Starbucks preps stores research facility with Arizona State University
Starbucks and Arizona State University are teaming up to create the ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future of People and the Planet, a facility that will look to find new ways to design, build and operate Starbucks stores.
This is scheduled to open in December on ASU’s Tempe campus.
“Over the last several years we have been reinventing Starbucks for our future and transforming the way we drive innovation here,” says CEO Kevin Johnson.
“As we continuously focus on elevating the Starbucks experience, introducing new and exciting beverage innovation, and reimagining customer experiences both in-store and through more personalised digital relationships, we constantly challenge ourselves to find new ways to give back more than we take, using our power at scale to create a better society in which we all live.”
In the first year, the facility will build out and open source the Greener Stores programme in a bid to innovate solutions for the retailer’s stores and to inspire others to design, build and operate portfolios of buildings that minimise environmental impacts throughout their life cycle.
This includes developing a roadmap for Greener Stores education efforts, including a toolkit and learning library, to be made available for Starbucks stakeholders and other industry stakeholders.
Elsewhere, ASU’s four campuses in the Phoenix metro area will offer nine licensed Starbucks stores, run by Aramark, that will act as innovation labs to test and evaluate strategies resulting from centre research.
In-store testing will include new plant-based food and beverage offerings designed to reduce carbon intensity, strategies to improve recycling and circularity, and new technologies including artificial intelligence and machine learning.
