ONE COFFEE PLEASE

6:30 am. The alarm rings. You need a coffee to wake up and become a person.

You go like a zombie to the kitchen decided to have a coffee.. but, which kind of coffee?

Instant coffee, filter coffee or capsule coffee?

-  Instant coffee is cheaper but tastes worse.
 - Filter coffee tastes better but you need to boil too much water and you will end throwing up the coffee once it gets cold.
 - Capsule coffee tastes even better and reduces the amount of green coffee needed but produces more packaging waste.

It is not an easy question and even more if you take into account that you are still asleep.

Maybe this study will help you to take the decision: http://www.lcacenter.org/LCA9/presentations/92.pdf

Where you can find the following comparison of the impact of the 3 coffees for many impact cathegories:

To summarize, the results of the LCA showed that instant coffee had a lower overall environmental footprint than filter and capsule coffee with the former having the worst environmental footprint of the three.

	Instant coffee	Filter coffee	Capsule coffee
Energy consumption (MJ/cup)	1.25	2.25	1.85
Carbon footprint (gCO2eq/cup)	75	120	110
Water use (l/cup)	13	29	21

Almost all studies agree in stating that the main phases responsible of impacts are: 1) green coffee cultivation and processing and 2) machine use. Machine and packaging production, transport and waste treatment are secondary phases in terms of environmental impact.

However, as you know that not everything is B&W, you will find some other references stating different figures, because their inventory data is different or their hypothesis or their interests..:

http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/lifecycleassessment_en_120808.pdf

“Like any system, portion coffee has advantages and disadvantages. The production of

the capsule has some impacts. However, the benefit of a portion system is actually that

it reduces waste of brewed coffee and reduces the amount of green coffee needed by

ensuring a better extraction. This means that depending on the different scenarios (for

example, how much prepared coffee is wasted in a traditional system or if the capsule

is recycled and an economic machine is used), a Nespresso coffee can have a lower

impact than a traditional one.“

http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/CoffeeTea

For drinking one standard cup of coffee in the Netherlands we need about 140 litres of water, by far the largest part for growing the coffee plant.

http://www.saiplatform.org/uploads/Library/090312_Tchibo_Kaffee_en_A4_lowres.pdf

Functional Unit: Provision of one cup of Tchibo Privat Kaffee Rarity Machare, made with 7g coffee powder  and 125ml of water => About 50-100 gCO2eq/cup

Some other references:

http://www.appropedia.org/LCA_of_coffee

http://www.fcgov.com/climatewise/pdf/coffee.pdf

http://bsalinas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/coffeeposter.jpg

http://www.coffeemachinesreviews.co.uk/news/coffeemachines-news/dolce-gusto-coffee-machines-on-track-to-reduce-impact-on-environment

Finally.. do not forget about social and health issues.. in this blog we will focus on environmental aspects but I will encourage you to go deeper in all aspects of sustainability.

So, why not read the following link while having a coffee?
 http://www.coffeeresearch.org/politics/fairtrade.htm