Caffe Inc. is on a mission to create a world without coffee waste, making high quality ingredients derived from coffee by-products for a greener future. Caffe Inc. offers upcycled coffee oil, coffee blocks and coffee colorants to replace virgin raw materials. Hedgehog conducted an LCA-study about coffee oil, made from coffee by-products. Evaluna Márquez Salazar, founder and CTO at Caffe Inc., tells more about her experience and the way Caffe Inc. is using the LCA-results.
Context: what was the LCA-study about?
Caffe Inc. wanted to get insights in the environmental footprint of their product: upcycled coffee oil. The study was about two types of coffee oil, made from coffee waste. So we assessed the impact of two different production streams.
- Food grade coffee oil that can be used in food products as flavouring or oil-based ingredient.
- Cosmetic grade coffee oil, which is used mainly in skin and hair products due to its high content of vitamin E and antioxidants.
We conducted a cradle-to-gate LCA, for 1 kg of coffee oil, as produced by the coffee by-products. Cradle-to-gate means we took all emissions into account from ingredients and production, up until the product leaves Caffe Inc’s factory gate.
What was the reason you wanted to have an LCA made of your product?
One of our core values is to create Positive Impact by using green chemistry processes. A LCA is essential for us to build our environmental reduction strategy and keep transparency within our value chain.
We will use the results to communicate the sustainable performance of our product to consumers. To some of our clients, it's very important to have insights into our environmental impact as this is an important consumer-driver to choose an upcycled product over conventional raw ingredients.
How was the process of doing the LCA for you?
Evaluna: “Overall, we were quite happy with how easy it was to collect the data because that was actually done mostly in one day and on site. And even the further additions, later on, were not very time-consuming for us. This was a relief, but that's also related to how much data you have already available as a company.
For the study, we wanted to apply some scenarios, to build our environmental reduction strategy and what Gloria Carta, LCA-expert, did was give me an editable data-sheet tool to assess in detail each variable of our process.
At the beginning, there was some confusion about what we wanted from the project. So the first time we received the first results, it was not completely aligned with what we were expecting. But after we discussed this in a meeting, we were able to get right away in line and agreed to what we expected.
During our collaboration, Hedgehog was very cooperative in explaining the ISO standards for LCA methodology and reporting. However, since our case is special as we are making an upcycled product, they were also thinking out of the box, as far as this is possible with the ISO-standards to fit our company needs.“
How are you using the LCA-results?
Evaluna: “Based on the results we received, we have set-up an environmental strategy to follow up in the near future. We are confident to show our impact to customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.
As a next step, we would like to have a cradle-to-cradle LCA conducted to also consider the benefits of the products we replace. There are some specific challenges when you are working with waste, and your environmental impact is more complex than just the emissions you emit, because of the processing steps. You also have to give importance to some of the other indicators of environmental impact.
Saro Campisano, co-founder Hedgehog: “This was also a very interesting project for us. If you look at the production of something, let's say coffee, it's relatively easy to address all emissions. You map all the inputs and outputs, and form the footprint.
But with waste it's a bit more complicated. You need to think and to see it a bit differently because what the impact is, is also partly depending on what you do with the waste. So if you burn it, or recycle it. Then you also have to calculate avoided emissions or the emissions from burning of the waste streams."
What are the next steps in your sustainability strategy now?
Evaluna: “We are focusing on identifying and implementing alternative energy sources to minimise emissions, especially in the high-impact areas of our process. One of our main strategies is to increase energy efficiency, which involves integrating residual heat and utilising cleaner energy sources.
Other important changes include packaging material selected and making sure that the waste streams of our process are minimised. By adopting these measures, we are confident that we can reduce our production emissions by up to 80%."
