Starbucks' Environmental Affairs Director Ben Packard has heard a familiar question over the years at family reunions or in conversations with friends: Why does a coffee company care about climate change?

"It didn't take us long to look at some of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) data to understand that some of our most important stakeholders -- the 25 million people who grow coffee and whose livelihoods depend on coffee -- are going to be drastically effected," Packard said Wednesday.

Starbucks adopted an environmental mission statement in 1992 but didn't wade into the environmental public policy arena until about five years ago, Packard explained during a climate change policy panel discussion at the Ceres annual conference in San Francisco. The company joined Ceres and other consumer brands in November to launch Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), a coalition lobbying for aggressive climate change policies.

"With the leadership of Nike, Ceres and others, we came together last year to join BICEP because we really think now is the time and now is the opportunity to add our voice to this," Packard said.

Legislators desperately need input from the business community as they debate and design climate policy in the U.S. -- and not only the voices of fossil-fuel industries which have for years blanketed Washington, D.C., with lobbyists seeking to stall, weaken or kill climate change regulations, according to Betsy Taylor, a panelist and president of Breakthrough Strategies and Solutions.

"They need support and help and back-up," Taylor said of politicians laying the groundwork for future climate change laws, such as Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the two House members who recently introduced a discussion draft of a potential climate change bill. "They are looking for stories, they are looking for people willing to testify about how moving in this direction is already generating growth, wealth, jobs, stronger communities, long-term durability for companies."

Packard cautioned businesses to look at their own operations before attempting to enter the public policy conversation.

Any "business entering the public policy debate probably knows no good deed goes unpunished," Packard said. "There will be questions of you as you enter the public policy debate that say, 'Who are you to enter this and ask the government to do something? What are you doing in your own operations?'"

Aside from partnering with Conservation International to develop financial mechanisms to help coffee growers benefit from global carbon markets, Starbucks purchases 20 percent of its power from renewable sources, with plans to increase the amount to 50 percent by late 2010, Packard said. The company also set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per store by 25 percent by 2010 through efficiency investments alone.

"These commitments are fairly aggressive," Packard said. "We don't know exactly (if) we're going to hit all of them. If you look at some of our commitments, we've identified where we want to see our business in 5,6,7 years but we don't necessarily understand the path, but we're putting them out there because we need to address a number of people in our supply chain to help us get there."

With consumer awareness growing and more people understanding why a coffee company would care about climate change, Packard now hears another question of late: Why are you doing this during these difficult times when you're closing 900 stores?

"This is an increasingly important time for us to do this," Packard said. "Our customers are asking us to do this like they never have before."

This dialogue, Packard said, also affords consumer-facing companies with the opportunity to wield their power where they carry the greatest influence.

"Consumer products companies, while they may not be the most heavily regulated, or most political, we are the ones that get comments, get the feedback and get the great advice from our customers about all the things we should to be doing to reduce our environmental impacts," Packard said. "We need to take that and mobilize the consumers because you hear a lot about ... people are looking at the way they consume as a way to vote and as a way to (support) the global issues that they care about."

"Coffee worker" -- Licensed by stock.xchng user ana_labate .