Starbucks’ new CEO, Brian Niccol, is facing environmental criticism after the company offered him a private jet ride from his home in Newport Beach, California, to its Seattle headquarters instead of moving elsewhere.
At Starbucks Offer letter In response to a question from Nicole, the company said: “While employed by the Company, you will not be required to travel to the Company’s headquarters… You agree to travel from your residence to the Company’s headquarters (and engage in other business travel) as required to perform your duties and responsibilities.”
Talk to A Starbucks spokesperson told CNBC that Nicole is expected to work from Starbucks’ Seattle office at least three days a week in line with the company’s hybrid work system. Work policies.
Starbucks will also provide Nichol, the former CEO of Chipotle, with a “small remote office in Newport Beach, as well as an assistant of your choice for such office.” Starbucks added that “this office location will be maintained at the company’s expense.”
In the wake of reports of Nicole’s whirlwind travel, people were quick to point out the apparent hypocrisy of using private jets in the context of the company’s sustainability efforts, including its ban on plastic straws.
“Starbucks’ new CEO is flying 1,000 miles to Seattle on a private jet to go to work, so don’t be too hard on that waitress who gave you a plastic straw when you didn’t want one,” one user said. books On X.
Someone else books, “It’s absolutely bizarre that it would cost $85 million in cash/stock to pry this guy out of Chipotle and then let him destroy the environment by flying 1,000 miles 3 times a week on a private jet instead of flying him to the Pacific Northwest,” he said, referring to the Pacific Northwest.
Meanwhile, someone else He saidNPR reported on the new @Starbucks “The CEO will be commuting from his home in Southern California to Seattle and back on a private jet three times a week. What a bunch of hypocrites promoting their environmentally friendly products. No company that truly cares about the climate would agree to this.”
Another user expressed similar sentiments, writing“If this guy regularly flies on a private jet, don’t let him @Starbucks “They convince you they care about the environment. They attack us ordinary people for our cars, but things like private jets and yachts cause more damage to the environment per unit.”
The carbon footprint of 0.1% of the world’s population — including their use of private jets and luxury yachts — is 77 times higher than the maximum level needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to an Oxfam report last year. Moreover, private jets are about 14 times more polluting, per passenger, than commercial aircraft and about 50 times more polluting than trains, according to a 2021 report by the European Union’s Transport and Environment.
The Guardian has contacted Starbucks for comment.