Starbucks at a shopping center in Shanghai. (photo: d'n'c/flickr)

LED lights in 8,000 existing stores and LEED-certification for all new company-owned stores, Starbucks announced today.

As part of a broader effort to reduce the company’s energy use 25 percent by the end of 2010, coffee giant Starbucks Coffee Company (NASDAQ: SBUX) today announced two major energy-saving initiatives. First, they will be replacing traditional incandescent and halogen bulbs with more efficient light emitting diodes, or LEDs, in 8,000 of its stores worldwide. A move that Starbucks projects will cut energy 7 percent per-store in energy use and reduce maintenance costs. Second, the company announced it is moving forward with a plan to obtain LEED certification for 100% of new company-owned stores.

The LED program was made in an alliance with GE Consumer & Industrial because Starbucks needed an LED lighting solution they could not find currently available on the market. “Our team jumped at the chance to create a GE-quality LED solution that could meet Starbucks stringent efficiency and color-quality requirements,” said Michael Petras, president and CEO of GE Consumer & Industrial’s lighting and electrical business, in a statement.

Like Walmart, whose substantial efforts to green their supply chain, Starbucks has the purchasing power to demand real changes in the products available on the market. And as a result, the moves pay dividends beyond the columns of their own profit and loss sheet. As GE’s Petras said today, “Starbucks aggressive moves on the conservation front will have far-reaching environmental and financial impacts. Other GE customers will benefit from these achievements.”

The LED conversion program was announced today alongside another initiative from Starbucks and the U.S. Green Buildings Council (USGBC) for the coffee company’s entry into the construction phase of the LEED Volume Certification Program. The program incorporates LEED development principles in the early stages of planning and building for companies with higher volumes of new stores.

Once the LEED-certified pilot stores are built and the energy and environmental strategies audited, companies like Starbucks work to replicate the process in other stores around the world. The plan will ensure that 100% of new Starbucks company-owned stores would be LEED certified — a laudable accomplishment regardless of whether or not you drink tall skinny mochas at the world’s largest coffee retailer.

Watch a short video about Starbucks’ LEED initiative and the strategy behind it: