Comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the Agri-Food Industry, Focusing on Organic and Conventional Coffee

Yusra Hasan (), Poritosh Roy and Bassim Abbassi
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Yusra Hasan: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Thornbrough Building, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Poritosh Roy: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Thornbrough Building, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Bassim Abbassi: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Thornbrough Building, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-17

Abstract: This study evaluates the environmental burden of organic and conventional coffee systems with a functional unit (FU) of 1 kg for market-ready, dried coffee. The ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 framework and guidelines are applied to organic and conventional coffee systems, using a cradle-to-grave approach and the methodology of ReCiPe Endpoint 2008, cumulative energy demand (CED), and the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Superior sustainability was achieved for organic coffee compared to the performance of conventional coffee, with values of 218.50 mPt (conventional) and 146.10 mPt (organic), and a global warming potential (GWP) of 2.12 kg CO 2 eq FU −1 (organic) and 1.44 kg CO 2 eq FU −1 (conventional). CED fossil-based consumption totalled 25 MJ and 35 MJ for organic and conventional coffee systems, respectively. Conventional and organic coffee system hotspots stemmed from the planting (chemical fertilizer), drying, and packaging processes. This study emphasizes the environmental benefits of organic practices and their relatively lower impact than conventional methods. Within a growing sector, best management practices in the form of actionable insights from a life cycle assessment must be sought to ensure environmental sustainability in parallel with the UN’s goals.

Keywords: coffee cultivation; life cycle assessment (LCA); environmental damage; organic coffee; conventional coffee; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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