Roasteries wanted! There are 10 spots for the beta testing phase of our CO₂ calculator
We recently published our roastery CO₂ footprint for 2022. By analyzing our own footprint, a CO₂ calculator for roasteries was developed in collaboration with our partner carbotech, which is now available in a beta version.
Why the effort?
We are in the process of investigating our CO₂ emissions along the entire coffee chain. Primarily, we wanted to gain a better understanding for ourselves and comprehend where and why emissions occur. The calculator helped us with this. Now we are able to offer other roasteries the opportunity to record their 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 the emissions generated, without having to involve expensive agencies and consultants.
Our goals with the calculator
We are pursuing two goals with the calculator. On the one hand, we want to give the roasted coffee industry the opportunity to record the status quo without much effort. At the same time, the calculator should also support the basis for exchange and the collection of best practice examples.We see exchange as an opportunity to highlight challenges in the industry (e.g. packaging). This enables a joint 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 occurring within the roastery or in work attributable to the roastery are considered. This means: all emissions that occur when green coffee arrives at the gates of the roasteries and leaves it again as roasted coffee.
The production of green coffee plays a significant role in the CO₂ footprint. Therefore, it should not be ignored, but rather examined accurately and precisely. The databases provide very different data for coffee cultivation. In other words; the data basis is poor and unclear. The cultivation calculator, which is currently under development, will remedy this and show an example calculation 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 ultimately represent the complete life cycle of a specific coffee.
Furthermore, the office share is not taken into account in this calculation.**
CO₂ Data
In our tool, we primarily work with datasets from ecoinvent (v3.8) and have had our data verified by carbotech. This ensures that the values are reliable.
Note: This tool does not replace a Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) and should not be used as a basis for offsetting with CO₂ certificates. Further steps are then required, which can be done, for example, with carbotech . The calculator is a cost-effective tool for roasteries for self-assessment and reflection.
More on the 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 pollutants in the air, and supervises the remediation of contaminated buildings. In addition, the company provides its clients with decision-making bases such as life cycle assessments or material flow analyses. It also accompanies international environmental projects and develops environmental and sustainability indicators for companies and authorities.
Data Security
When using the calculator, a lot of internal data from your roastery will be requested. We, as Kaffeemacher:innen, provide you with the tool but will not access your data.
Your data will not be passed on to third parties and no tracking takes place. It was technically only possible for us to solve it in such a way that Tobias as an admin has 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 of your order, creates the user in the calculator, and sends you an additional email with information on how to use it.
Personal Data
Your email address is the only personal and roastery-related information we need to store to grant you access.
Anonymous Use
If you want to use the calculator completely anonymously, you can purchase access in our online shop and use an email address that cannot be linked to you or your roastery.
* If you do not want your data to be used for an anonymized industry compilation of CO₂ consumption, you can specify this.
** Office and administration. In most cases, it is difficult to allocate the use of servers and end devices to the operation or the product. Therefore, this aspect was excluded.
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 extrapolated it to 52 weeks. Then we added 20% to ensure that weeks with more waste are covered.
