Environmental impacts of different methods of coffee preparation

The environmental impacts of coffee consumption inter alia depend on the preparation method used by consumers. Preparation methods such as filter drip, pod machines and fully automatic coffee machines are the most common ones in Germany: 62% of the consumers use a filter drip machine to brew their coffee, 23% use filter pad machines and 15% use espresso machines such as fully automatic coffee machines or capsule systems. The aim of the different studies presented in this paper was to identify the critical environmental issues along the life cycle of coffee and to compare the different preparation methods of coffee regarding their influence on the environmental impacts. Within the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) Pilot Project Germany, the PCF of one cup of a special type of coffee was analysed on behalf of Tchibo GmbH (Uberseering, Hamburg, Germany). As the results show, the preparation by the consumer is one crucial part of the entire life cycle of coffee, making up a share of 30% of the overall emissions. Another hot spot is the cultivation of coffee beans with 55%. Concerning the use phase, research shows that environmental impacts vary significantly depending on the preparation method used by the consumer. Main drivers are differences in power consumption of the respective technologies. Furthermore, different packagings of the coffee play a decisive role. Comparing the analysed appliances and defined usage scenarios in this study, the French press and filter drip machine performed best, followed by the filter pad machine. In contrast, the environmental impacts of the analysed fully automatic coffee machine and the capsule machine were highest. The reason for this was the high power consumption, especially in the machines' sleep and standby mode. Additionally, capsule machines contribute to the environmental impacts because of the aluminium and/or plastic packaging of the capsules, automatic coffee machines because of their cleaning and rinsing programmes. The detailed results indicate a significant savings potential in the use phase. The impacts not only depend on the specific energy efficiency of the chosen appliance but also on the usage behaviour.