Mapping and Mitigating Coffee’s Carbon Footprint

Climate change is an increasingly important consideration for leading coffee roasters and retailers around the world who are keen to purchase sustainably produced coffee with a lower carbon footprint. These growing requirements in global coffee markets create new incentives for exporters and suppliers to invest in mapping and mitigating the crop’s carbon footprint, as coffee that is sustainably produced can be sold at higher premiums that flow through the supply chain and down to the smallholder farmers that grow it. In an intervention that is the first of its kind in PNG, MDF is supporting its partner Sucafina to measure its value chain emissions so that it can invest accordingly in offsetting or reducing them.

Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, can be emitted at different points in the coffee production cycle, including during the production and application of fertiliser, when in transport, and from power generation for coffee processing. In PNG, leading coffee agribusiness Sucafina partnered with MDF to measure and minimise carbon emissions across its coffee value chain. For Sucafina, mapping emissions is a key step in its sustainability journey. This initiative is the first of its kind in PNG and the findings will be made available to all locally owned coffee aggregators working with Sucafina in PNG. To measure emissions, MDF worked with Sucafina to develop a customised data template and calculator. These measurements will quantify Sucafina’s carbon footprint from farm to export.

Coffee, climate and high-value markets

The detailed mapping of Sucafina’s supply chain will help determine which steps in the value chain lead to the highest carbon emissions. With MDF support, the

The Sucafina team in PNG has started mapping farmers’ coffee gardens in Kainantu, Eastern Highlands Province, and Wau Bulolo, Morobe Province. The team covered 2,167 coffee farms, comprising a total of 150 hectares in two provinces.