We're committed to uplifting the communities we're a part of and acting on the issues that matter most to them.
A Costa coffee is more than a drink, it’s a connection. We’re proud to be part of diverse, unique communities all around the world. We roll up our sleeves and get stuck into supporting local causes, working hard to drive change for the better.
Our stores and team members are at the heart of communities across the UK. This gives us the opportunity to make a real difference that goes way beyond our doors.
In 2022, the Costa Foundation celebrates building 100 schools, changing the life stories of 100,000 children.
We’ll aim to raise £3m for the Costa Foundation each year, across our global markets.
We’ll double our impact on society through meaningful engagement with our local communities.
In 2014, we set up a nationwide Community Programme to enable our teams to support the communities we serve. Our nationwide activities focus on social themes that our customers tell us they care about such as litter, loneliness and food waste, and we also encourage our teams to plan their own activities to meet the needs of their specific communities.
Every store has its own Community Noticeboard where customers and members of the public can put up news and information about activities that are happening in their local area. Plus, with Costa Coffee outlets in over 30 countries around the world, we also support our international stores in similar ways.
By making the most of our space in-store and drawing on the enthusiasm of our amazing teams, we put huge effort into bringing people together to strengthen the communities we are part of.
In 2022 we’re proud to be headline partners of the Macmillan Coffee Morning. Macmillan carries out incredible work supporting people with cancer and their families from the moment they are diagnosed.
The Macmillan coffee morning has been running since 1990 and it’s an essential part of their fundraising efforts. So far, the annual coffee morning has raised over £310 million for the charity. Approximately £1,000 will fund the support of a Macmillan nurse for an entire week, so it truly shows how important the coffee morning is in helping support people with cancer.
And later this year, our teams in communities throughout the country will be getting involved and raising money for Macmillan. Read more about the great work Macmillan does here.
Through the power of education our charity, the Costa Foundation, aims to eradicate poverty in coffee-growing communities. With your help a donation today can change a child's life and make a huge difference to the communities they're a part of. Learn about how we make a difference here.
In celebration of our 50th Birthday in 2021, we created the Costa Coffee Community Grant.
We put out a call to our team members to nominate the charities and groups in their areas that were making a huge difference in their communities. We then provided £50,000 in direct grants to 100 different organisations across the country.
We’re pleased to have been able to share our celebrations with the communities we operate in, and are enjoying seeing the great work they continue to do in their areas.
The challenges many community groups faced during the COVID-19 pandemic were unprecedented and our number one priority has been the safety of our customers and team members. When we took the decision to close our stores, our store teams did a brilliant job of donating surplus food to local food banks, care homes, NHS teams and key workers.
Over the course of the pandemic, we were able to deliver over 861,000 Ready-To-Drink cans and 40,000 Roast and Ground coffee packs to NHS call centres, hospitals, police and fire stations and other key facilities.
Our supply chain team also leapt into action to redirect any food we could to people in need, thanks to the support of many amazing charities. We donated over 21,000 cases of product across our food range during 2020 and 2021.
Our teams continue to follow enhanced hygiene and safety processes. Many stores continue to have Perspex counter screens and Drive-Thru Lane shelves. Hand sanitiser stations are available, we continue to sanitise tables frequently, and our team members wash their hands every 30 minutes as a minimum.
You can also enjoy your favourite barista-quality Costa Express drinks without touching the machine’s screen, through our contactless ordering feature on our app. Download our app to get started and find your nearest machine, then scan the QR code on the Costa machine screen to place your order once your phone is connected.
Our teams are working hard to serve you your favourite coffee. We support a zero-tolerance approach to any abuse directed towards our store teams or other customers.
In August 2018, we announced that we would be rolling out an initiative called the Chatty Café Scheme across over 300 stores nationally – the first big coffee chain to do so.
The Chatty Café Scheme, established by Alex Hoskyn, was set up to tackle the challenge that loneliness brings to many people in the UK.
Our stores dedicate one table in store as a ‘Chatter and Natter’ table, which is marked with a sign at specific times each week. People who sit at this table are indicating that they are open to chat with someone new.
We couldn’t believe how much our communities embraced the scheme! We’ve seen tables used for homework clubs, parent and baby groups, police drop-in sessions, and even craft clubs. It’s fantastic to see our warm and welcoming stores also being used as social and community hubs, all facilitated by our brilliant team members.
As the Nation’s Favourite* Coffee shop, it's our responsibility to operate in a way that respects the planet. In addition to our continuing efforts to reduce waste and find new ways to recycle, we are also committed to tackling litter in our local communities.
We were among the first signatories of Keep Britain Tidy’s Litter Prevention Commitment back in 2015, which involves raising awareness of the problem of litter, encouraging people to do the right thing when disposing of their rubbish, and to take positive action to reduce the cost of cleaning up litter. We also collaborate closely with Keep Wales Tidy and Keep Scotland Beautiful to encourage our teams and customers to play a part in clearing up litter, for example in 2020 and in 2021.
We've participated in the Great British Spring Clean for the past six years and continue to support litter picking events throughout the year, helping to reduce the impact of litter in our communities. We were also proud to support DEFRA’s ‘Keep it, Bin it’ message by reminding people to recycle their takeaway cups and partnered with Keep Scotland Beautiful to encourage customers to #TakeItHome.
Industry-wide collaborations are also vital to tackling this issue, so we’ve worked closely with Hubbub, a social enterprise who use behaviour change techniques to drive consumer action. Projects in Edinburgh, London, Swansea and Leeds have led to significant changes in how consumers dispose of their litter and have created templates for other cities to follow when it comes to tackling on the go recycling.
Litter continues to be a hugely important social and environmental challenges across the UK, and we will continue to protect and preserve our local community spaces by encouraging people to dispose of their rubbish in a responsible way. This includes recycling our takeaway coffee cups and encouraging reusable cups.
We're sourcing the coffee we use sustainably and in a way which has a positive impact on nature and the people who grow it.
