Starting today, Starbucks is offering a Conservation International card! I love it. Starbucks has been in partnership with Conservation International since 1998. This partnership has always made enormous sense because of the shared goals of preserving the fragile environment in coffee growing regions of the world. With the new Conservation International card, Starbucks will donate five cents with every purchase made with this card from now through December 31, 2010.
While I totally support Starbucks’ collaboration with (Red), I think that the Conservation International card is far more compelling. The partnership with Conservation International led to the launch of Shade Grown Mexico coffee after working with farmers to preserve the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve region of Chiapas, Mexico and ultimately C.I. worked with Starbucks to create the coffee sourcing standards known as C.A.F.E. practices.
In 2008, at the annual meeting of shareholders, Starbucks announced a renewed commitment to Conservation International and promised deepened collaboration with the organization. At one point, I had actually toyed with the idea at this year’s meeting of asking (during the Q & A session of the meeting) “In 2008 we heard about a renewed commitment to Conservation International, but what undertakings has Starbucks done with them lately?” In light of the new C.I. card, that question loses much of its steam. This leaves me again trying to figure out what I might ask at this year’s meeting. If anyone has ideas of what would be good question to ask the leadership at Starbucks during this year’s annual meeting, please do tell: I’m all ears.
As a reminder, you can use ANY card to participate in My Starbucks Rewards. You can earn “stars” towards free beverages and coupons with your new Conservation International card. Just be sure to register your card, load some money on it, and pay for your purchases with your card, and then you’re well on your way. If you have another card you’re using, just add the Conservation International card to your existing Starbucks.Com card profile and you can transfer funds online from one card to the next. You are not bound to use a black card, or a gold card to earn stars in the My Starbucks Rewards program. The My Starbucks Rewards program where you earn “stars” towards free beverages is for the United States only.
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Up next I hope. A card that lets you tip. Tips are about 50 cents an hour in my area. Why? Because people in my midwestern state never carry cash. Also my region has the highest percentage of drive thru stores (90%) so people dont even know it is an option to tip.
I got my first coffee for the new journey program and got oatmeal to pair it with! Also finally tried the dark cherry mocha and the CI cards were displayed too…so I will pick one up! Good morning!
I read that Yukon pairs well with cinnamon and spice and they suggested a brown sugar oatmeal pairs well with it. It’s been so long since I had Yukon!
I do also like the CI effort and I support this one because I can see the relationship with cofffe and farms more so with this then (Red) though that is also a good program.
Conservation efforts are much more efficient when they are the result of parties voluntarily cooperating rather than government imposing “solutions.” This is a project I can (voluntarily) support with my wallet, and I shall.
I feel this is a good program to have with the card 🙂
Preserving and using the $ for building up the coffee bean farms is a good thing. Actually working WITH the land and farmers – this is one of the things I like about Starbucks 🙂
Wow, thank you for the info. I am definitely going to look into this. I hope Starbucks continues to find ways to serve the world with its powers for good.
That’s very exciting! I thought that once you picked a card to load and get rewards on, that was the only one you could use! I love that you can use any card registered to your account. I had no idea! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
And I like the new Conservation Card! The locations I frequent haven’t seemed to have some of the cards, though. They never got the 2010 Valentine’s card, which I liked a lot! I hope they get this one. I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled.
hayley-those pair amazingly! I love yukon, and my first paring was with the oatmeal cookie :). it’s great w/ your morning bowl of oatmeal as well mmmmm
I’m glad for this card and hope it aids in educating customers who complain that starbucks is not 100% organic and so forth what they are really about…
Melody, I hope you don’t think I was just trying to be all negative on your last post. I apologize…that was not my intention at all.
This is GREAT Melody! I’m doing a coffee tasting on April 3, called “The Conservation Coffee Tour”. It will highlight 3 coffees: Organic Shade Grown Mexico (I’ll talk about Starbucks’ partnership with CI, STARBUCKS(RED) (I’ll talk about Starbucks’ involvement in Product RED, and Cafe Estima Blend (I’ll talk about Starbucks and Fair Trade) Thanks so much for this blog post and the Shared Planet and RED Year in Review– they are all a BIG BIG help in my preparations!
the Conservation International sounds awesome. I use the RED one currently (just got gold after 1.5 months yipee!) but I like the sound of this one. Thanks for bringing it my attention 🙂
I picked one of these cards up today at the 6th and Union store. I know I told you that my Pike Place card was going to be my new card, but this one might have to take its place.
BTW – it was great meeting you!
I’ll have to pick up the new card tomorrow! I see they’re on eBay already.
Yukon & an oatmeal cookie sounds perfect!
I dig this sort of thing – both the “coffee tour” thing we’re doing and the “buy stuff with this card and we’ll donate money to a good cause” thing.
Only one problem.
Each week, if the customer buys a pound of the featured coffee and asks for a sticker for that type of coffee. When they collect the set, they get a free pound of coffee.
This isn’t the problem, though.
No, the problem is that, once again, no one bothered to tell us about it! I found out from a little flier that I discovered on the floor while doing a lobby slide. I told the other folks working that shift about it, but I doubt anyone else knows.
Nevertheless, I’m pretty happy about the whole deal.
@ E C S – I didn’t know that about buying the pound of coffee, but it makes sense. I also recall reading somewhere that a customer can choose to substitute Pike Place Roast for any one of the 8 weeks (one substitution).
I need to write a blog entry on the 8 weeks of bold but haven’t had time…
@ E C S – I believe that they get the sticker for buying a tall or larger of the bold coffee, they don’t have to buy a whole pound.
And as I recall, this promotion was featured in the Spring Barista Need To Know, but I’ll have to double check on that 🙂
I do agree though that communication is bad. As a shift, I often feel that if I’m not proactive in printing things and posting them that no one will have any idea what’s going on.
This card is a good idea, but I have to say I’m still so thrilled to have the Pike Place card, I have my heart set on using that one! At least until I wear it out 🙂 but I do have a couple cards registered, so I could switch it up I guess.
(Reply to @CD) – Hey it was great meeting you the other night! You’re one of those people who in real life you’re just like your online personality!
I think the new Peru coffee is great. Have you tried it through the clover yet?
btw, re the pictures…been totally wanting to do this. I had this urge the other night to go stick my face in it and make faces at my husband outside, but some girls were studying in front of it…
Seems like we have overlapping conversations between the 2 topics (CI Card/ Bold brew) – But anyway I have tried the new Peru and I definitely liked it. It has a lot of full flavor and I thought it was rich like a Sumatra – almost thought I tasted mushrooms. But the body of it was a little lighter than what I was expecting.
Melody-what have you eaten it with? I found it changed so much, I paired it with a gingy mo at work (since I was there) and it was so different than when I drank it at home with something spicey/savory (not sweet savory). I really want to get some herby bread to eat it with. It has a much lighter body for sure!
I like the Peru. I don’t like it quite as much as the Mexico Chiapas…but then, there are very few coffees that I like as much as Mexico Chiapas.
It’s a rather different coffee; few other coffees have that particular herbal flavor to it. They tend to be spicy, or floral, rather than herbal. One of my co-workers described it as kinda garlic-y, which I guess is kinda accurate. I think it’d be worth trying with an Italian dish with marinara sauce.
I’m a fan of the new Peru as well, although the acidity is almost a little too much for me. The herbaliness reminds me of the Peaberry we used to carry!