The Environmental Impact of Coffee Production: What’s Your Coffee Costing The Planet?

Hi Victoria,

Interesting post. I’m currently doing a project on the Life Cycle Appraisal of Nestle Instant coffee and the impact the product and the company has had on the environment. Do you have any recommendations on any articles which would help in calculating the carbon footprint of Nestle coffee at any of it’s LCA stages?

Thanks!

Hi Victoria,
I am doing a research project on Coffee, and it’s impacts around the world. Perhaps, you could recommend any particular websites. Including information, relating to my topic.
Thanks! I appreciate it!

thanks for all the information, this was one of the most useful websites for information for my geography assignment

Hi, I was wondering if I can get some help. I really want to use the information from this article and I need to cite it, but I cannot find the date that this article came out?

Hi Victoria ,
thank you for this article it really helped with my assignment!

Hi Victoria, a most informative, well written article. I am currently writing a book on how little choices can have a huge impact on the environment. Your article was extremely helpful. While I can’t go into all the detail you did I must present the importance of making informed choices when it comes to this popular morning brew.
Thanks again………

I too am doing a project and it is highly beneficial for my project. …I hope it would do the same for everyone

hi victoria,
i am doing a project at school about child labour coffee and what impact it has on our enviroment, do you have any suggestions on what i should add into my report? cheers
chelsy

There is a small coffee company in Canada that is addressing deforestation and waste in a progressive way – they have invented and produced the worlds FIRST solar powered coffee bean drying oven, in Honduras, used to DRY the coffee beans after harvesting. (Few people realize that coffee beans have to be dehydrated to reduce the moisture content before the green beans are shipped north, to American markets, for roasting and distribution. Many farmers in rural areas are forced to clear cut forest in order to fuel the fire to their beans, but the ‘Cafe Solar’ product, produced by a women run cooperative in Honduras, uses a giant solar oven to do this!! And at night, to keep the oven working, they use a special bio-fuel developed from the coffee husks themselves. Further, the farms that supply this cooperative are part of the IOC protocol – integrated open canopy. This is a new designation that is even BETTER than shade grown. Farmers located in a special land corridor through central america are encouraged to devote 50% of their land to reforestation/natural habitat, and 50% to coffee farming. In doing so, the land is left completely alone along key migratory routes for birds and animals, and the farmers are paid a carbon credit – a guaranteed income to their family.

The entire process is not only sustainable – it is replenishing to the earth and its resources. It is remarkably innovative. Check out the Merchants of Green Coffee Company in Toronto, Ontario. One of a kind!! Truly.

[…] Ah, the daily nectar from the gods. I’m a coffee lover, and the mere idea of giving up my morning (and noon, and 3 p.m., and 8 p.m….) cup of joe gives me heart palpitations that totally aren’t related to caffeine, I swear. But unfortunately, the coffee trade isn’t easy on the Earth — Sustainable Business Toolkit reports that not only does the coffee trade cause deforestation, but the process of turning coffee cherries into ready-to-go ground coffee results in a lot of waste. […]

We live next door to a large coffee roaster who roast 5 Days a week. They roast on site for their coffee shop + 2 other coffee shops that they own + they wholesale on line & sell roasted beans at their shops, this is a lot of roasting. The emissions we believe are posing health risks to us i.e. chaff & the acrid smell & unbelievably they have coffee drinking patrons sitting right next to the roaster while in operation. Hundreds of hession bags full of green beans are stored between the drinking area & the rest room, surely this is a health problem.
What are your thoughts?

Hi,
I found this article helpful for an assignment I was doing wine and grape production and found nothing so I considered reading up and tea and coffee to see if I could find something to do my task on instead, before I make a descisin to change does anyone have links of the environmental impacts of the production of wine and grapes.

Thank you,
Kelsey

i like this, very fun to read, good info 😉

Hi everyone,

I work for a TV production company in Germany. Currently we are producing a piece on sustainable coffee in comparison to conventional coffee and the impacts it has on the water- and CO2-footprint of each cup.

During my research, I stumbled upon this article. Very great, thanks a lot!

I was wondering whether I could get some additional information or studies to look for to answer these questions:

How much water can be saved when the coffeeplants are shade-grown in comparison to coffee which is irrigated additionally or sun-grown?

Does it affect the water footprint when the coffee is certified (e.g. Rainforest Alliance, EU Organic ..)? If it shrinks, why and by how much?

Thank you very much in advance.

Have a great weekend!