With this and other community and environmental projects, the company is focused on being a "catalyst for positive change" (Starbucks, 2012). In addition to the employment program, the company is also focused, as mentioned above, on ethical sourcing for its coffee beans. The program created with this purpose is known as C.A.F.E. Practices and is in its eighth year. Specifically, what this means is that nearly 86% of the company's coffee beans are sourced in a way that promotes the improvement of quality, productive, environmental impact, and transparency.

This also relates to the company's commitment to environmental stewardship. As such, the company has been a leader in efforts such as green building. Starbucks joined the USGBC in 2000. Today, 75% of Starbucks stores are built according to the LEED standard. In 2011, the company worked actively with community members, leaders, and organizations to improve opportunities and education for citizens. Two community stores in New York and Los Angeles will pioneer a new approach to these components, with the goal to create many more like this.

As such, the overall goal of the company is to keep a realistic eye on the complexity of problems businesses face today, but also to commit its time and energy to resolving these by integrating the company's core values into its strategy, practices, and operations.

Corporate Governance and Sarbanes-Oxley

As in everything else it does, Starbucks is committed to a corporate governance that adheres to the main principles and values as publicly stated by the company. As such, the board of directors is expected to commit to an uncompromising set of principles and values in order to maintain their individual positions on the board and the company's position in the business world. The Starbucks Board of Directors has therefore adopted governance principles, committee charters and policies to help maintain the specific set of standards created as a basic value system for the company. There are currently 11 directors on the board, most of whom meet NASDAQ independence requirements...

Securities and Exchange Commission (Starbucks, 2012).
In its financial terms, Starbucks is also committed to complete transparency in terms of its governance of assets. In this way, it adheres to all filing procedures required by the Act, which was created in response to the Enron scandal. Starbucks maintains, for example disclosure controls and procedures to ensure that all reports and financial information are filed in an accurate and timely way. All its internal financial controls are also set up in such a way as to adhere to the Act and ensure disclosure and transparency to the public and to shareholders.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Starbucks is a company that has positioned itself as a pioneer in terms of not only social, financial, and corporate responsibility, but also as environmental student. As such, it can be seen as representative of what it should mean to be a responsible business today. Today, no business can exist in isolation or pretend that any and all forms of exploitation are acceptable in service of the bottom line. Instead, business like Starbucks are increasingly realizing that a responsible business model is no less complex than the problems businesses face in the world today, which includes sustainability. Sustainability in terms of not only the environment, but also employee turnover and suppliers, has created the need to take into account a wide divergence of needs. Starbucks continues to do so in an energetic and targeted way, creating opportunities to help others while keeping an eye on environmental sustainability.

References

Starbucks (2012). Year in Review. Retrieved from: http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/global-report/year-in-review

Starbucks (2012). Our Starbucks Mission Statement. Retrieved from: http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/mission-statement

Starbucks Coffee Company Philippines (2012). A Brief History of Starbucks. Retrieved from: http://philippines.starbucks.com/en-U.S./_About+Starbucks/History+of+Starbucks.htm