Full report
Points deducted by category
- DEI hiring, pay & suppliers: 4.5/15 points deducted
- Board recommended AGAINST the 2025 proposal for a report on charitable-giving discrimination risks. (source)
- Tied executive pay to diversity goals, effective immediately (announced Oct 2020). (source)
- In October 2020, Starbucks set a goal of BIPOC representation of "at least 30% at all corporate levels and at least 40% at all retail and manufacturing roles by 2025" (HR Dive, Oct 16, 2020). (source)
- Reversal: Removed diversity and sustainability modifiers from executive bonuses (per the proxy). (source)
- Internal policies & benefits: 8/10 points deducted
- HRC Corporate Equality Index 2026: 100, verified participant. (source)
- A verified HRC 100 rating requires transgender-inclusive health benefits (CEI 2026 criteria). Starbucks expanded transgender coverage in June 2018 to procedures it had treated as cosmetic (e.g., facial feminization), per HR Dive (June 2018). (source)
- Free speech, debanking, deplatforming & anti-military/anti-American conduct: 0/15 points deducted
- Political giving (PAC, treasury, leadership): 0/10 points deducted
- Advocacy, lobbying & public statements: 0/15 points deducted
- Marketing, products & content: 2/10 points deducted
- Reported (Seattle Times, June 28, 2026): at the 2026 Seattle Pride Parade, "Alaska Airlines paraded a mock airplane, Starbucks did the same with oversized coffee cups." 2026 season Pride-event participation. 2025: Starbucks was the Seattle Sounders/Reign "official Pride partner" (club release, June 2025), incl. a "gender diverse youth soccer clinic" with Starbucks swag; the 2026 season replaces 2025 (one item per issue). (source)
- Charitable & activist funding: 3.5/10 points deducted
- The Starbucks Foundation awarded $1 million in neighborhood grants "to support racial equality" (Fox Business). (source)
- Reported (Movers & Makers, June 19, 2024): the Starbucks Foundation's Neighborhood Grants included "the Greater Cincinnati chapter of GLSEN, which received $2,000 during the 10th round of the Neighborhood Grants Program." (source)
- Reported (FastCasual, June 15, 2020, citing a company release): Starbucks "donated $100,000 this month to the Human Rights Campaign and the National Center for Transgender Equality in honor of Pride Month." (source)
- ESG, activist investing & industry/regional boycotts: 0/10 points deducted
- China & foreign-adversary ties: 0/5 points deducted
- Election & voting-law activism: 4/10 points deducted
- Starbucks is listed as a corporate signer of the "We Stand for Democracy" two-page ad (NYT and Washington Post, Apr 14, 2021), which opposed "any discriminatory legislation or measures that restrict or prevent any eligible voter" from voting, published as states including Georgia passed election-law changes. (source)
- Border & immigration enforcement: 3.5/10 points deducted
- In a Jan 29, 2017 letter to employees responding to that week's travel executive order, then-chairman and CEO Howard Schultz said Starbucks was "developing plans to hire 10,000 [refugees] over five years in the 75 countries around the world where Starbucks does business," starting in the U.S. with "those individuals who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel." (source)
- Starbucks Coffee Company joined the "Brief of 143 U.S. Business Associations and Companies" (Supreme Court, DHS v. Regents, Nos. 18-587/588/589, Oct 3, 2019) supporting the challengers to the rescission of DACA. (source)
- Faith, family & children: 8.5/10 points deducted
- Signed HRC's coalition statement opposing state legislation. (source)
- Board recommended AGAINST a 2026 shareholder proposal for a report on the risks of excluding religious charities from the employee gift-match program; it failed March 25, 2026 (5.7M for, 864.3M against). Starbucks's proxy says it matches gifts to religious charities but excludes "religious organizations benefiting only those with like beliefs" and organizations "designated as hate groups." (source)
- Starbucks UK "#whatsyourname" national TV ad (Channel 4, aired Feb 2, 2020) features "a transgender person trialling their new name," "James," who is transitioning (Channel 4 press release, Jan 30, 2020). Starbucks UK partnered "with the charity Mermaids with the aim of raising at least £100,000 for their helpline through the sale of a special edition Mermaid Cookie" (Starbucks Stories); Channel 4 describes Mermaids as supporting "gender-diverse children, young people and their families." Mermaids' public advocacy on puberty blockers for minors is dated 2024, after the partnership (Mermaids statements of Mar 12, Jul 30 and Dec 12, 2024). (source)
- Climate & anti-fossil-fuel advocacy: 3.5/10 points deducted
- Starbucks' 2030 goal to cut Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse-gas emissions 50% from a fiscal 2019 baseline; its Fiscal 2025 Global Impact Report says it is "actively reassessing" that goal. (source)
- RE100 members list (Climate Group, read Oct 20, 2026): "Starbucks," member since 2015, 100% renewable-electricity target year 2020. Current named participant in a climate-pledge coalition. (source)
- Second Amendment & lawful-firearms commerce: 0/10 points deducted
- Government-coordinated content moderation: 0/10 points deducted
- Abortion advocacy, benefits & funding: 4/10 points deducted
- Starbucks announced in May 2022 (Starbucks Stories, May 16, 2022) that "Partners enrolled in Starbucks healthcare will be offered reimbursement for eligible travel expenses when accessing abortion or gender-affirming procedures when those services are not available within 100 miles of a partner's home." Whether the benefit is still in place could not be verified, so it is scored as a dated 2022 act. (source)
- American Workers & H-1B Displacement: 0/10 points deducted
Final verdict: Grade D
Grades run A (best) to F (worst) on a 0–100 scale, where a higher score is better: every company starts at 100 and loses points for each finding. Every finding links to its source. See how we rate for the scale and the category caps.