A report published today in the UK's Sun is nothing short of shocking. The report, with video evidence, shows Starbuck's shops around the world are leaving water taps open permanently and pouring millions of gallons of water down the drain every single day.
The giant coffee chain has a policy of keeping a tap running non-stop at all its 10,000 outlets worldwide, wasting 23.4 MILLION litres a day.
Why would you keep a tap running non-stop? To more efficiently rinse spoons, of course. According to the report, Starbucks has a policy of keeping the tap running permanently to prevent the buildup of germs. With 10,000 stores worldwide, that's an estimated 23 million litres of water poured down the drain in order to rinse the spoon used to ladle the foam on your latte.
That would provide enough daily water for the entire two million-strong population of drought-hit Namibia in Africa or fill an Olympic pool every 83 minutes.
Not only is this apparently a Starbucks policy, but in many cases, the workers at Starbucks don't know why.
Our undercover team checked Starbucks outlets across the UK and around the world and found some baffled staff did not use the running tap and did not even know what it was for.
At Starbucks in Covent Garden, London, a worker shrugged and said: "We’ve got to keep it like that. I don’t know why."
In Bristol a tap was seen running full on for 15 minutes.
Similar scenes were witnessed in Derby, Nottingham, Manchester, Birmingham and Bath.
On 52nd Street New York, a tap was running the whole time our investigators were there and nothing was cleaned under it.
It was the same in Los Angeles and in Sydney, Australia.
Australia is in the grip of a seven-year drought which is the worst for a century.
This is a serious issue that you can help change. When you go into a Starbucks, ask if the tap is running, and ask why. Contact Starbucks and let them know you're outrage.
Howard Schultz is the founder, CEO and Chairman of Starbucks. I haven't been able to confirm his email address, but suspect that some common email formula will probably route to him: hschultz@starbucks.com, schultz@starbucks.com, howard.schultz@starbucks.com.
If that doesn't work, try contacting their PR team: press@starbucks.com
Starbucks contact hotline: 1-800-235-2883
Update:Starbucks has a <span style="text-decoration: line-through">lameass</span> response here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/....
They don't deny it, but they say they have to waste all that water to keep spoons clean. For an otherwise environmentally conscious company, they're suggesting they couldn't come up with any other way to keep utensils clean without pouring water down the drain? Environmenalists are baffled by their response.