. Business is the only institution deemed ethical and competent; business outscores government by 48 points on competency and is approaching NGOs in ethics. Over the last five months, business seized the high ground of trust by proactively developing vaccines in record time and finding new ways to work. Trust continues to move local, with respondents placing even higher reliance on ‘my employer’ at 76 percent, and ‘my employer CEO’ at 63 percent.

The stark, but radically different realities of escalating stock prices and Great Recession-like unemployment levels have helped trigger a record trust gap of 16 points (informed public at 68 percent, mass population at 52 percent). There are double-digit trust gaps in 25 of 28 markets, versus seven in 21 markets just a decade ago.

This year’s report reveals that the biggest opportunity to earn business trust is guarding information quality. Fifty-three percent of respondents believe corporations need to fill the information void when the news media is absent. Communications from ‘my employer’ is the most trusted source of information (61 percent), beating out national government (58 percent), traditional media (57 percent), and social media (39 percent).

Trust dropped precipitously in the two largest economies. Respondents deeply distrust the U.S. (40 percent) and Chinese (30 percent) governments from the 26 other markets surveyed. Trust among Chinese citizens in the country’s institutions fell 18 points in the last six months to 72 percent. The U.S., in the bottom quartile of countries as of November, dropped a further 5 points post-election (43 percent), a score which would place it ahead of only Japan and Russia.

Given the new expectations of business, there are now new demands of CEOs: Over 8 in 10 want CEO’s to speak out on important social issues, such as the pandemic’s impact, job automation and societal problems. More than two-thirds expect them to step in when the government does not fix societal problems, and ‘my employer CEO’ is the only societal leader trusted.

Other key findings from the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer include:

• Only one in four respondents practice good information hygiene; news engagement; avoid echo chambers; verify information; and do not amplify unvetted information.

• Among those who practice poor information hygiene there is substantially less willingness to get the vaccine within the first year of its availability (59 percent versus 70 percent for people with good information hygiene). There is even greater hesitancy about the vaccine among Blacks in the U.S., based on past and present medical inequities and mistreatment.

• 56 percent believe the pandemic will accelerate the rate at which companies replace human workers with AI and robots.

• 52 percent of respondents that have a choice to work from home or their workplace choose to work at home and 58 percent of those cite the risk of contracting Covid-19 while commuting or being in the office as the reason.

• Academic experts (59 percent) and company technical experts (59 percent) remain the most credible spokespeople but experienced an 8-point and 10-point drop, respectively. The largest drop was among regular employees (down 14 points to 40 percent) and a person like yourself (down 7 points to 53 percent).

The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer is the firm’s 21st annual trust and credibility survey. The survey was powered by research firm Edelman Data & Intelligence (DxI) and consisted of 30-minute online interviews conducted between October 19 and November 18, 2020. The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer online survey sampled more than 33,000 respondents, which includes 1,150 general population respondents across 28 countries and 200 informed public respondents in each country, except China and the U.S., which have a sample of 500 informed public respondents each and Nigeria which has 100 informed public respondents. All informed public respondents met the following criteria: aged 25-64, college-educated; household income in the top quartile for their age in their country; read or watch business/news media at least several times a week; follow public policy issues in the news at least several times a week. For more information, visit https://www.edelman.com/trust/