From farmers to consumers, JDE Peet’s strives to champion an inclusive and regenerative ecosystem through its Common Grounds Programme which is comprised of three pillars: Responsible Sourcing, Minimising Footprint and Connecting People.

This recognition, based on the company’s improved CSA score, underscores JDE Peet’s’ longstanding commitment to creating a sustainable future.

Fabien Simon, CEO of JDE Peet’s, commented, “Three years ago, we engaged in a turnaround, which led us to rediscover the power of our brands. While we stepped up investments, execution and innovation, we brought back relevance for our consumers and our customers. Sustainability is playing an important role to enable relevance, as we became committed to foster an inclusive ecosystem. I am very proud of the progress we have made on our sustainability journey, in parallel with transforming the operational performance of JDE Peet’s. We acknowledge there is much more to do in order to reach 100% responsibly sourced coffee by 2025 and meeting our net-zero carbon emission target by 2050. Yet, we are greatly encouraged by the external recognition of the leading position of JDE Peet’s, which is the only coffee company included in the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Index. We remain committed to continually improve our performance to deliver sustainable value for all our stakeholders and secure the future of coffee and tea.”

JDE Peet’s also performed particularly well in the fields of Emissions, Resource Efficiency & Circularity, Waste Management, Human Capital Development, Talent Attraction & Retention and Cybersecurity & System Availability.

Laurent Sagarra, VP of sustainability at JDE Peet’s, commented, “Sustainability is a journey, where every step counts. Over the past years we’ve stepped up from being directly involved at origin in over 60 farmer projects to actively playing our part in reducing scope 1,2 and 3 emissions. While we recognise that there’s still a long road ahead, I’m very proud of the positive impact we are already having around the world to improve the lives of nearly 600,000 smallholder farmers.”

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“We take immense pride in the substantial progress we have made to reduce our environmental impact and drive positive change within the coffee industry,” says Shae Macnamara, founder and CEO, Expat.Roasters.

“This report not only reflects our commitment to transparency but also marks the beginning of our unwavering dedication to making a lasting impact on both the coffee industry and society as a whole.”

Embracing its environmental ethos, Expat.Roasters has taken strides to reduce its carbon footprint by revolutionising its packaging approach. By shifting from single-use packaging to reusable tins in 2019, the company has effectively eliminated the need for thousands of disposable packages – a substantial step towards mitigating waste and promoting a circular economy.

The 2022 CSR report serves as a comprehensive benchmark, comparing Expat.Roasters’ performance in the previous year with its achievements in 2022.

The report delves into the company’s innovative projects and provides insights into upcoming initiatives. Among the highlights is the sourcing of 98% of Expat.Roasters’ beans locally, reinforcing the company’s dedication to supporting local communities, reducing transportation emissions, and ensuring the freshest and highest-quality coffee for its customers.

In line with its commitment to transparency and enhanced communication, Expat.Roasters will continue to provide more frequent and concise CSR updates across all its brand channels. By keeping stakeholders informed about ongoing initiatives, Expat.Roasters seeks to foster stronger connections, inspire others to follow suit, and pave the way for a more sustainable and socially responsible future, says the company.

To learn more about Expat.Roasters’ CSR initiatives and to access the full CSR report, visit expatroasters.com/pages/sustainability-page.

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Amcor and Löfbergs partnered to overcome one of the key challenges facing coffee roasters – switching to easier to recycle coffee packaging, while preserving flavour and aroma – and have achieved a technical breakthrough, the companies say. The partners collaborated during the development process, testing for barrier, run speed, machine performance and recyclability in the real world.

“More sustainable packaging should not compromise on quality. This pack responds to consumer demand for packaging that is easier to recycle, while preserving coffee’s aroma at its best,” said Trevor Davis, marketing director, Amcor Flexibles EMEA. “Our AmPrima material was able to run at the same machine speeds as non-recyclable versions and has the potential to replace over 200 current non-recyclable coffee packaging specifications.”

The new pouch is recycle-ready today in most European countries, designed according to The Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging (CEFLEX) guidelines, and it is certified by the Institute cyclos-HTP for recyclability in the real world.

“This is an amazing step forward – not just for us, but for the entire coffee industry. The new pack has a 55% reduced carbon footprint compared to our previous coffee packaging.* We will keep driving initiatives like this one and invite other players, both within and outside the industry to join us, to achieve our goal of zero waste by 2030,” said Madelene Breiling, head of operational development at Löfbergs. 

This breakthrough underscores both companies’ long-term commitment to more sustainable packaging solutions. Amcor is on the path to fulfilling its pledge to develop all of its packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2025, with 83% of its flexible packaging portfolio available in recycle-ready solutions today.

Löfbergs was one of the first European coffee producers to remove aluminium from coffee packaging 25 years ago. Continuing its journey, the company phased out large amounts of fossil-based plastic in its packaging and replaced it with bio-based alternatives in 2019, and today has moved to recycle-ready packaging.

Learn more about Löfbergs’ sustainability activities here and about Amcor’s here.

*Carbon footprint comparison with Amcor’s ASSET lifecycle assessment system, certified by the Carbon Trust. Comparison based on pouch using OPP/PET-Y/PEBIO, versus the new AmPrima Recycle-Ready mono-PE pouch.

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According to a survey conducted by Future Market Insights (FMI), cost remains a significant hurdle preventing smaller brands from investing in sustainable packaging, while packaging suppliers and converters face eroding margins due to high material prices. That said, FMI estimates that the market for sustainable packaging will cross the US$500 billion annual mark by 2030, driven by manufacturer, consumer, and regulatory demands. Within the next decade, sustainable packaging will no longer be a choice, but a necessity says the firm.

On 28 March, FMI hosted a virtual roundtable, “Making Sustainable Packaging Commercially Viable,” with three experts weighing in on the challenges that are holding back greater adoption at a faster rate.

“Sustainability is no longer marketing jargon or a buzzword anymore,” explained Ismail Sutaria, chief research analyst at FMI, noting that “businesses are rapidly developing and using packaging materials that not only increase the life cycle inventory, but also reduce the ecological footprint.” He notes that the significant momentum gained by the concept of the circular economy has grabbed the attention of numerous packaging giants as well as governments, responding to the realities of packaging waste and its impact on the environment.

Sutaria sees successful sustainable packaging as balancing several key attributes: low carbon footprint, lightweight, environmentally friendly, fully circular, higher rates of recycling, and perhaps most importantly to packaged food and beverage producers, better shelf life for the products themselves.

Missing currently from the advances in the sector, despite continuous innovations in materials and substrates, and a growing number of consumer product rollouts, are a high degree of adoption; to achieve a successful sustainable packaging eco-system, widespread commercialisation is required. To their credit, the food and, in particular, beverage industries are the global leaders in adopting sustainable packaging.

While sustainable packaging designs for any given product can save certain costs—reduced shipping weights for example—the cost of switching from a previous format can be quite expensive. Sustainable packaging can only be commercially viable through mass scale adoption, Sutaria stresses.

An interesting wrinkle, he notes, is that consumer perception of recyclability doesn’t always align with the actual carbon impact of packaging. Production of PET beverage containers, for example, might be lower in greenhouse gas impact, but aluminium cans have the edge in recycling rates.

In terms of consumer shopping behavior, Millennials are by far the most aggressive generation to date when it comes to preferring companies with “purpose,” such as reducing pollution or waste, and have the highest interest in choosing products with eco-friendly, sustainable packaging.

In short, Sutaria says that the higher perceived costs (led by the inability to pass on costs to consumer and the higher cost of sustainable materials), combined with inadequate recycling infrastructure and complex government regulations, are all deterrents to mass scale adoption of sustainable packaging. Collaboration across regions in regard to tracing, waste collection, and sorting and recycling systems is the missing key in what’s limiting the success of sustainable packaging and in achieving circularity

Robert Flores, VP of sustainability at Berry Global, Inc., an Indiana, USA-based manufacturer of plastic packaging products at over 265 regional facilities worldwide and 56 years of experience, said his firm sees the future of plastics moving to recycling and renewable. Mechanically recycled plastic can achieve significant energy use savings versus production of virgin plastics, says Flores, while the production of bio-plastics from renewable resources such as crops rather than fossil fuels could potentially move that process toward net-zero carbon emissions. Lightweighting—reducing the amount of plastic used in redesigned packaging—shrinks not only carbon footprints but also customer cost while improving circularity, he adds.

Tristan Kaye, commercial director of Notpla Limited, founded in 2014, explained that his firm focuses on single-use packaging in the consumer space, challenging long-standing conventions about packaging. The East London-based startup has rapidly developed an innovative portfolio of advanced, all-natural packaging products made from seaweed and plants that are naturally biodegradable and home-compostable. Some are entirely edible and impart no flavour, such as beverage “blobs” or dissolvable instant coffee sachets. Kaye said, however, Nopla is particularly focused on industrialising and scaling its seaweed-based coating as an alternative to plastic inner liners on fiber-based packaging, allowing the entire package to be composted. Other uses are in earlier stages of R&D.

Kaye noted that some other newer biodegradable products, such as PHA, PLA and PBAT are actually seeing prices increase due to changing EU classification standards. “In the EU, there is now a common definition around single-use plastic,” said Kaye, the two key aspects being it must be a natural polymer and not chemically modified. As such, Kaye said that PHA and similar products are now being classified as plastics in the EU. “So even though as we scale as a business and we’re trying to bring our costs down, we also see that other materials are getting more expensive through the role of regulation,” he noted.

• E Edward ‘Ted’ Hoyt has more than two decades of experience as a trade magazine editor and freelance writer, authoring many articles in the premium coffee, spirits and cigar industries, among others.

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Carbon, and in turn, the carbon footprint, has been recognised as one of the leading causes of human-induced climate change. Over the past few decades, companies have shifted their infrastructures to reduce the negative impact, hoping to protect plants, waterways, and animals. However, when carbon is in the soil, it improves its ability to retain water and its overall fertility. So, the challenge is how do we get carbon out of the air and back into the earth? The solution is regenerative agriculture.

Bringing soil to the forefront

For decades, the climate change conversation centered around harm reduction with the goal of shifting agricultural practices to become carbon neutral. The challenge with this model is that it simply maintains the environment where it is today, which means that the current challenges plaguing the industry, including climate unpredictability, drought, and pest infestations, remain. Minimising harm is no longer enough to mitigate the risks of climate change; the environment needs to improve. Instead of adopting methods that will sustain, the focus needs to be repair and regeneration, beginning with adopting agricultural practices that will build healthy soil.

Regenerative farming begins with recognising soil’s role in the health of the planet and those living on it. “Conventional, which is the majority, this is where we have been, and sometimes it is where we are still stuck, but the method is destructive and unsustainable,” said Michael Ham, president, Well AP, Mt Kisco, New York. “Sustainable, which is achieving net zero, will maintain the status quo, but we need to reverse the damage that has been done and the only way to do that is through regenerative. This is where the focus needs to be in the next decade for us to really bring things back to where they should be. “Recognising the benefit, both for the earth and farm itself, Ham shared that their Korean tea farm Wild Orchard made the commitment to shift its practices from organic to regenerative. This past May, Wild Orchard obtained the Regenerative Organic Certification, becoming the first tea farm to receive this certification.

Curious deer traipsing through tea plants that are surrounded by other plants and wildflowers. Image: Wild Orchard

“Regenerative agriculture takes it one step further by focusing on the health of the soil,” said Ham. The model emphasises that soil requires living microbes to achieve its optimal health, which is obtained through various methods, including crop cover, minimising the amount of tillage, biodiversity, and intermittent grazing techniques, can grow nutrient-dense plants and reduce the amount of carbon in the environment.

In 2014, the Rodale Institute, Emmaus, Pennsylvania, released the white paper “Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change: A Down to Earth Solution to Global Warming,” urging the agricultural sector to consider the long-term impacts of its practices and to adopt regenerative methods. According to the Rodale Institute, most agricultural soil has lost between 30 to 75 per cent of its organic carbon. The loss has been linked to the atmosphere and conventional farming practices. Six years later, the Rodale Institute published “Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution,” reiterating the harm in conventional practices, and urged the agricultural industry to adopt regenerative practices to build healthy soil, and in turn, reduce the levels of carbon in the atmosphere.

Dr Rattan Lal, director of carbon management and sequestration centre, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and winner of the 2020 World Food Prize, has extensively studied soil health. He continues to emphasise the importance of protecting the soil, both for the health of the environment and to improve food security. He explained the interdependency between the health of soil and the health of the planet, stating that if the health of the soil goes down the health of everything else goes down with it.

Making the shift to regenerative practices

In November 2020, the World Coffee Research organisation invited both Dr Lal and Andrea Illy, chairman of illycaffè, Trieste, Italy, to discuss soil health, and more specifically regenerative agriculture and the need for the coffee industry to shift its farming practices to mitigate the risks of climate change. Over the last five years, several coffee and tea manufacturers have adapted their sustainability strategies to focus on regeneration and soil health. Starbucks launched a holistic sustainability project with a focus on regenerative agriculture in Nariño, Colombia, with 100 smallholder farmers. Nestlé committed to investing 1.3 billion dollars, over a five-year period, to aid farmers with the transition to regenerative practices.

illycaffè announced its goal of becoming a carbon-free company by 2033, including zero-emission coffee plantations in both Guatemala and Kokkere, Ethiopia, where the farmers are adopting the principles of regenerative agriculture. While Unilever released its five regenerative agriculture principles, which would serve as a model of standards that they would use to help educate suppliers and guide their farmers.

Tazo launched a regenerative organic tea line in August. Image: Tazo Tea

This past August, Tazo Tea (formerly owned by Unilever, now owned by ekaterra) launched a regenerative organic tea line made with ingredients grown with regenerative agriculture practices. The product launch included four Tazo original tea blends relaunched as regenerative organic blends. The commitment to becoming regenerative included not just the farms themselves but also a focus on developing resilient communities and replenishing the planet’s resources.

“Tazo has always been a brand that challenges the status quo, and this regenerative organic transition is no exception,” said Laraine Miller, president, ekaterra Americas, New York. “For too long, business as usual has been killing our planet. It is time for every company, including the entire tea industry, to overhaul their means of production to combat climate change and help people and planet thrive.”

The tea and coffee industries are taking action, adopting strategies that focus on regeneration, beginning with educating farmers on the importance of soil health and providing the resources that will support them with making this transition. However, the path to become regenerative, is still in its infancy. “Regenerative agriculture might be the new buzzword on the block, but the key aspect behind it to shift the focus of sustainable farming from ‘doing no harm’ towards delivering positive impact is urgent and garnering more corporate commitment,” said Piet van Asten, head sustainable production systems-coffee, Olam Food Ingredients (OFI), Singapore. “This momentum is proving powerful in driving efforts around decarbonisation and pesticide reduction.”

The message from both the tea and coffee communities is clear. Instead of sustaining, we need to reduce the amount of carbon in the environment, a term, called decarbonisation, and the adoption of regenerative practices provides a strategy to help achieve this goal.

For regenerative practices to be viable at the farm level, the strategies adopted need to be responsive to the particular needs of the farmer.

“From our experience, it’s important to present it to farmers as an extension of what they already do well, rather than as a requirement to change existing practices,” said Van Asten. “To encourage uptake, we need to go beyond the buzzwords by translating what ‘regenerative,’ ‘climate-smart’ or ‘agro-ecological’ practices mean on the ground in terms of better productivity and livelihoods.”

OFI strives to do this through education, including highlighting the benefits that some of these shifts, that may initially appear counterintuitive, like integrated weed management, can provide. For example, through education, the farmers begin to see soil erosion, recycle nutrients, and harbour natural predators to control insect pests. “Educating farmers and supporting them to meet demand by shifting to more eco-friendly production makes what might initially seem a daunting task, an economically viable route in the long-term,” said Van Asten.

From an economic standpoint, this model is being looked at for its potential in developing more resilient crops, and in turn, aiding with food security. However, converting to this model requires farmers to look at the entire process, from soil to the harvest, including both the short- and long-term outcome of each of the techniques that are used. Machine harvesting, for example, traditionally uses fossil fuel emitting these toxins into the environment, which in turn, enters the soil, and the plants. However, innovation in agrotech is looking at eco-friendly alternatives to respond to these challenges so that large scale farms have an option that will maintain their productivity without causing harm to the environment.

At Olam AtSource agronomist shows the benefits of a properly pruned coffee plant. Image: Vanessa L Facenda

Currently, the tea at the 1000-acre farm of Wild Orchard is hand-picked, however, the company is looking at investing in battery powered harvesting machines to pluck their second and third flushes of their crops. The hope is that by incorporating these types of tools into their operation will help accelerate the amount of regenerative tea that enters the supply chain.

The long-term benefits of regenerative agricultural practices continue to gain recognition throughout the tea and coffee industries. On a positive note, each shift that is made at the farm level, whether it is increasing biodiversity, integrated weed management, or maintaining cover crops, will help to feed the soil, and over time, reduce the amount of carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere. The launch of the regenerative organic alliance certification is a tool that will help increase consumer recognition of this agricultural model. However, now, it is up to the industry to share the positive actions that their companies are taking so that the products that are grown through the regenerative model receive both the recognition and the economic value that they deserve.

• Anne-Marie Hardie is a freelance writer, professor and speaker based in Barrie, Ontario. She may be reached at: annemariehardie1@gmail.com.

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The store plays a key role in a community collaboration between Starbucks Japan, Togane City and Sanyu Plant Service Corporation, a local manufacturer, which aims to promote circularity and reduce waste, while making a positive impact for the local community. As part of the collaboration, used coffee grounds from the new store will be recycled into cattle feed, and through Starbucks coffee grounds circularity loop, milk from participating dairies is then used to create handcrafted beverages at around 200 Starbucks stores across the Kanto and Kansai areas, including the new drive-thru. In addition, other food waste from the store will be turned into compost to grow produce directly at the rest stop in Togane City, in cooperation with Chiba Prefectural University of Agriculture.

Image: Starbucks Japan

Designed inside and out to reflect the area’s proud local industry, the store features local Sambu cedar and Japanese yew trees, the official trees of Togane City. As part of Starbucks’ global efforts to reduce carbon by 50% by 2030, the store is powered by solar panels on the roof and locally-generated renewable energy. The solar system will include batteries that can provide backup power in the event of an outage.

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“Numi’s new Carbon Footprint Label is our commitment to the planet and we believe it’s vital to share our carbon number with consumers,” said Reem Hassani, chief brand officer & co-founder of Numi. “We hope this big step for sustainability encourages other brands to follow our lead and commit to sharing their carbon footprint. The more of us that join this movement, the more context consumers will have when considering the environmental impact of their daily habits. Consumers are looking for a way to take action against climate change and we want to empower them with the information they need to do that.”

Numi worked with Planet FWD, the carbon management platform for consumer brands, to estimate an average product carbon footprint for all its teas and botanical products. In doing the study, Numi discovered that nearly half of a tea bag’s carbon footprint (46%) comes from boiling water. Consumers can reduce emissions by using an electric tea kettle, boiling only the amount of water they need, and opting for clean energy sources where available. Numi also found that its tea is preferable to coffee when it comes to carbon impact. The carbon footprint of a cup of Numi tea is 86% lower than a cup of conventional espresso and 37% lower than a cup of sustainably produced espresso.

Numi is a Climate Neutral Certified company, which means it measures, reduces and offsets 100% of annual Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. To identify the best opportunities for reduction, Numi uses its greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory to prioritise action based on the greatest emissions sources throughout the supply chain. Numi’s tea is carbon negative at the farm level because of regenerative practices like no-till farming, cover cropping, perennial planting, and agroforestry. From working with producers to explore renewable energy options to reducing corrugate in shipping to using plant-based packaging, Numi works to reduce operational emissions across the lifecycle of a Numi teabag. And now consumers can have a view into the impact that work is having on the company’s GHG emissions and the “carbon cost” for a cup of tea.

For the last 10 years, Numi has worked with CarbonFund to offset 10,191 metric tonnes of CO2e from business operations. Since 2018, it has purchased credits from the Envira Amazonia project in Brazil, which supports a transition in land ownership to local communities and establishes alternatives to cattle ranching. Funding from the carbon offsets supports education, livelihood diversification and a health clinic. The project has protected nearly 500,000 acres of tropical rainforest to date.

Numi announced its new Carbon Footprint Label at Natural Products Expo West 2022 where the new carbon footprint label can be viewed by visiting Numi at booth N1645. Numi vice president, strategic sourcing & sustainability, Jane Franch will be discussing Packaging Policies for the Future 10 March at 3 pm.

To learn more about Numi’s Carbon Footprint Label, visit numitea.com/climate.

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As we hone into the sustainability conversation, the coffee industry has recognised that achieving net-zero is no longer enough. We need to expand beyond the practices that will keep the coffee industry where it is today, but instead, look at the actions that will transform the industry tomorrow. The coffee industry needs to become a circular economy. The Ellen Macarthur Foundation, based in Cowes, England, works to accelerate the transition to a circular economy by developing and promoting the idea and by collaborating with business, academia, policymakers, and institutions to mobilise systems solutions at scale, globally. It defines a circular economy as a system that stops waste from being produced in the first place. It requires the adoption of three practices: the elimination of waste and pollution, circulating products and materials (recycling, renewable resources), and regenerating nature.

“If we don’t reduce industrial energy consumption and industrial emissions, research shows we will only get a little more than halfway to net-zero by 2050, about 55 per cent of the way,” said Nabil Nasr, CEO, REMADE Institute, New York, New York. “A circular economy approach to how we manufacture and use everyday products can help us get all the way to net-zero.” Over the last five years, REMADE has fused on increasing the reuse, remanufacturing, recovery, and recycling of metals, plastics/polymer, fibres, and electronic waste.

The elimination of waste and pollutions

The global production of coffee currently creates a substantial amount of waste and pollution along the supply chain, from the pulp of the cascara hulls emitting carbon to the packaging overflowing the landfill.

“Buying behaviours have changed, and consumers expect more from their coffee. Coffee must be sustainable inside and out, starting with the way it is grown, sourced, staffed, manufactured, and more recently how it is packaged,” said Nerida Kelton, vice president, sustainability and save food, World Packaging Organization.

Renewable energy is an essential component of adopting a circular economy, however, a limited infrastructure is preventing this from occurring. For example, in the United States, only 17 percent of the electrical grid is renewable energy. Globally, this number is even more dismal, with only 11 percent of the world’s primary energy being renewable. Thankfully, positive shifts are occurring; in 2020, the renewable energy sector outpaced fossil fuels in the United Kingdom. Norway has the highest share of renewable energy in the world, and Brazil is a leader in biofuel and waste energy, accounting for 32 percent of their energy supply.

Coffee flowers can be used to make coffee tea. Image: Coffee Consulate

Since 2017 all of Dunstable, England-based Costa Coffee’s company-owned stores have been powered by renewable energy. Their roastery integrates renewable energy, including a 249kw solar PV system that provides power to the roaster, and an in-house, rainwater harvesting system. Today, the company is focused on further reducing its carbon footprint, including finding viable solutions for reusable coffee cups. This past November, the company changed their lining in their 95 percent wood fibre based takeaway cups to plant-based plastic, reducing the carbon footprint by an additional 26 percent.

Solutions, like the Bellwether Coffee zero-emission electric roaster, are helping provide cafes with a sustainable alternative to their traditional equipment. The electric roaster reduces the carbon footprint of the roast cycle by 87 percent. “We already see many coffee farmers creating circular economies within their own farming practices like using cascara to create compost,” said Grayson Caldwell, senior sustainability manager, Bellwether Coffee, Berkeley, California. “Coffee roasters have a responsibility to promote a circular economy as well.”

In December 2021, Bellwether Coffee announced its Roast Accelerator programme to help reduce the barriers to implementing a sustainable coffee roaster. The programme, which is currently available for marginalised San Francisco Bay area (Calif.) roasters, will provide a Bellwether roaster at zero upfront cost and a year of subsidised monthly roaster rent.

A broader approach to waste management

One of the challenges of developing a packaging design is ensuring that it is kept out of the landfill. Using recyclable or compostable materials is no longer enough; companies need to ensure that their products conform to the levies and regulations in the region. Alternatively, they can develop a closed-loop system that will help ensure that the packaging is repurposed.

The most well-known coffee by-product is cascara, the dried cherries from which the coffee beans have been removed. Image: Coffee Consulate

Single serve has long been a target for sustainability, which has resulted in several companies creating solutions that are either compostable or recyclable. One brand that has done precisely that is Nespresso. Lausanne, Switzerland-based Nespresso has developed regional partnerships to ensure its aluminium-based pods stay out of landfills. Currently, there are 100,000 Nespresso collection points spanning across fifty countries.

Developing these types of closed loop collection programmes will help ensure that the packaging is repurposed instead of placed in the landfill. Recently, Nespresso partnered with CurbCycle and iQ Recycle to trial a new programme in the Mosman, Newcastle and Willoughby regions in Australia. “The new Curby program sends residents in a trial region bright orange Curby bags, which are filled with the aluminium capsules and then placed into the regular recycling bin,” said Kelton. “The bags are then separated at the Materials Recovery Facility and sent to Nespresso to recycle.”

The most well-known coffee by-product is cascara, the dried cherries from which the coffee beans have been removed.

Cafes Novell, Barcelona, Spain, has also implemented several initiatives to contribute to the circular economy, including zero-waste packaging, partnering with Nespresso in its recyclable single serve programme, and committing to responsible sourcing. “Cafes Novell didn’t want to offer packaging that didn’t marry up with their sustainable goals,” said Kelton. “They identified the issue of capsules heading to the landfill and designed a compostable barrier for their pods and a recyclable carton board in 2019.” Cafes Novell’s most recent partnership is with Tree-Nation, Barcelona, Spain, where the company has committed to planting a tree in one of several reforestation projects with every purchase.

The use of mono-materials helps improve the overall recycling and composting rate of packaging, however, creating this for coffee has been a challenge. This is because coffee packaging needs to preserve the product, while also creating a barrier for gas and vapour.

Cyclpac, Melbourne, Australia, the 2022 WorldStar Packaging Award winner, addressed these challenges when they designed a recyclable, sustainable mono-material solution for coffee that offers barriers to oxygen and vapour. “Cyclpac have developed a packaging solution that could change traditional approaches in the coffee industry for good, replacing ‘mixed’ laminate packaging materials,” said Kelton. “The packaging is 90 percent LDPE [low-density polyethylene], has a technical barrier to gas and vapour, a mono structure lamination, BOPE [a transformative technology that enables the manufacture of all-polyethylene], seven-layer high barrier co-extrusion [an extrusion process used to obtain a product that combines two textures] with EVOH [ethylene vinyl alcohol], reverse or surface printed.” The material used is recyclable and compliant with the Australasian Recycling Labelling Program and the On-Pack Recycling Label in the United Kingdom.

Circulating products and materials at their highest value

One of the fundamental principles of a circular economy is the elimination of finite resources by either keeping existing products and materials in use or repurposing the raw materials into other formats.

Packaging is not the only by-product created by the industry, one of the largest sources of waste is the coffee grounds. To address this issue, cafés are creating programmes to divert this waste source, including internal composting programmes and repurposing the grounds into other materials.

“Coffee grounds have traditionally been seen as a ‘waste’ material. But now we can recycle these into sustainable composites for plastics (in fixtures like signage or countertops), or indeed into a natural flavour ingredient for foods and beverages,” said Jessica Folkerts, head of marketing, bio-bean Limited, Huntingdon, UK. For this upcycling to happen, bio-bean requires a clean supply stream of spent grounds. “Behaviour change is key here; whether it’s in the sourcing of more sustainable materials and ingredients or the ‘waste’ segregation and disposal of the by-products, it’s down to human behaviour to truly make a change.”

The Curby trial programme in Australia sends residents special bags for Nespresso aluminium capsules that can then be placed in regular bins.

Bio-bean, whose purpose is to create impactful, lasting change by innovating through coffee waste, recycles spent coffee grounds from businesses across the UK into a variety of sustainable bio-products. Their latest product, Inficaf, which launched this past July, has a range of applications, from plastics to automotive friction and cosmetics. A couple of the projects that Inficaf has been used in, include creating wall art in McDonald’s net-zero restaurant and a partnership with businesses in plastics compounding and moulding to create a reusable coffee cup.

In June 2021, Costa Coffee extended its partnership with bio-bean, which began in 2016, for an additional two years. Approximately 1500 Costa Coffee stores segregate their spent coffee grounds and send them to the bio-bean recycling facility.

Regenerating nature

In a circular economy, the focus expands beyond yield to look at regeneration, including protecting the local ecosystem through biodiversity and seeing soil as a living organism. “In agriculture, to create a circular economy you need to recognise the complexity and realise it’s different in every country,” said Andrea Illy, chairman, Illycaffè, SpA, Trieste, Italy.

Image: International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (2021)

One of the challenges of integrating regenerative agriculture at the farm level, is developing a model that is truly scalable. To further understand this form of agriculture, Illycaffè is applying the principles of regenerative agriculture to two zero-emission plantations, one at the Jardines de Babilonia in Guatemala and the second at Kokkere which is in Ethiopia’s Ormia region. This includes planting trees, enriching the soil with organic matter to boost carbon efficiency, and boosting the biodiversity of the region to restore the ecosystem’s balance. Illy’s goal is to be able to turn these projects into scalable models. Illycaffè’s objective is to become carbon-free by 2033, which requires shifting its agriculture practices from ‘emitter’ to ‘sequestrator’.

Several key players in the industry including, Nestlé, Starbucks, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, and Unilever, have made substantial commitments to achieving net zero and investing in regenerative agriculture. Actions include detailed origin assessments, increasing biodiversity, a commitment to agroforestry and reducing carbon emissions.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation emphasised that the circular economy is a system solution framework. For coffee, this involves looking at the entire supply chain and implementing solutions that are focused on regeneration, instead of extraction. It is a complex shift with many moving parts, however, the path towards a circular economy in coffee is slowly being paved.

• Anne-Marie Hardie is a freelance writer, professor and speaker based in Barrie, Ontario. She may be reached at: annemariehardie1@gmail.com.

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“JDE Peet’s is deeply committed to an inclusive growth model. Today’s announcement of our GHG emissions targets formalises our commitment to climate action, a key focal point within our sustainability journey, while creating long-term value for the business and our stakeholders,” said Fabien Simon, CEO JDE Peet’s.

“In addition, we are committed to reviewing these targets within the next five years and assessing the potential to further enhance our goals to a 1.5°C trajectory on the way to reaching net zero GHG emissions across our full value chain by 2050.”

JDE Peet’s’ approach to sustainability is focused on building collaborative partnerships and prioritising areas where it has the greatest potential impact, the company says. Its end-to-end approach to reduce GHG emissions across its value chain focuses on two key areas:

Minimising operational footprint:

• Further increase the efficiency of resources across JDE Peet’s global manufacturing network;
• Continue to grow the share of renewable electricity throughout business operations;
• Replace fossil fuels with green alternatives wherever feasible, such as using spent coffee grounds as fuel in operations.

Addressing the footprint of the value chain:

• Work towards 100% responsibly sourced coffee, tea, and palm oil by 2025 through its Common Grounds programme;
• Minimise the environmental impact of JDE Peet’s packaging by reducing the amount of packaging it needs, designing its packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable, and increasing the share of recycled packaging post life-cycle;
• Explore low-carbon logistics options for our inbound and outbound transport across the value chain.

To learn more about JDE Peet’s’ sustainability journey, visit the company’s website.

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“Plastic-free July” in the UK has put added pressure on the coffee and tea industries to reform. The European Union recently banned the use of single-use coffee cups, and grocery retail chains Aldi and Sainsbury’s now promise plastic-free teabags.

Kent & Sussex Tea and Coffee evaluated the habits of over 100 cities throughout the UK using Google search volumes and survey data to find out where consumers care the most about this issue. [Methodology: a data analysis of the UK’s most sustainable coffee and tea consumers by using the average monthly search data for relevant terms between January 2020 and May 2021 and Google Surveys data in February 2021].

To locate the Brits most concerned about the ‘sustainability’ of their caffeine, the company examined who was searching (“googling”) the following terms:

1. Plastic free teabags
2. Recycling
3. Reusable coffee cups
4. Zero waste/sustainable shops
5. Coffee beans
6. Loose-leaf tea

They also cross referenced this with how much British consumers claimed to care about their caffeine carbon footprint according to a survey they conducted between 12 and 15 February 2021. The findings uncovered “eco warrior” and “eco fakers.”

In third position – because of a high volume of searches for ‘reusable coffee cups’ and ‘loose leaf tea’ – is Bath. In second place, searching most in the country for ‘reusable coffee cups’ and third most for ‘loose-leaf tea’ and ‘coffee beans,’ is the neighbouring city of Bristol, while Cambridge residents were the second most likely to search for ‘loose-leaf tea.’

Residents of Bedford top the list — they are googling ‘recycling’ more than anyone else, and they score highly on all other factors too, including ranking second in terms of most likely to search for ‘coffee beans.’

The city searching for ‘loose leaf tea’ more than anyone else is Stockport, which ranked 8th overall for caffeine-conscious consumption. Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire had the highest search volumes for coffee beans in the UK.

Conversely, which towns and cities fared the worst in this survey?

The third “least conscientious” city is Stoke-on-Trent, whose residents were the least likely to rank ‘sustainability’ as important when buying their coffee in the UK per the survey. Luton (Bedford’s neighbour) is the second least caffeine-conscious city in the UK. In fact, “Lutonians” do not spend much time searching for ‘reusable coffee cups’ or ‘loose-leaf tea’ when it comes to their brews.

Bedford ranked significantly below all others with the lowest volume of searches, in particular, the least for ‘loose-leaf’ tea.

Eco warriors, or eco fakers?

By comparing the search volume data to the February 2021 study, Kent & Sussex Tea and Coffee found there is also a big disparity between which British consumers claim to shop sustainably for their tea and coffee, and those who actually do.

The Northern Irish were the most likely to “claim” they shopped for their tea and coffee sustainably, and yet overall, the top-ranking Northern Irish town Derry landed in 21st position. The East Midlands and Scotland were the next likely regions to “say” they prioritised sustainability when shopping, and yet neither region managed to place any city in the top ten.

The most honest region was the West Midlands. According to the survey, people in the West Midlands were the least likely to claim they shop sustainably, which was corroborated by their search volumes. Stoke-on-Trent and Coventry, which are both in the region, ranked fourth and fifth least likely to be googling about these issues.

The North West of England downplayed their efforts the most. And although the region was the fourth least likely to rank sustainability as an important factor, it scored two cities in the top ten — Chester and Stockport.

Lastly, the towns where convenient caffeine reigns supreme are Sale, Newport and Raleigh (where residents search the least for ‘coffee beans’) and Bradford, Luton and Milton Keynes (where they search the least for ‘loose-leaf tea’).

• Vanessa L Facenda, editor, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal.
  Keep in touch via email: vanessa@bellpublishing.com
  Twitter: @TCTradeJournal or LinkedIn: Tea & Coffee Trade Journal.

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“We wanted to learn how electric vehicles equipped with bidirectional charging systems can reduce our building costs and our impact on climate change,” said Cindi Bigelow, third-generation president and CEO of the family-owned company.

“Our partnership with Bigelow Tea will help us advance our mission of getting more renewables on the grid and more EVs on the road,” said David Slutzky, founder and CEO of Fermata Energy. “Fermata Energy’s technology paired with a bidirectional enabled vehicle and our proprietary software has successfully reduced building costs by returning energy back to the grid during peak periods.”

“We are always learning new ways to advance our company’s mission,” Bigelow said. “We hope we can lead by example and bring this technology to our other facilities, resulting in further cost reductions and show others the value in transitioning their fleets to electric vehicles.”

As a Certified B Corporation, Bigelow Tea’s manufacturing process centres around conserving energy and water, waste reduction efforts, and land preservation and protection efforts. To be recognised as a B Corp, a company conducts a rigorous assessment of its business practices and must meet the highest standards of environmental and social performance, and include the interests of its stakeholders among the corporate responsibilities.

In addition, Bigelow Tea was designated a “Zero Waste to Landfill” company in 2012 and announced earlier this year that 100% of the energy used across all three of its facilities comes from 100% renewable sources, which have been certified by Green-e Energy, the national leader in clean energy certification.

“For 75 years Bigelow Tea has focused on doing the right thing for the right reasons.” Bigelow said. “That is why we have made such a strong commitment to greening, wellness, and community. The partnership with Fermata Energy advances these efforts.”

For more information on how Bigelow Tea makes a difference and leads by example, visit: bigelowtea.com/Responsibility/Sustainability.

For more information on how Fermata Energy’s vehicle-to grid technology works, visit: www.fermataenergy.com.

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The independent Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis by Intertek, one of the world’s leading Total Quality Assurance providers, is the first to measure the environmental impact of producing, using and disposing of all types of single use coffee cups, including the whole supply chain from growing trees, paper-making, plastic production, transport, cup and sleeve manufacture, delivery and waste processing.

It found that each conventional single use coffee cup requires 0.58 litres of water to produce and has a carbon footprint of up to 60.9 grams of CO2e per cup. This is because conventional, coated and compostable cups are all made from virgin paper.

That means 1.45 billion litres of water and 1.03 million trees are used to produce more than 2.5 billion coffee cups used in the UK every year and 290 billion litres and 206.3 million trees to make the estimated 500 billion cups used globally.

The carbon footprint of the 2.5 billion cups that go to landfill in the UK is therefore over 152,000 tonnes of CO2e, the equivalent of 33,300 cars being driven for a year. Globally for the 500 billion cups, that is over 30.4 million tonnes, the CO2 equivalent of providing electricity to 5,155,366 households – a city the size of Paris.

However, if the UK moved over to the Frugal Cup, which is made from 96% recycled paper with no waterproofing chemicals, it could save over a billion litres of water and up to a million trees a year. Repeated globally, 215 billion litres of water and 198 million trees could be saved per year.

The analysis shows that if Frugal Cups replaced the more than 2.5 billion coffee cups used in the UK every year, the carbon saving would be approximately 90,315 tonnes of CO2e, which is the carbon equivalent of:

• Driving more than 224 million miles in an average car. Enough to drive around the world 8,996 times and take 19,502 cars off the road
• Charging 11.5 billion smartphones. More than enough to charge every smartphone on the planet three times
• Sequestering carbon from 117,947 acres of forest – the size of 68,300 football pitches
• Providing electricity for 15,291 homes for a year – the size of a town like Port Talbot.

If the 500 billion paper cups consumed globally were replaced with Frugal Cup, more than 18 million tonnes of CO2e could be saved, which would be the carbon equivalent of 42 million barrels of oil, driving around the world 1.8 million times or providing electricity to 3,058,173 households for a year – more than enough to power whole countries like Scotland, Denmark or Finland.

Replacing the UK’s more than 2.5 billion cups with Frugal Cup could also save 1.07 billion litres of water every year, the equivalent of 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and more than 990,099 trees. (This figure is based on 2006 US statistics that found 6.6 million trees were cut down to produce 16 billion paper coffee cups, therefore averaging 2,424 paper cups per tree and the Frugal Cup being made of 96% recycled paper).

Frugalpac’s chief executive, Malcolm Waugh, said: “This independent study conclusively proves that the Frugal Cup is the most environmentally friendly paper cup available and could easily become the standard if the major coffee chains accepted it.

“It’s the only cup that uses recycled paper and whichever way you dispose of it, still produces by far the lowest carbon and water footprints against conventional, coated and compostable cups.

“It’s increasingly clear that people and businesses have to live and work more sustainably. Recycling coffee cups is still a huge problem. There is only one dedicated waste facility in the UK to process conventional cups and 53 industrial composting sites that could process compostable cups. Increasing that capacity will cost tens of millions of pounds and take decades to achieve.

“The Frugal Cup has been specifically designed to go through conventional recycling facilities. Moving over to our cup will protect the environment, reduce carbon emissions, save billions of litres of water and stop millions of trees needlessly being cut down to produce single use cups made of virgin paper.”

The Frugal Cup is already being used in independent coffee shops across the UK and in universities such as the London School of Economics (LSE).

Marcelo Warmling, Hospitality & Catering manager at the LSE, said:

“Standard virgin paper cups with a plastic liner are extremely difficult to collect, sort, and recycle because of their components and construction. That’s why we decided to stock the Frugal Cup across all our catering outlets.

“Manufactured in UK – using a market-leading 96% recycled paper and no waterproofing chemicals – the Frugal Cup delivers considerable reductions in the use of energy and carbon. With such impressive Life Cycle Analysis results, the Frugal Cup was the only choice for us. Plus, as it is manufactured using recycled paper, it has already completed several loops of recycling prior to it becoming a cup, which means that the process is truly circular.”

To more information about the Frugal Cup, visit: www.frugalpac.com.

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