I was digging into that big coffee chain's 'sustainability' report from last year

I found out they counted the paper sleeves on their cups as 'recycled materials' to hit their goal. The actual stat was that only 12% of their total packaging was from post-consumer waste. I saw this in a footnote on page 47 of their own PDF. It just feels like such a sneaky way to make the numbers look better. Has anyone else caught a brand fudging their stats like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

lauras839d ago

Check page 47? That's some serious detective work. Burying the real number in a footnote feels intentional. Counting paper sleeves as recycled material is a total joke. They're basically gaming their own report to trick people. It makes you wonder what else they're hiding in those tiny footnotes.

the_fiona9d ago

Actually, reading the whole report gives a different picture. They were pretty clear about the sleeve thing in the materials section. Most companies count all recycled content, not just post-consumer stuff. That 12 percent figure is low, but it's honest. They put it in the report, so they're not really hiding it. The goal is to improve that number over time, not to be perfect right away.