Coffee emits more carbon than you think...
... But It Doesn't Have to Be That Way.
Learn how we reduced the carbon emissions of our coffee by +90%
HOW WE DID IT:
Net-Zero Coffee
If your company is serious about responsibility, accountability and the green agenda, then you are definitely working to reduce your climate footprint.
You can reduce your footprint by a lot simply by switching to a responsible and carbon neutral coffee.
Our coffee IMPACT No. 01 is not just carbon neutral. It meets the Net-Zero Standard with a carbon reduction of +90%.
We Helped Our Customer Save +100 Tonnes of CO2 in the Six Months – Just By Changing the Coffee
Verified by FORCE Technology
The GTS institute FORCE Technology has reviewed and verified our many data sets, so that we – and those who buy and enjoy IMPACT No. 01 – can have peace of mind knowing that the coffee is verified carbon neutral according to the Net-Zero Standard.
The Difference Is Significant
10.19 kg vs. 0.38 kg
That is the difference between the carbon emissions of a comparable conventional coffee and then the carbon emissions from IMPACT No. 01.
Or in other words: IMPACT No. 01 emits 3.8% carbon per kilo roasted and delivered coffee compared to conventional coffee.
Net-zero dictates that when it comes to carbon neutrality, a maximum of 10% of emissions must be compensated, and IMPACT No. 01 is far below below that limit.
It is too easy to become carbon neutral
The Easy Recipe:
It may be a little controversial, but after working to reduce our carbon emissions since 2019, we still allow ourselves to have a healthy skepticism about some of the concepts surrounding carbon emissions.
One of our positions is that it is way too easy to make a product, a production or, in general, an entire company carbon neutral:
Simply calculate your CO2e emissions and then buy carbon quotas to compensate. Voilà, now you're carbon neutral. Easy, right?!
Because carbon neutral is only about breaking even at the end of the accounts. Your emissions along the way are not reduced, you simply compensate for it by planting trees or other things that absorb carbon. Trees are cheap, by the way, so it's not expensive either.
verified offsets
Thought-Out Compensation
Our carbon compensation is used for a very wide range of projects all over the world, all of which have proven effectiveness in reducing or avoiding the emission of CO2e.
The projects have all been certified Verified Carbon Standard through VERRA. The selection of projects is guided by their Climate Committee and follows the Project Drawdown framework.
Net-Zero vs. Carbon Neutral
We take our climate impact seriously and we have made a conscious effort over several years to reduce our carbon footprint on cultivation, transport, packaging and roasting.
We want to live up to the standards for net-zero–- and that is immediately a bit more advanced:
In order to meet the requirements for net-zero, we must first reduce our carbon footprint by at least 90% – and then we compensate for the emissions we cannot avoid.
Carbon Neutral Is Good – But Not Good Enough
That is why we are so proud to have launched our first carbon neutral coffee verified by FORCE Technology. And the coffee is even carbon neutral according to the Net-Zero Standard – not the easy version.
It is the recipe that seems most logical to us. Even if it is not the most simple.
Follow the steps below to learn how we did it:
Our Inventory
The Journey To Net-Zero
The coffee farm
The coffee starts its journey towards good taste and carbon neutrality at the Fazenda Santa Clara coffee farm, which is part of the B Corp certified cooperative Sancoffee in Brazil.
Santa Clara's carbon negative report from the consulting firm "Grön" can be read here: GRÖN Report: Fazenda Santa Clara
Sancoffee has been dedicated to working with responsibility since the cooperative was established in 2000. As a certified B Corp, they work purposefully to continuously strengthen all three bottom lines; the environmental, the social and the economic.
In 2020, Sancoffee measured and compensated its carbon emissions for their warehouse and office for the first time. They thus became the first carbon neutral coffee cooperative in Brazil.
As a natural next step, Sancoffee carried out a carbon analysis for two of their total of 20 coffee farms. The results were inspiring, as both the large and the small farm chosen were carbon negative. This means that the farms absorb more carbon than they emit.
In 2022, Sancoffee went even further and carried out a similar analysis for all 20 farms. All farms are now documented and certified carbon negative – including Fazenda Santa Clara, which IMPACT No. 01 is grown on.
Included in the calculation is cultivation on the farm, processing of the coffee cherries, packaging in coffee sacks and storage of the beans at the cooperative, as well as transportation to the ship.
And such, the carbon emissions on the coffee farm are calculated at 0 kilos.
Transportation
Our current (2023) container with IMPACT No.01 is sailed from the port of Santos via Morocco to end in Hamburg. The container then arrives on a new ship that sails to the port in Aarhus, where the coffee is unloaded on pallets.
The pallets are transported by truck to our roastery in Fillerup, which is 26.5 km away.
This is the most energy-efficient, but also the slowest way to transport coffee from the country of production, Brazil.
We can always follow the exact route, so we can calculate the emissions and then compensate 100% precisely for the transport from the country of production to our roastery.
We use Geodis to calculate the CO2 emission during transportation, and it amounts to 0.054 kg of CO2 per kilo of green beans.
The primary reason our emissions are lower than standard transport is that Sancoffee has included road transport from farm to warehouse and to port in its absorption of CO2 at the farm level.
Source
Roasting
We roast all our coffee on our own coffee roaster in our own roastery. It would be easier, faster and cheaper to hire a large industrial roastery, but we want to maintain an extremely high quality in production and we want to have control over all parts of the process.
In 2020, we invested in one of the world's most energy-efficient coffee roasters, a Loring S15 Falcon. With patented technology to transfer the heat to the raw coffee beans, it uses about 20% of the energy that our previous, traditional drum roasters did. Again, it's better for the environment – and not least for your wallet and ours.
The roasting process requires two forms of energy; gas and electricity.
We use LP gas from Kosangas and CO2-neutralised electricity from Vindstød. And yes, we know that the electricity that comes out of our sockets is not any greener than other electricity but that it has been compensated, which is a condition in a country like Denmark. At least for now. We have a dream of putting solar cells on the roof and being self-sufficient in electricity for production – and the roastery in general – and we will eventually get there.
Our calculations of emissions of carbon per kilo of roasted coffee is based on data from Kosangas and The World LPG Association. Their data highlights that 1 kg of LPG during ignition emits 1.59 kg of water and 2.93 kg of carbon.
For roasting the coffee beans, we use 0.05 kg of gas per kilo of roasted coffee. This results in emissions of 0.147 kg carbon per kilo of roasted coffee. In addition, we use 0.009 kg carbon on electricity and 0.0036 kg carbon on the beans "degassing" per kilo of roasted coffee.
Overall, this is an emission of 0.16 kg carbon per kilo of roasted coffee.
Packaging
The bags we package the coffee in are carbon compensated with Gold Standard Certifications from our supplier Dutch Coffee Pack.
In addition to the bag, our carbon calculation consists of the coffee label itself, which is made of the same PE material as the coffee bag, as well as shipping label, tape and cardboard packaging for shipping.
In 2020/21, we carried out an extensive packaging project together with the consultancy company WorldPerfect. The process was, among other things, a review of existing and potential packaging, both in relation to the purely practical use and at the same time an assessment of the carbon emissions. You can read more about our results in our Packaging Strategy.
Our packaging emits 0.167 kilos of carbon per kilos of roasted coffee that we send.The bags we pack the coffee in are CO2 compensated with Gold Standard Certifications from our supplier Dutch Coffee Pack .
In addition to the bag, our CO2 calculation consists of the coffee label itself, which is made of the same PE material as the coffee bag, as well as shipping label, tape and cardboard packaging for shipping.
In 2020/21, we carried out an extensive packaging project together with the consultancy company WorldPerfect. The process was, among other things, a review of existing and potential packaging, both in relation to the purely practical use and at the same time an assessment of the CO2 emissions. You can read more about our results in our Packaging Strategy .
Our packaging emits 0.167 kilos of CO2 per kilos of roasted coffee, we send.
Source
Delivery
We use PostNord to pick up packages and pallets of coffee from us and deliver the coffee to you.
We have customers all over the country – and abroad – so we have taken as a starting point an average consideration based on the fact that the coffee is transported from our roastery in Fillerup to Copenhagen. The carbon calculation is made with Geodis' calculator.
Transport from the roastery to you in Copenhagen emits 0.022 kg of CO2 per kilos of roasted coffee we deliver. Since PostNord states that they have reduced their carbon emissions by 73% compared to standard road transport by using biodiesel and other operational optimisations, we end up with carbon emissions of 0.00594 kg per kilos of coffee we transport.
The Same Equation for a Comparable Conventional Coffee
Conventional Coffee
About the Comparison
A review of greenhouse gases in a complete value chain is complicated. There are many opinions about how much carbon coffee emits at different stages.
You can find sources with a lower emission, and sources that claim that coffee emits much more.
When we compare our coffee with a comparable conventional coffee – what do we mean by that?
See an overview of which numbers we based our comparison on.
On the Farm
There is a big difference in carbon emissions from different types of agriculture. When we compare our coffee with another coffee, we cannot use a coffee from a completely different type of agriculture.
Therefore, the comparison is made with Mesoamerican coffee grown monoculturally out of the shade. So a type of production that is very similar to the production of IMPACT No. 01.
At the farm level, a comparable conventional coffee thus emits 9 kg of CO2e per kg. green beans.
SourceTransportation
From farm to port via truck, from port to port via ship, and from port to warehouse and from warehouse to roastery via truck.
In total, conventional coffee emits 0.27 kg of CO2e per kg. green beans.
SourceRoasting
When the green beans arrive in Europe, they must be roasted.
Conventional coffee roasters are not particularly energy efficient and use natural gas and electricity.
According to The Eco Guide, roasting coffee emits 0.54 kg of CO2e per kg. coffee. It agrees with our own measurements from the time we used a drum grater ourselves.
SourcePackaging
The roasted coffee is packaged in bags with a label and sent by post in a cardboard box with tape and a shipping label.
In total, we use 37g of plastic and one cardboard box of 150g to send one kilo of coffee. We therefore assume a similar use for a conventional coffee.
The total carbon emissions here is 166.8g CO2e per kilo of coffee.
In our case, the coffee bags are compensated by the manufacturer with Gold Standard Certification – but we do not expect this compensation with the conventional coffee.
Shipment
From the roastery, the coffee is shipped out to consumers.
For our calculation, we have assumed a shipment from our roastery to Copenhagen.
Here, standard freight by truck will emit 0.022 kg of CO2e per kilo of coffee.
For our example, we have calculated the emissions from transport by truck via Geodis.com.
SourceConclusion
When all these items are added together, a single kilo of coffee adds up to 10.19 kg of CO2e.
It is worth noting that these emissions are only from the farm and until the coffee beans have arrived at the customer.
From there, there will be further emissions when the coffee is brewed and the coffee grounds are disposed of.
For reflection
As mentioned, there is a great deal of disagreement about the emission of carbon from coffee:
According to Nab & Maslin (2020), 1 kg coffee emits 15.33 kg carbon.
Humbert et. eel. (2009) believe it is only 3.18 kg carbon.
According to 8billiontrees.com, it is a total of 17 kg carbon.
For this comparison, we have used the sources which, in our opinion, were most accurate and most comparable to IMPACT No. 01.
We keep ourselves continuously updated within the field and will adjust our numbers going forward if new research requires it.
Contact Us
Are you interested in getting net-zero coffee at your workplace?
Send us a message and let's have a casual chat about it.
