Let’s be transparent: coffee is not an eco-friendly product. In fact, it is a term we are not truly comfortable with. A product is rarely eco-friendly in an absolute sense; it may be more so than another, but it is rare for its carbon footprint to be negative. At Celsius., we prefer the term "responsible," which implies an awareness of one's impact and a willingness to limit it.
When looking at so-called "commodity" coffee—that is, coffee that is mass-distributed worldwide without traceability—the figures are actually alarming: it is said to be the 6th most greenhouse gas-emitting food commodity. Ahead of it are beef, mutton, cheese, and chocolate. Note that these estimates were made per kilogram of food and do not take usage into account: it is rare to consume a kilogram of coffee (i.e., 120 espressos) as quickly as a kilogram of cheese, for example.
Origin of emissions - n.f.
If we look at the details, conventional coffee owes its high carbon footprint to the following key elements:
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Agricultural practices: 59%, mainly due to the use of fertilizers and the production of nitrous oxide, which causes 300 times more warming than carbon dioxide.
- Land use change: 15%, the transition from very rich soils (forests) to poorer soils (monoculture farms).
- Processing methods: 12%, the decomposition of organic matter (pulp and skin) in wastewater, which produces methane, 25 times more warming than carbon dioxide.
- Distribution and consumption: 11%, this consists of packaging on one hand and the energy used to extract the coffee for consumption on the other: heating the water and pressurizing.
- Transport: 3%, The best-known issue; while we mostly want to consume locally today, this proves impossible for coffee. Sea transport produces CO2 through the combustion of hydrocarbons.
Source: Act For Coffee n°4 by Belco
Specialty coffee's response - n.f.
Once these figures have been established, we can look at the position specialty coffee occupies in this scheme:
Agricultural practices: One of the main principles of specialty coffee is precisely to encourage virtuous agricultural practices by limiting the use of phytosanitary products. Not all specialty coffees are certified organic, far from it, but to achieve a taste interesting enough for the specialty coffee world, one must often forgo products reserved for industrial agriculture.
Land use change: It has been widely demonstrated that monocultures are not beneficial for flavor, as the soil becomes depleted and no longer sufficiently nourishes the plant. The plant will then produce fruit with low sugar and aroma content, lacking gustatory interest. Specialty coffee massively encourages permaculture (e.g., forest coffee) and a return to a more diversified mode of agriculture, and therefore does not fall into this category of greenhouse gas emissions.
Processing methods: Processing methods are increasingly monitored to reduce their impact. At Celsius., we tend to favor natural and honey-processed coffees over washed ones due to their lower impact.