Starbucks accused of water wasting

Starbucks has been accused of greenwashing today after it was claimed that the company wastes 23.4 million litres of water – enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool every 83 minutes – by leaving taps on in its branches all day.

An undercover investigation by The Sun newspaper revealed that staff at every branch are instructed to leave a cold tap behind the counter running constantly to wash spoons and utensils.

In response to the paper's front page splash, the company originally claimed that leaving the tap on uses less water than repeatedly turning it on and off again.

However, this line of defence was later dropped by the company, which instead argued that the approach was adopted in the interest of hygiene.

A representative for Starbucks said: "Dipper wells use a stream of continuous cold fresh-running water to rinse away food residue, help keep utensils clean and prevent bacterial growth. This technique is common and well-accepted in the industry."

They added that the company's policies were in line with World Health Organisation (WHO), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Union (EU) directives for in-store water supply standards, but conceded, that " the opportunity exists to reduce our total water usage".

However, The Sun accused the company of greenwash, labelling it " Starberks" and arguing that the policy wasted enough water daily for the entire two million strong population of drought-hit Nambia.

It also claimed that the practice ran counter to the firm's high profile environmental commitments.

Starbucks has made much of its ethical policies to its customers over the past few years – sourcing organic fair trade coffee and widely publicising an environmental mission statement.

The statement outlines a commitment to: developing innovative and flexible solutions to bring about change, buy sell and use environmentally friendly products and instilling environmental responsibility as a corporate value.

Neither the hygiene defence nor the claim that leaving taps running uses less water is sufficient justification for the policy, according to Peter Robinson, director of environmental charity Waste Watch.

"The claim that you need to keep taps running non-stop for health and safety reasons is bonkers," he said. "Big companies like Starbucks should be setting an example about not wasting natural resources. If they are serious about going green, they should ditch this shameful practice immediately."