Starbucks is using its purchasing power to continue its quest to reduce its energy usage by a quarter by the end of 2010.

This month the company announced plans to replace all of the traditional incandescent and halogen bulbs in its 8000 worldwide stores with more efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs) – in a move the company claims will enable it to cut energy consumption in its stores by up to 7%.

The lights were designed in collaboration with GE Consumer & Industrial, with Starbucks using its considerable procurement clout to ensure that the new solution – which the company hopes will be in place in all its stores by the end of 2010 – is both cost effective and aesthetically desirable.

“Our new green construction methodologies and lighting efforts have the rigor to help us achieve our environmental goals and the flexibility to support our scale.

Through innovative leadership and collaboration, the USGBC and GE have made valuable contributions that are advancing our sustainability initiatives,” said Arthur Rubinfeld, president of Starbucks Global Development.

Starbucks also announced ground-breaking plans for all its new outlets to become LEED-certified, with 12 areas across the US ear-marked as possible location for pilot stores that will showcase the future of the company’s store design.

If successful, these designs will then be rolled out around the world.

It’s now sixty years since Mao Tse-tung’s distinctive foghorn voice signalled the birth of the People’s Republic of China. The ensuing decades, and Mao’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, have brought with them unspeakable hardship for the Chinese population, as well as unimaginable wealth to an economy that has, more than any other, dug the world’s financial system out of one of the biggest holes in its history.

However, despite the manifest problems faced by the country since Mao’s original proclamation in 1949, China now faces one its most pressing challenges since it opened itself up to foreign trade in the 1970’s. And as one of the world’s major economic powers, businesses and governments across the globe are now looking to China to start leading the way in an area which, it’s fair to say, its previous record is far from unblemished.

While the country has long been a global sourcing leader, it has traditionally lagged behind the pack when it comes to sustainability. The majority of the focus in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics last summer – alongside the country’s human rights record – concentrated on the carbon emitted by China’s enormous manufacturing base.

And although there are signs that the country is taking action to tackle the issue, China is still in the early stages of a journey that the world needs them to complete sooner rather than later.

The Beijing authorities first bowed to huge pressure from the international community at the 16^th National Congress of the Communist Party, and the ensuing five years have seen the country’s leaders take some positive (albeit tentative) steps towards cleaning up their act. A goal of reducing energy consumption per unit of sales by 20% by 2010 – alongside bringing down other key environmental indicators – was unveiled in 2007, bringing so far mixed results.

A recent interview Sustainable Sourcing carried out with a key figure on the ground in Beijing revealed that China still has a long way to go in its sustainability efforts, and is still playing a desperate game of catch-up with the rest of the developed world. And with the country’s authorities desperate to keep China’s economic growth rate above the magic number of 8%, sustainability is – despite protestations to the contrary – likely to take a back seat to maintaining exhaustive levels of production.

In short, sixty years on from Mao’s famous speech, it still remains to be seen if the world’s desperate need for China to embrace sustainability will result in the ongoing red revolution going green. Although China’s endless capacity for surprise could prove us wrong.