Ethical Business Initiatives of Costa Coffee: An Essay

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Academic English for International Business

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Body.................................................................................................................................................2
Reflection.........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
In today's international environment of the business, it is essential for a business unit to follow
some ethical standards to maintain the welfare of the society (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 2015). In
this essay report, the discussion will be done on the impact of positive ethical business initiatives
taken by an organization and also the challenges the organization have faced while applying
these initiatives into action.
Body
Ethics are the moral principles used by an organization to guide the action and decision of the
people of the organization so that they can provide the benefit to the society and its people.
Ethical initiatives implemented by a business protect the environment and society and maintains
their wellbeing. Positive ethical initiatives are the reason for the success of a business which
increases its reputation in the market (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 2015)
Costa coffee is considered as the UK’s most ethical coffee shop in the eyes of its customers
because it is maintaining the wellbeing of the customers. This coffee shop is committed to
providing credible healthier choices and also committed to reducing the added sugar in its drink
range by 2020. Costa coffee has implemented many positive ethical initiatives to reduce the
environment wastage, educate the children and maintain the health of the customers
Impact of Positive Ethical business initiatives implemented by costa coffee
Costa coffee has launched many waste reduction programs to protect the environment by the use
of plastic coffee cups and recently took some ethical initiatives action to protect the society and
the environment
Recently, the costa coffee has signed up to the pledge to help halve food wastage by 2030
initiated by the government. Costa coffee also has taken action to revolutionize the lifecycle of
disposable coffee cups and focusing on improving the sustainability of the coffee industry
(Mitchell, 2019). Its partnership with Landsec which is a property company trailing the methods
to recycle the coffee cups. It has established a partnership with Barclayard to launch the first
reusable contactless coffee up in the UK that will provide the facility to its customers to make
the payment conveniently and will also help in making reuse of coffee cups (Footprint, 2019).
Costa’s green credentials include 100% renewable energy and it is also providing funding for
child education. It has launched wide community programs for its employees to serve the local
community groups effectively. Costa coffee is continuously refusing the use of a plastic coffee
cup and switching to recyclable dishes. It has launched a cup recycling scheme at all its UK
stores (Footprint, 2019).
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Costa coffee has joined a food sharing app to reduce food wastage and food poverty issues in
Hull. Costa coffee is taking wastage of food very seriously and working hard to minimize the
food wastage and run several initiatives such as it is partnering with Cranswick and OLIO on
their zero food waste project and working with local volunteers to help tackle food poverty.
Costa coffee has an existing partnership with a food redistribution system platform named as
FareShare and it helps in sharing the food surplus among many charities and communities groups
across the UK (newsroom, 2019).
Costa coffee recently supported the great British spring clean for fourth consecutive year and the
teams in the store hosting litter pick events to encourage more and more customers to recycle the
coffee cup used by them. Costa coffee hopes to inspire 500000 people to safely dispose of litter
from their doorsteps and encourage them to recycle as much as they can. This is reducing the
negative impact of the coffee cups and other wastage products on the environment (Mitchell,
2019).
At a store level of costa coffee, the chain has planned and implemented a food surplus policy
which enables the managers to make the donations directly to the local charities of the UK. Costa
coffee is doing subsidies with waste collection companies which are facilitating recycling the
cup to reduce the wastage and to protect the environment (Ferreira and Ferreira, 2018).
Costa Foundation is improving social and economic welfare by providing education recently it
has opened a school in its 10th branch market, Zambia. It is funded over 80 school projects and
provided education to more than 7500 children.
The chain of Costa coffee diverted more than 6500 tons of wastage from landfill and cleared
away 45 million plastic straws from its stores. Many coffee retailers joined the recycling scheme
initiated by the costa coffee to reduce the environment wastage. Costa coffee also removed the
use of plastic water bottles in its stores (Mitchell, 2019)
In November 2018 the costa coffee has launched its recycle costa coffee pods which could be
recycled easily
Challenges faced by Costa coffee in implementing ethical initiatives
The economic turbulence caused by the Brexit affected the business of Costa coffee while
implementing ethical initiatives (Footprint, 2019). Costa coffee sold based on Rainforest alliance
certification which guarantees that only 30% of coffee beans in a product is certified. The
customers of the UK look for the fair-trade guaranteed standard of the coffee which provides
more ethical values. The disposable of cups was good for health and safety but it is harmful to
the environment. Costa coffee has faced fair trade regulations of different countries while
implementing its wastage reduction programs. Environment problem cannot be solved by only
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reducing wastage and the costa coffee is needed to implement a combination of conservative and
technical advancement to solve the environment problem (Mitchell, 2019)
Hence, the costa coffee is protecting the environment, economy and society by developing
wastage reduction programs and making the use of disposable and recyclable coffee cups. It has
established its partnership with many companies to achieve its commitment towards the
sustainable environment. Its employees are also aware of the ethical standards of the costa coffee
which enable them to protect the environment and welfare of the community (Maye et al., 2019)
Reflection
An ethical approach is very important for a business because it guides the action and decision of
the organization and its people to maintain the welfare of the society and its people. Ethical
standards set by a business organization protect the environment and helps in developing
environment-friendly products. An ethical approach is also helpful in maintaining the
sustainability of the environment by reducing the wastage from it. Today, the globalization of the
business demands for the sustainability of the environment and to protect the animals and people
the business should follow some ethical approaches which can help in reducing the negative
impact of business operation on the environment (Davies and Gutsche, 2016)
Being an individual consumer, I would like to say that the ethical approach of the organization
focuses on those actions which provide benefits to society and its people. Reduction of wastage
protects the environment and development of healthiest food protects the health of the
consumers. So the ethical approaches of the organization bring out the benefit for the people
which results in creating a good organizational image. Ethical approaches protect the interest of
the consumer by delivering good products at a reasonable price and secure consumer rights in
product purchasing. For example – costa coffee is developing wastage reduction programs by
taking initiative action for the development of reusable and disposable cups which protects the
environment. Another example is costa coffee has a partnership with wastage Collection
Company to collect the tones of wastage from its store and it also protects the environment from
the wastage. These ethical actions taken by costa coffee would attract me to purchase its products
because these are ultimately providing benefits to society. Ethical approaches also empower
people of the organization to work for the public benefit which is again will influence my
purchasing habit. I would like to buy products from that organization which is maintaining
public interest by implementing ethical approaches in the organization (Ryan and Deci, 2017).
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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be said that positive ethical business initiatives bring out many
changes in the organization and it provides benefit to the environment, economy and the society
by reducing the harmful impact of business operations on them.
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References
Davies, I.A. and Gutsche, S., 2016. Consumer motivations for mainstream “ethical”
consumption. European Journal of Marketing, 50(7/8), pp.1326-1347.
Ferreira, J. and Ferreira, C., 2018. From bean to cup and beyond: exploring ethical consumption
and coffee shops. Journal of Consumer Ethics, 2(2), p.20834.
Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015. Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson
Education.
Footprint, 2019, COSTA NAMED “MOST ETHICAL” COFFEE SHOP BY CONSUMERS,
online available at https://www.foodservicefootprint.com/costa-named-most-ethical-coffee-shop-
by-consumers/ last accessed on 9july2019
Maye, D., Kirwan, J. and Brunori, G., 2019. Ethics and responsibilisation in agri-food
governance: the single-use plastics debate and strategies to introduce reusable coffee cups in UK
retail chains. Agriculture and Human Values, 36(2), pp.301-312.
Mitchell, S., 2019, ethical marketing news, online available at
http://ethicalmarketingnews.com/tag/costa-coffee last accessed on 9july2019
newsroom, e.,2019, Costa joins Hull redistribution scheme to combat food waste and hunger,
online available at, https://www.edie.net/news/7/Costa-joins-Hull-redistribution-scheme-to-
combat-food-waste-and-hunger/ last accessed on 9july2019
Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L., 2017. Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in
motivation, development, and wellness. Guilford Publications.
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