Roasteries wanted! There are 10 spots available for the beta test phase of our CO₂ calculator
We recently published our roastery carbon footprint for 2022. By examining our own footprint, we developed a CO₂ calculator for roasteries in collaboration with our partner carbotech, which is now available as a beta version.
Why go through the effort?
We are in the process of investigating our CO₂ emissions along the entire coffee supply chain. Our primary goal was to gain a better understanding for ourselves regarding where and why emissions occur. The calculator has helped us with this. Now, we are able to offer other roasteries the opportunity to track their own emissions.
The CO₂ calculator can help confirm self-assessments, identify "hotspots," and show where investments in sustainability can be made most effectively.
Because it is tailored to roasteries, it offers an easy way to get a rough overview of generated emissions without needing to involve expensive agencies and consultancies.
Our goals for the calculator
We are pursuing two goals with the calculator. On one hand, we want to give the coffee roasting industry the opportunity to assess the status quo without much effort. At the same time, the calculator is intended to support the basis for exchange and the collection of best practice examples.We see exchange as an opportunity to highlight challenges within the industry (e.g., packaging). This enables a collaborative search for solutions.
Life cycle assessment method used: Gate-to-gate
This CO₂ calculator is a gate-to-gate assessment. This means that only emissions generated within the roastery or through tasks attributable to the roastery are considered. In other words: all emissions that occur when green coffee arrives at the roastery gates and leaves it as roasted coffee.
The production of green coffee plays a significant role in the CO₂ footprint. Therefore, it should not be excluded, but rather examined precisely and accurately. Databases provide highly varied data for coffee cultivation. In other words: the data basis is poor and ambiguous. The cultivation calculator currently in development will provide a remedy for this and show sample calculations for and from farms with different cultivation practices (conventional, organic, regenerative, biodynamic).
Each of the three calculators is therefore a gate-to-gate assessment that can be combined to represent the entire life cycle of a specific coffee at the end.
Furthermore, the office component is not taken into account in this calculation.**
CO₂ data
In our tool, we mainly work with data sets from ecoinvent (v3.8) and have had our data verified by carbotech. This allows us to be sure that these are reliable values.
Note: The tool does not replace a Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) and is not intended to serve as a basis for offsetting with CO₂ certificates. For this, the next step must be taken, which can be done with carbotech, for example. The calculator is a cost-effective tool for roasteries for self-assessment and reflection.
Learn more about this topic and our CO₂ footprint. You can find it here.
INFO: Who is carbotech?
Since its founding in 1987, the company has specialized in environmental issues. It offers analysis and consulting services for companies and organizations, measures air pollutants, and supports the remediation of contaminated buildings. In addition, the company provides its clients with decision-making foundations such as life cycle assessments or material flow analyses. It also supports international environmental projects and develops environmental and sustainability indicators for companies and authorities.
Data security
When using the calculator, your roastery is asked for a lot of internal data. We as Kaffeemacher:innen are providing the tool to you, but will not access your data.
Your data will not be passed on to third parties and no tracking takes place. The only way we could solve this technically was for Tobias to have admin access to all data. This data will be treated confidentially.
Server and service
To create the application, we use the service and servers of Stackerhq.com.
Ordering process
For the automation of the order and the creation of your access, we use another service. Zapier takes the email address from your order to set up the user in the calculator and sends you an additional email with information on usage.
Personal data
Your email address is the only personal and roastery-related information we must store in order to provide you with access.
Anonymous usage
If you would like to use the calculator completely anonymously, you can purchase access in our online shop and use an email address that cannot be associated with you or your roastery.
* If you do not want your data to be used for an anonymized industry compilation of CO₂ consumption, you can indicate this.
** Office. In most cases, it is difficult to allocate the use of servers and devices to the operation or the product. Therefore, this aspect was left out.
FAQ
t.b.d.
What to do if not all data is available?
You can take measurements over a shorter period and incorporate empirical values.
Example: We measured waste for one week and projected it over 52 weeks. Then we added 20% to be sure that weeks with higher waste volumes are covered.
