How much does transport contribute to the emissions generated during Kaffeemacher production? We've developed a calculator that can calculate transport emissions for you. The calculator can also be applied to any products that involve longer transport routes, and especially ship or air transport.
Source of data
We obtained the data from the Mobitool. All values are well-to-wheel data. This means that not only the combustion of fuel is taken into account, but also the efficiency – that is, how much of the fossil primary energy source is needed for the distance traveled. This also includes the losses and emissions for the provision of fuel. However, the maintenance of vehicles and infrastructure, as well as the manufacture and disposal of vehicles, are not yet included.
Using the calculator
We use the calculator for our own coffees. Using our coffees from Nicaragua as an example, we show you how we use the calculator.
From the 2021/22 harvest, we purchased 4,780 kg from our partner Bridazul in Nicaragua. Part of this comes from our Santa Rita farm, but also from other farms in the Dipilto region north of Ocotal. In this case, however, we only take into account the transport from the "warehouse" where our coffees were stored in bags to the port. The transport can thus be applied to all of these coffees. Everything that involves transport beforehand we consider in the assessment of the farm or the green coffee and calculate it there.
The journey of coffee from Nicaragua to Basel
The warehouse is located in Ocotal, Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua; from there to the port in Corinto is 257 km.
To determine the distances of the transport routes, we use Google Maps for the land route.
The container ship travels via Balboa, Panama, to Manzanillo, Mexico and then to Antwerp, Belgium.
With the transport calculator from searates, shipping routes can be calculated well. This gives us a total distance of 16,742 km via container ship.
Once the coffee arrives at the port in Antwerp, it is loaded onto the next truck and transported the final 600 km to Basel. We then pick it up with our own bus at the port. As with cultivation, the last (kilo-)meters fall to the roastery and are charged there, as it is our roastery vehicle.
In the image you can see how we filled in the fields for our coffee.
Note
The more you know about the means of transport, the more accurate the result can be. Otherwise, as in the example in the image, you have to fall back on "truck, average."
Result
In our case, the largest portion of emissions comes from transport by container ship. This is mainly because the coffee has gone through an odyssey and has called at three ports.
Note
If you copy your result into Excel, make sure that the periods in Excel are usually not automatically converted to commas.
Classification
With a carbon footprint of approximately 2.7 tonnes of CO₂ equivalents for the 4.78 tonnes of green coffee, this results in 0.56 kg CO2e / kg green coffee for the transport emissions from Nicaragua to Switzerland.
Let's put the figures in context and consider cultivation, transport and roasting. For cultivation, we assume a carbon footprint of 3 kg CO2e / kg green coffee cultivation and for roasting our roastery carbon footprint of 0.45 kg CO2e / kg coffee. (You can find more details about our roastery's carbon footprint here.)
Taking into account 15% roasting loss, the assumed coffee from Nicaragua has a total carbon footprint of 4.9 kg CO2e / kg coffee.
This makes it clear once again that the be-all and end-all for sustainability in coffee means sustainable, regenerative coffee cultivation.
In this case, the emissions from transport in the chain make up only a small part. But if we consider regenerative coffee, where cultivation is climate-neutral (or climate-positive), then these emissions account for over 60%.
So it's primarily the coffee that matters, but secondly the transport as well. We roasters have it in our hands. Alternatives are already available today; they just need to be used.
