How is YOUR Coffee Impacting the Environment?
The following information was obtained from a life cycle assessment conducted by Quantis. The assessment’s aim was to compare the environmental impact of preparing an 8 oz. serving of coffee using a pod-style method versus a drip-brew method.
As seen from the figure below [1], the life cycle was broken into 5 stages:
- Coffee Supply
- Materials & Production
- Distribution
- Use
- End-of-Life
Life Cycle used to Assess Coffee Environmental Impact
It was found that pod-style coffee had better environmental performance than drip-brew coffee. Despite the pod-style coffee generating more packaging waste, it fared better overall due to creating less waste from coffee over-preparation, coffee inferior freshness, and electricity consumption.
Why did Pod-Style Coffee take the edge? Consumer Behaviors [1]
- Coffee Over-Preparation: user brews more coffee than necessary for the serving
- Coffee Inferior Freshness: user disposes coffee because packaging does not maintain freshness of the beans for long periods of time
- Electricity Consumption: drip-filter machines use hot plates to maintain coffee warmth
The results for the two coffee systems were provided [1] in the form of 6 different study scenarios: 2 for pod-style (to account for flow-type vs ready-to-serve heating) and 4 for drip-brew (to account for coffee over-preparation, coffee inferior freshness, and electricity consumption of a hot plate). As can be seen from the graphs below, the pod-style coffee had a reduced impact on climate change (averaging 211.5 gCO2) and a reduced impact on water withdrawal (averaging 14.5 liters).
Climate Change Impact
Water Withdrawal Impact
[1] J. A. Chayer and K. Kikak, “Life Cycle Assessment of coffee consumption: comparison of single-serve coffee and bulk coffee brewing ,” June 02, 2015. [Online]. Available: http://www.pac.ca/assets/pac0680-full-lca.pdf. [Accessed 10 Feb. 2020].