How green is your coffee?
European researchers have found that the choice of coffee itself is the main factor determining how environmentally friendly your morning cup is. While some might spend time ensuring the machine or the capsules they use are up to their green standards, in reality the real key to an ecological cup is in the beans. The team, from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA) in Switzerland, investigated various capsule systems and fully automatic machines as well as filter and soluble coffee-making techniques; pulling all this information together into a life-cycle analysis, they concluded that regardless of how it is prepared, the coffee itself is what makes the difference. 'A well-informed choice of coffee is in any case the best option for the environment,' says Roland Hischier, eco-balance expert at EMPA. In recent years, capsule systems for making coffee have become increasingly popular due to their practical and convenient nature. Yet questions remain over whether these systems are good for the environment or not. During the study, different capsules were weighed and the main components of the contents identified. Values from the literature for the average material usage and energy consumption during the manufacture of the product were then noted; values taken from the literature for filter and instant coffee were also used. One such study was a Brazilian report which analysed 56 coffee plantations. As it is not known precisely what type of coffee each of the capsules contains, it was not just the average values reported in the Brazilian study that were taken into account, but the extreme values as well. Thus the influence of each coffee type could be shown, and by extension the crop-growing method's effect on the overall ecological balance of the coffee-making procedure. The team found that the environmental damage caused during the growth of the coffee crop was the single largest factor affecting the environmental friendliness of coffee. The environmental data for coffee vary significantly depending on the amount of work undertaken on the coffee plantation, and on the use (if any) of fertilizers, pesticides and diesel fuel for tractors. In some cases, the team found, growing the coffee alone represented about 70?% of the environmental damage caused by one cup. An analysis of the types of packaging used for coffee capsules showed that aluminium capsules are the most kind to the environment, but only when they are recycled. For fully automatic machines, when the maximum amount of average coffee is used, the environmental effects are even more severe than those of top-of-the-range capsule systems. Since capsules of different types contain different amounts of coffee - between six and nine grams - the ranking list in this study showed slight variations compared to that for empty capsules. Capsules containing a lot of coffee are therefore worse for the planet. Roland Hischier advises those who want to enjoy their drink while doing their bit for the environment should choose coffee bearing an ecological label. He also adds that although they were not included in this study, the classic espresso maker or cafetiere work just as well and are kind to the environment to boot, as long as the same amount of coffee is used per cup as for filter coffee, and all the coffee is drunk - something that won't be a hard task for those true coffee connoisseurs!For more information, please visit: EMPA: http://www.empa.ch/plugin/template/empa/3/*/---/l=2/changeLang=true/lartid=/orga=/type=/theme=/bestellbar=/new_abt=/uacc(opens in new window)
Countries
Switzerland