Roasters wanted! There are 10 spots available for the beta testing phase of our CO₂ calculator
We recently published our roastery's CO₂ footprint for 2022. In engaging with our own footprint, a CO₂ calculator for roasteries has been developed in collaboration with our partner carbotech, which is now available in beta version.
Why the effort?
We are examining our CO₂ emissions along the entire coffee chain. First and foremost, we wanted to develop a better understanding for ourselves and understand 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 most effective.
Because it is tailored to roasteries, it offers a simple 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 specialty coffee roasting industry the ability 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 understand exchange as an opportunity to identify challenges in the industry (e.g., packaging). This enables collaborative problem-solving.
Life Cycle Assessment Method Used: Gate-to-Gate
This CO₂ calculator is a gate-to-gate assessment. This means that only emissions incurred in the roastery or in work that can be attributed to the roastery are considered. That is: all emissions that occur from the moment green coffee arrives at the roastery gates until it leaves as roasted coffee.
The production of green coffee plays a significant role in the CO₂ footprint. Therefore, it should not be left out, but rather examined carefully and precisely. The databases provide very different data for coffee cultivation. In other words, the data basis is poor and not clear. The cultivation calculator currently in development will remedy this and show sample calculations for and from farms with different cultivation practices (conventional, organic, regenerative, biodynamic).
Each of the three calculators is thus a gate-to-gate assessment that can be combined to ultimately represent the complete life cycle of a specific coffee.
Furthermore, the office portion is not included in this calculation.**
CO₂ Data
In our tool we mainly work with data sets from ecoinvent (v3.8) and have had our data reviewed by carbotech. This ensures that we are working with reliable values.
Note: The tool does not replace a Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) and should not be used as a basis for offsetting with CO₂ certificates. Further steps must be taken for that, which can be done with carbotech, for example. The calculator is a cost-effective tool for roasteries for self-assessment and reflection.
More on the subject 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 provides analysis and consulting services for companies and organizations, measures pollutants in the air, and supports the remediation of pollutant-contaminated buildings. Additionally, the company provides its customers with decision-making bases such as life cycle assessments or material flow analyses. It also supports international environmental projects and develops environmental and sustainability metrics for companies and public authorities.
Data Security
When using the calculator, many internal data from your roastery are queried. We, as coffee makers, provide you with the tool, but will not access your data.
Your data will not be shared with third parties and no tracking takes place. For us, it was only technically possible to solve this so that Tobias as admin has access to all data. This data is treated confidentially.
Server and Service
To create the application, we use the service and servers from Stackerhq.com.
Order Process
To automate the ordering and creation of your access, we use another service. Zapier takes the email address from your order and 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 give 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 associated with you or your roastery.
* If you do not want your data to be used for an anonymized industry-wide compilation of CO₂ consumption, you can specify that.
** Office and administrative areas. In most cases, it is difficult to attribute the use of servers and end devices to the operation or 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 time period and incorporate estimates.
Example: We measured waste for one week and extrapolated it to 52 weeks. Then we added 20% to ensure that weeks with higher waste volumes are also covered.
