Life cycle assessment of conventional and organic Arabica coffees: from farm to pack

The aim of this study was to update the previously LCA study of the coffee production in Brazil in order to estimate environmental indicators, namely carbon footprint, water use, fossil resource depletion, etc. of coffee cultivation in the main regions of coffee production in Brazil, besides roasted coffee beans and ground roasted coffee.

The scope was to evaluate the coffee production systems located at Minas Gerais and São Paulo States, which have different climatic conditions. The system boundaries considered the stages from raw material extraction until the farm gate (green coffee beans) and industry gate (roasted coffee beans and ground roasted coffee), i.e., a cradle-to-gate system. Farm-specific data were combined with agricultural production and industrial data to elaborate coffee production environmental indicators. The data were obtained from conventional and organic coffee producers for the crops 2017/18 and 2018/19. The functional unit adopted was 1 kg green coffee beans and 1 kg roasted coffee beans and ground roasted coffee.

A reduction of fertilizers and electricity consumption and an increase of diesel and limestone consumption were observed when the results of conventional coffee cultivation are compared with our previous study developed for the crops 2001/2002 and 2002/2003. Approximately 70% of the CO₂ emissions was due to field emissions related to urea and limestone applications. Field emissions are also the major contributor for other seven impact categories evaluated. Climate change, including biogenic carbon and land use change, showed negative values for green coffee beans due to carbon fixation in the product. Fertilizer production was responsible for approx. 60% of fossil resource scarcity.

For conventional coffee, the GWP₁₀₀ was approx. 1.4 kg CO₂-eq. kg⁻¹ green coffee beans and 1.8 kg CO₂-eq. kg⁻¹ roasted coffee beans and ground roasted coffee. For organic coffee, the GWP₁₀₀ was approx. 0.3 kg CO₂-eq. kg⁻¹ green coffee beans and 0.5 kg CO₂-eq. kg⁻¹ roasted coffee beans and ground roasted coffee. The use of water is also low, as the farms evaluated do not adopt the irrigation system at the coffee growing stage.

Improvements should be concentrated on the agricultural stage of the coffee production chain since this is the stage with the greatest contribution to the environmental impact categories. Some examples that can contribute to reducing GHG emissions as well as other environmental impact categories are increasing productivity, lower input consumption (fertilizers, correctives, and fuels), and optimizing transport stages.