ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future of People and the Planet, Arizona, US

ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future of People and the Planet is a new research and innovation facility being developed by Starbucks and Arizona State University (ASU) in Arizona, US. It is part of a long-standing partnership between Starbucks and ASU.

Announced in April 2021, the new Starbucks facility aims to find new ways to design, build, and operate its stores and positively impact the future of our planet.

Scheduled to open in December 2021, the research facility will be based on the same principle as the Starbucks Tryer Center, an incubation lab where employees test, learn, and adapt new ideas for implementation at Starbucks stores, in the company’s Seattle headquarters. The centre will be initially supported by more than 15 faculty and staff from the university.

Location and details of ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future of People and the Planet

The ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future of People and the Planet is being developed within the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at ASU’s campus in Tempe, Arizona.

The new research facility is expected to test new ideas with support from the university’s applied research networks, expert faculty and on-campus test store ecosystem. The team working at the research facility will comprise scientists, researchers and support staff, including subject-matter experts from both Starbucks and ASU.

Through the facility, ASU and Starbucks aim to disrupt how organisations deliver customer experience at scale while also focusing on the impact on the planet. The facility will employ a first-of-its-kind approach to develop transformative solutions to help achieve the goals of Starbucks and ASU.

The research facility will focus on initiatives that will deliver scalable impact towards the 2030 sustainability goals of Starbucks. The primary focus areas in the first year of the facility will be innovation test stores, greener stores and food and wellness.

The facility will expand its scope and capacity, leveraging the university’s expertise and innovation.

Innovation test stores

Nine licensed Starbucks stores at four campuses of the university in the Phoenix metro area will serve as innovation labs to test and evaluate new strategies that will be developed at the research centre.

Testing will include new plant-based food and beverage offerings that will reduce carbon footprint, strategies to further encourage recycling and circular economy initiatives and new technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

Greener stores

The ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future of People and the Planet will build and open-source the coffee company’s greener stores programme, which aims to deliver innovative solutions for its stores and encourage others to design, build and operate buildings with minimal impact on the environment. A road map will be created to drive greener stores education efforts, including the development of a toolkit and learning library for Starbucks stakeholders as well as other industry stakeholders.

The company announced the ‘Starbucks Greener Stores’ framework in September 2018, a commitment to design, build and operate 10,000 ‘greener stores’ globally by 2025.

The greener stores initiative is expected to allow Starbucks to achieve $50m worth of savings in utility expenses between 2018 and 2028.

Food and wellness

The research centre will also work on the development of alternative menu options, including plant-based products and protein sources, to improve customer choices while promoting environmental practices.

Tools and training initiatives will also be developed to reduce environmental impact and improve opportunities for existing and new product offerings.