Starbucks poaches new Chief Sustainability Officer from Mars Petcare

Marika McCauley Sine has left her role as Chief Sustainability Officer of Mars Petcare to take the top sustainability job at Starbucks as Michael Kobori retires.

She spent nearly 10 years at Mars, first as Director of Human Rights, then as Global Vice President of Sustainability and finally as CSO of Mars Petcare since 2020. Before that, her experience spanned from Coca-Cola to Oxfam.

Announcing her new role on Linkedin, McCauley Sine said: “It will be an honour to lead sustainability for such an impactful business and beloved brand, in collaboration with talented partners and community members around the world. I am inspired to help advance the Starbucks legacy of doing business with humanity and fostering connection, opportunity, and joy through exceptional coffee.”

Meanwhile, Kobori, who was appointed as the first Chief Sustainability Officer at Starbucks, announced his “long-planned retirement” in a moving post. 

Kobori’s sustainability leadership at Starbucks

He took the helm of Starbucks’ sustainability efforts in early 2020, after 13 years as Vice President of Sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co. His career also included stints at Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and at commodity trader Bunge as an independent director.

During Kobori’s time as CSO, Starbucks published its first validated science-based target, to reduce absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions 50% by 2030, from a 2019 base year. As of 2023, the company had achieved an 8% reduction in its carbon footprint, with emissions on the rise again since 2022, when drop stood at 9%. 

Beyond emissions, Starbucks is also aiming to conserve or replenish 50% of water withdrawals across its direct operations, stores, packaging and agricultural supply chain, and to reduce landfill waste by 50%, all by 2030.

The coffee chain is making progress in reducing waste and improving circularity: in 2024, it introduced a scheme giving a US$0.10 discount to customers bringing their own reusable cups to be filled at its stores in the US and Canada.

Starbucks plastic pledges

Starbucks’ progress around reducing plastics, however, has been challenging (as with many other firms): the company has pledged to “take action for 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025”, but as of last year, the proportion only stood at 27%.

Similarly, Starbucks is far from its target of reducing virgin plastics in packaging by 20% by 2025: in 2023, it had only managed to reduce virgin plastic use by 3%.