PITTSBURGH – PA: Starbucks Corporation was presented the “Green to Gold Award” by Duquesne University’s Beard Institute today at the Fourth Annual Beard Symposium on Sustainability. The Symposium, entitled, “Sustainability: The Changing Ground Rules,” addressed best-practices from sustainable organizations that have gone beyond compliance, how an integrated sustainability strategy boosts profitability and competitive advantage; and obstacles to incorporating sustainability into business practices in the United States. Starbucks was but one of the leaders in sustainability highlighted at the Symposium.
The Green to Gold award recognizes an American company that demonstrates commercial success in sustainable business practices. The candidates for this award are selected through a screening process that includes:
– membership in the Dow Jone Sustainability Index-US.
– strong positive scores in the KLD SOCRATES Corporate Social Ratings Monitor.
– strong financial performance against their industry peer group.
– top quartile performance over three years in ROA, ROE, ROI and profit margin.
In addition, companies are screened by a panel of MBA Sustainability gradutes from Duquesne University’s Donahue School of Business according to their sustainability performance as defined by the Green to Gold WaveRiders criteria (as outlined in Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston’s book “Green to Gold”). The ten finalists are then reviewed by a panel of judges comprised of academic and professional leaders in sustainability.
The other finalists were:
– Cummins
– Dell
– Dupont
– Heinz
– Hewlett-Packard
– IBM
– Intel
– Nike
– PepsiCo
Congratulations to Starbucks on its accomplishment and to Duquesne University’s Beard Institute for another successful symposium on sustainability. Held at Fairmount Pittsburgh, recognized as the only LEED Certified hotel in the city; it’s always nice to see a sustainability group practice what they preach.
Image Credit: Duquesne University © 2010 Duquesne University
