How far is too far to commute? And when does a long commute become environmentally indefensible? These are the questions being levelled at coffee giant Starbucks, as it was announced that the chain’s incoming CEO, Brian Niccol, would be making a regular 1,000-mile commute (1,600-km) to the firm’s headquarters in Seattle on a corporate jet from his home in Newport Beach, California.
Wow, this is unreal
— The Rookie Consultant (@TheRookieCons) August 23, 2024
You think your journey to work is taking long?
Listen to this….
The new Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol will travel almost a 1000 miles (1600 kms) from his home in California to his work in Seattle
While Starbucks allows remote work – employees are expected… pic.twitter.com/InKOJ4V0Dr
Seattle headquarters
Niccol will be starting his new job on 9 September, 2024, the firm said, with his main place of work designated as the company’s headquarters, the “Starbucks Center” on Utah Avenue, in the SoDo area of Seattle. Perhaps the street’s most iconic structure, it is a red and white brick warehouse combining neo-gothic and art deco elements. Built between 1912 and 1915, it was originally the Sears, Roebuck and Company distribution centre for the US West Coast and once had a reputation as the largest building west of the Mississippi.
Eco-credentials undermined
Now though the HQ is hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons as the destination of a commute many consumers and commentators say undermines Starbucks’ purported eco-credentials and sets a poor example.
Niccol’s role requires him to be at the Starbucks Center three days per week when he is not jetting off elsewhere to visit clients and partners as part of a schedule expected to “exceed the hybrid work guidelines and workplace expectations we have for all partners,” a spokesperson for the chain told the BBC. He will also be equipped with an office closer to his California home and is expected to buy a residential property closer to Seattle too.
Anyone notice the book in Brian Niccol's office? "How to avoid a climate disaster"? Do you do it by using 1200 gallons of fuel a week to ferry you in and out of Seattle? All while Starbucks says it's pro environment. Starbucks shouldn't claim to be pro environment anymore. pic.twitter.com/Vw166JULu7
— The Market is Open (@themarketisopen) August 21, 2024
Reputational damage
But the appointment and commute is already causing Starbucks’ reputational damage and has the stock market shaking its head. An analyst at British investment platform AJ Bell was quoted by the BBC as saying the move was bad for the environment, sent poor signals to staff and customers of the chain, and was not “a practical way to run a $105 billion business with an estimated 400,000 employees”.
Online commenters have also received the news with outrage. One commenter on X, going by the handle “What is this behaviour?@theexwhogothot” posted a series of clown emojis and remarked: “And here you think you can save the planet with paper cups and paper straws”. Another, an accountant called Fenil Kothari, called the appointment and commute “corporate hypocrisy at its best.”
Niccols and Starbucks are not the only entities to face criticism for behaviour that negatively impacts the environment. Taylor Swift has recently been slated for the huge carbon emissions related to the use of her private jet.
