Arizona State University and Starbucks are expanding their seven-year partnership and moving it in a new direction.
ASU and the Seattle-based coffee giant recently announced the ASU-Starbucks Center for the Future of People and the Planet, a new research and innovation facility intended to study how to design, build and operate Starbucks stores in a sustainable, scalable way. The Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory building, which will house the center’s research, is currently scheduled to open its doors on ASU’s Tempe campus in December.
“Over the last several years, we have been reinventing Starbucks for our future and transforming the way we drive innovation at Starbucks,” said Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks, in a prepared statement. “As we continuously focus on elevating the Starbucks experience, introducing new and exciting beverage innovation and reimagining customer experiences both in-store and through more personalized digital relationships, we constantly challenge ourselves to find new ways to give back more than we take, using our power at scale to create a better society in which we all live.”
