Coffee has been consumed for centuries and has become an integral part of many cultures. From slowly sipping Turkish coffee while observing people, to grabbing a cup of coffee at a Starbuck’s drive-through on the way to work, coffee has almost become a necessity for most people. It is no wonder that over 2.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed per day, making coffee the second highest traded commodity in the world (after oil).
Unfortunately, the environmental impacts of coffee are large and must be reduced; otherwise, this could jeopardize coffee itself! But don’t fret, there are simple steps you can take to minimize the environmental impacts of coffee.
We’ll begin by briefly stating how coffee negatively impacts the environment, and then propose steps to minimize these impacts.
Let’s review these and find out how we can as individuals minimize these impacts.
1. Coffee Cultivation
The Impacts
The Cultivation of coffee requires large swaths of land, often from biodiverse and pristine land such as rainforests. A lot of coffee is cultivated in monocultures (i.e., one single crop is cultivated in one area) under full sun because it results in greater coffee yields, but eventually requires fertilizers and pesticides that are contaminants. Further, monoculture coffee plants only last for 5 to 10 years, because the soil quickly gets depleted of nutrients. This means that in 5 to 10 years, even more land will need to be claimed from nature to cultivate coffee.
How to Minimize this Impact?
Purchase coffee that is shade grown in polycultures. This means it is cultivated amongst other plants, increasing the biodiversity of the crop area. This results in local wildlife inhabiting the crops, such as birds, insects and pollinators. Another benefit is leaf litter, decomposes and restores the soil’s nutrients. As a result, some shade-grown coffee farms have existed for over a century.
As a consumer, purchase coffee with the Smithsonian Bird Friendly Certification. This label indicates the coffee is Certified Organic and protects local biodiversity. If you are unable to find the Bird Friendly Certification, look for USDA and Fairtrade labels. But don’t get tricked, that a close look as some coffee packaging can be misleading.
2. Coffee Transport
The Impacts
Coffee transport has significant environmental impacts as crops are cultivated near the Equator. This means that coffee must be transported from these areas to other locations in the world. Oftentimes, the coffee is sent for roasting to one location, then sent to another location for consumption, which can be thousands of kilometres away. For example, coffee can be cultivated in Colombia, roasted in Italy, then consumed in Canada. This translates to many tons of CO2 from transport.
How to Minimize this Impact?
Buy coffee that is locally roasted. Or if you live near the equator, buy coffee that is both locally grown and roasted.
3. Coffee Consumption Waste
The Impacts
The coffee industry produces an enormous amount of waste, from the single-use coffee cups with caps and stirring sticks you get from Starbucks, to single-use coffee pods or cheap coffee machines that break after a couple of years of use. For example, in 2015 Keurig produced about 10 billion K-cups. Or on average, 25 billion coffee cups end in the US landfills each year. Plastic takes centuries to decompose, ends up in our oceans and eventually our food.
How to Minimize this Impact?
There are various ways to minimize waste when consuming coffee.
- Make coffee at home while avoiding capsule coffee machines or machines with disposable filters. Provided you don’t waste coffee, this is the single-best method to reduce waste associated with coffee. Which brings us to…
- Prepare only the amount of coffee you need. Don’t prepare a full carafe, drink 1 or 2 servings, and then throw away the rest because it got cold. Remember, your coffee likely travelled thousands of kilometres to get to you, using transportation systems that rely on fossil fuels.
- If you go to a coffee shop (let’s face it, not everyone can afford a fancy and make espresso machine latte art) bring your own mug or choose a coffee shop that is environmentally conscious.
- If you work in an office with a coffee pod machine, talk to management! There are various office coffee machines that do not produce any waste or use decomposable capsules. If you crunch the numbers, it makes financial sense to not use pods as they are expensive.
- Invest in a high-quality coffee machine that will last many years. If you buy coffee every day, then this will make economic sense. A $3 cup per day means over $1,000 spent on coffee per year, which is the same to 2 really nice coffee makers.
- If you really like the convenience of capsule machines (like a Nespresso Machine), then buy reusable capsules.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I care about the environment?
Our planet supports us, and if we don’t care for it, it will no longer be able to do so. Our food and water supplies will start dwindling. Dwindling resources often means war and conflict. Wildlife such as tigers and rhinoceros will be a thing of legends and will only be remembered by future generations through pictures and books. How sad!
What will happen to coffee if we do not care for the environment?
As per the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, up to 88% of coffee producing regions will be gone by 2050 if we do not do something about it. Coffee could become prohibitively expensive for most people, and the 100 million people involved in the coffee industry may lose their jobs.
