Measurement of green coffee’s carbon footprint has traditionally varied, as is often the case for any agricultural lifecycle assessment. The Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC) commissioned the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) to review current methodologies for green coffee, revealing a more precise picture of how to measure the environmental impact of the raw material used in one of the world’s most popular drinks.
studies were included in the review, alongside agricultural guidelines on quantifying carbon footprints.
This was a representative sample of the varied ways in which coffee is grown worldwide.
of farm systems were located in central and south America, which represents 70% of global coffee production.
of studied cropping systems covered some form of agroforestry system.
covered the wet process route, which was most common for Arabica.
The median carbon footprint was 3.6kg of CO2 equivalent emissions per kilogram of green coffee – which is equivalent to driving a car 30km or making over 100 espresso coffees.
The review highlighted that the total carbon footprint of green coffee can vary greatly depending on a number of key factors and approaches.
The main contributors to green coffee's carbon footprint were identified as:
