I could start this by telling you all about how “coffee remains one of the worlds most beloved drinks and is the second most traded commodity on the planet, behind crude oil”. A proper introduction. But I’m not going to do that, because fitting the topic of Coffee & Climate Change into a thousand word article is nigh on impossible as it is. So let’s just skip the starter and get right to the main.
Coffee is systemically unsustainable which is not great when it’s also one of the industries most susceptible to climate change related pressures. The supply chain has historically been known for its exploitation of producers and with such colossal demand, the intensification of agriculture comes with widespread use of harmful artificial fertiliser and loss of biodiversity. With the market price for coffee being so low, it encourages this intensification for producers to earn a living wage and support their families.
Once the cherries have been picked, they’re entered into the processing phase. Now there are several methods used which dictates properties in the flavour of the final cup. The most common methods are Natural, Washed and Honey Process and the most widely used is the Washing Process. The coffee beans are found within a cherry and layers of fruity mucilage which need to be washed off with high-pressure water hoses before allowing the beans to dry out on a patio. This is a highly water intensive process. To add to this, the fruit waste washed away often ends up in local water systems impacting the pH of the water and leading to pollution. I think it’s fairly safe to generalise and say that the majority of coffee processing stations lack the infrastructure and finances to be able to properly manage that waste.
Once packed up, they’re sold and shipped off to wherever their buyer is. Those happy little beans are then roasted and packaged up in materials that are mostly harmful to the environment. You know the ones, plastic coffee bags and Nespresso style pods, unable to be recycled or falsely claiming to be biodegradable. Then you have the used coffee grounds. 500,000 tonnes of used coffee grounds are disposed of each year in the UK. If these grounds are sent to the landfill, rather than being reused or composted, they emit around 1,800,000 tonnes of carbon before they decompose.
Trust me, I’ve overlooked so many other issues for the sake of remaining concise. Despite these challenges, I adore coffee and everything about it. It’s a large part of my life, owning a coffee shop, and although I’ve thrown a negative list your way, there is an enormous amount of amazing, positive changes coming out of the industry too. Coffee is like a never-ending rabbit hole. Once you go in, there’s no coming back and that involves both the experience of drinking it and more importantly, the sustainability challenges across the supply chains. They’re integrated to a level that you wouldn’t believe. The question is, how do we take those challenges and form potential solutions? and how do I describe those solutions within an article? Let’s break down each stage…
Production
First and foremost, the market price of coffee is too low. It’s unsustainable for most coffee producers around the world to support themselves financially on coffee farming alone. Hence why intensification of agriculture is being pushed to the limits, to the detriment of both people and the environment. Fairtrade Certification, for all of the criticism it gets, still provides a safety blanket for member producers. That means that regardless of the fluctuation of commodity prices, the farmer will always be paid a pre-agreed minimum price for their coffee.
Specialty coffee roasters are now entering into the world of Direct Trade, which I talk about in another article. It is what it says on the tin, they are aiming to trade directly with the producers themselves. This certainly has potential to improve the livelihoods of producers; firstly through higher prices per harvest. Also through greater loyalty and consistency which allows them to take more risks in combating climate change related pressures such as crop disease or extreme weather events. However, this approach still lacks accountability and infrastructure which has potential to lead to exploitation. It’s only really an agreement between roaster and producer. Widely used Certification to ensure criteria is met for these relationships will be vital.
Gender inequality is one of the least spoken about but most pressing sustainability issues in the coffee industry. When we mention the word “farmer”, it comes with a male association. However, nearly half the world’s agricultural work is performed by women. In many cases, these women are also required to care for the children, feed the family and clean etc. Adding to this, women are disproportionately paid less and given less control due to traditional norms and patriarchal institutions.
So what can you do to support more sustainable coffee production? Well it’s a question I usually shy away from, coming from a privileged position but it really is as simple as paying more for your coffee and supporting transparency where you can find it. If a roaster is strongly communicating their projects and trade with specific farms, buy your coffee from them. Trust me when I say that higher cost almost always comes with higher quality. I can also pretty much guarantee that you’ll have a local or fairly local specialty coffee roaster you can get in touch with. Many roasters are now also working with women’s cooperatives around the world to empower females in entrepreneurship across coffee producing regions. A reduction in your individual footprint, a way of supporting local independents but also supporting fairer wages.
Processing
In some cases with Direct Trade, the roaster will be able to fund more efficient processing and waste management facilities but this isn’t always the case. However, generally the more transparency you see from the roaster, the more likely it is that they have a meaningful relationship with specific producers.
It’s a well known fact that ecologically, shade-grown coffee is the most sustainable form of coffee cultivation. After all, it’s how the coffee plant naturally grows. However, this doesn’t mean that you should chase down shade-grown coffee. Most coffee crops now are intensified, exposed to the sun to ensure maximum yield; coffee production went in that direction to meet demand and to deal with almost unworkable prices. With financial support and greater long term consistency, despite crop quality; facilities and education will become more developed. Support the closest relationships you can find between roaster and producer.
The same goes for Naturally processed coffee vs Washed. Natural coffees have always been seen as more environmentally friendly due to the cherries being left on drying patios for the cherries to dry over 3–6 weeks before separation of the beans. It’s the traditional method of processing coffee and although far less water intensive, it’s far more labour intensive and requires much greater levels of quality control. Regions with less access to water such as Ethiopia or Yemen will rely on the natural process; you will find it used elsewhere however.
Washed processing has become the most popular due to the quality of coffee it produces. Again it’s more water intensive; according to Cenicafé research from 2015, it takes 40 litres of water to process just one kilo of coffee like. If the facilities or education aren’t available to ensure more sustainable processing methods, it can have a harmful effect on local water supply but also pollution of water systems from waste products. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) in 2013, “the pollution load in the wastewater from the wet milling of coffee can be 30 to 40 times greater than the one found in urban sewage”.
One benefit to washing coffee that is rarely spoken about however is the reliability. Farmers may be more confident in providing higher quality coffee when washing; which may lead to higher scoring and potentially a higher price for their yield. It’s clear that to empower producers, we must find solutions to improve the footprint of washing stations and there is certainly movement in this area. Examples include reusing waste products as fertiliser for crops and purifying polluted water through anaerobic treatments.
There are also projects looking to create revenue opportunities for the waste such as forming consumer products e.g coffee flour, coffee cups, and — the most well-known, Cascara tea made from the discarded skin of the cherries.
Roasting
Roasters have an incredibly important role to play in the coffee supply chain. They don’t just roast coffee, they buy it; and they choose the producers to trade directly with or the intermediary importers to buy from. With the correct relationships formed, there’ll be shorter supply chains, which means less actors taking a slice of the pie and a larger proportion of the payment going to the producers themselves. It’s up to the roasters to be particular in the projects they choose to support. For example, they may work with a great importer such as PrimaVera, to buy green coffee from a Guatemalan Women’s Cooperative to greater support the empowerment of women.
Putting social sustainability aside for now, we move onto the world of packaging. The specialty coffee sector is now brimming with roasters. There are new roasting companies popping up all over the place to add to the already intense competition. A few years ago, very few people actually knew coffee was being roasted locally to them or it was tough to find a roaster anywhere nearby. Now you often have a choice of local roasters and that’s led to a greater importance placed on marketing and branding.
Honestly, you look into all of the roasteries in your country, or even your region, and you’ll be met with some of the most beautifully put together branding and packaging you’ll likely ever see. I’ll be the first to admit that in most circumstances, I’ll have formed an opinion on a bag of coffee before even opening it to smell the beans. If the bag looks pretty and I like the branding, I’m kinda sold. That’s the issue here; every roaster seems to be terrified of being similar to another, so they’re always looking for new and different. I hate this general rule of thumb, but you’ll rarely find beautiful coffee packaging that is equally sustainable.
Freshness is also high on the priority list. The fact is, the non-recyclable plastic packaging used by most coffee companies, is the most effective in keeping the coffee fresh. As soon as the roastery weakens their stance on freshness and level of branding, they open themselves up to a loss of quality which may mean a loss in revenue and reputation. There are alternatives out there; one of which I’m personally interested in is the reuse system. Especially with local people, to send their coffee in reusable containers and to reward those customers once those containers have been received back. Shifting away from the complete reliance on landfill destined plastic packaging; even in incremental stages.
Another alternative is to think outside the box for packaging that will continue to keep the coffee fresh. A roastery called The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow use metal tins which can be brought back and refilled or even re-used for other purposes or other coffee. Once it’s reached its end of life, the tin can be easily and effectively recycled.
The majority of sales by roasters are done on a wholesale basis, supplying coffee to hospitality venues; coffee shops, restaurants, bars etc. Retail sales form a not insignificant but certainly lower percentage of their revenue. With regards to branding and aesthetics, they’re only really required for customer facing, off the shelf products. The Good Coffee Cartel metal tins are a great example of combining aesthetics and sustainability. However, wholesale supply of coffee does not require the same level of branding and this is where prioritisation of sustainability can happen. Again, on a local basis, I’ve always been an advocate for circular systems. Delivering large coffee orders in airtight, sealed buckets/containers and picking the empty containers up when next delivering. These containers generally will only need to be used twice before actually saving you money and having environmental benefit. However, you’ll in most cases be able to reuse these containers up to 100 times over and sometimes even more.
Coffee Shops
By the very nature of a ‘supply chain’, the solutions for coffee shop sustainability are directly linked to the solutions for the roaster. By the roaster being more selective and transparent with the relationships they form and the coffee they buy; the hope is that coffee shops will chase those values and stay loyal to roasteries they believe in.
Coffee shops can reduce their environmental footprint purely from buying their beans from their most local specialty coffee roaster. However, sacrificing some miles for finding a roaster with transparency/higher prices for coffee/support for women’s co-ops and direct trade relationships, may be a worthwhile move.
Zero-waste retail offerings are another dimension you could add to your branding around sustainable coffee. Customers should be able to come in with reusable containers to pick up coffee to take home and brew and there should be a discount for that to encourage zero waste sales and repeat custom. It also encourages roasters to deliver beans to you in reusable containers if they’re not going to be in branded bags on your shelves.
Let’s move onto coffee waste. The amount of soaked grounds that end up in the bin is astounding and trust me, they’re not light. All of that heavy waste could be increasing your waste disposal costs on a weekly basis but its also going to end up at landfill. Refer to the introductory paragraph for some crazy statistics on our disposal of coffee grounds here in the UK. There are ways you can reduce that. My coffee shop for example, has a specified coffee ground bin and we have local farmers who come and collect them to use as organic fertiliser; you could offer that service to your customers as well who may have allotments or large gardens. There are also companies such as BioBean, who will collect your spent grounds to recycle and create new products like fire-bricks.
Consumer
Okay, so the final link in the supply chain. You, the customer. We’re all customers and if you’re reading this, I’m pretty sure you drink coffee. Where do you buy that coffee from?
The solutions are obvious here and fairly simple. Understand why paying more for coffee is better and show loyalty to roasters doing really good work! So many people have cringed at the idea of paying £8 for a 250g bag of amazing coffee, because they’re used to being able to buy some in the supermarket for £2. If that’s the difference in price, imagine the difference in living standards for the producers and how sustainable their farming methods are. A whole lot of people have got to squeeze some value out of that £2. Not to mention the coffee is less fresh, pre-ground to the wrong specification to whatever you’re brewing with at home and often roasted poorly. If you’re lucky you’ll get Arabica.
It seems crazy to me to baulk at an £8 bag of coffee but I get it. People will only understand what they’re used to and speciality coffee is really only just emerging. Think of it this way, to buy an amazing bottle of red wine, you’ll be paying anywhere between £30 and £100, sometimes even more. To buy some of the best coffee you can drink will mostly be between £8 and £15. That’s value for money right there. You normalise it, and it just becomes part of your weekly routine. I know I need a new bag of coffee and quite frankly I refuse to live without great coffee in my life. It improves my standard of living just as much, if not more than my Netflix subscription does; or the night out I’ll have on a Friday after work, where I’ll spend upwards of 50 quid.
In conclusion, I must state, that this is very much a two dimensional, reductionist view into some of the most pressing environmental and social issues we face in the coffee industry. A mere outline. A Brewing Storm, a report published by researcher Corey Watts and his team based at the Climate Institute in Australia, stated that global coffee production could be halved by 2050 due to climate related pressures. What’s required is for coffee people to become engaged, you the customers, the roasters, the baristas, the brokers, all the way to the policy-makers and governments. What you can do is to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by coffee producers/communities and the projects driving progress. Support them in any way you can. We aim to live in a world where coffee producers aren’t completely at the mercy of fluctuating market prices; they have a support framework to care for themselves and their families and the tools to take on climate related challenges.
