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Environmental Impact Associated with the Supply Chain and Production of Grounding and Roasting Coffee through Life Cycle Analysis

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  • Mario R. Giraldi-Díaz

    (Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n. Zona Universitaria, C.P. 91040 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico)

  • Lorena De Medina-Salas

    (Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n. Zona Universitaria, C.P. 91040 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico)

  • Eduardo Castillo-González

    (Facultad de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n. Zona Universitaria, C.P. 91040 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico)

  • Rosario León-Lira

    (Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n. Zona Universitaria, C.P. 91040 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico)

Abstract

Coffee is the beverage resulting from the infusion of roasted and ground seeds of the coffee fruit. It is one of the most commercialized products in the world and represents a high interest agro-industrial product in Mexico. The demand for this product has grown in great measure in the last decade, thus it is becoming more important to make environmental and energetic evaluations of its manufacturing process. In this sense, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool for the purposes of this study, as it quantifies the wake of environmental impacts associated to the production and supply chain from its inputs and outputs of the product system. Therefore, the impact categories studied were carbon, energetic, and water footprints. The cultivation phase led to global contributions between 61% and 67% in magnitude for energy and carbon footprints, respectively; meanwhile, the coffee benefit process was the phase with the most contributions to the water footprint (54%). The residual biomass from the product system used as the energy supply within the coffee drying sub-phase represented energy savings of around 41% in comparison to the use of conventional fossil fuels, thus reducing the global impact associated to the system’s product.

Suggested Citation

  • Mario R. Giraldi-Díaz & Lorena De Medina-Salas & Eduardo Castillo-González & Rosario León-Lira, 2018. "Environmental Impact Associated with the Supply Chain and Production of Grounding and Roasting Coffee through Life Cycle Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4598-:d:188022
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Martin Bennett & Stefan Schaltegger & Dimitar Zvezdov, 2011. "Environmental Management Accounting," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Magdy G. Abdel-Kader (ed.), Review of Management Accounting Research, chapter 3, pages 53-84, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Cherubini, Francesco & Bargigli, Silvia & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2009. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) of waste management strategies: Landfilling, sorting plant and incineration," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2116-2123.
    3. Chapagain, A.K. & Hoekstra, A.Y., 2007. "The water footprint of coffee and tea consumption in the Netherlands," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 109-118, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Yi-Wen Chiu, 2019. "Environmental Implications of Taiwanese Oolong Tea and the Opportunities of Impact Reduction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-13, October.
    2. Hugo Sakamoto & Larissa Thaís Bruschi & Luiz Kulay & Akebo Yamakami, 2023. "Using the Life Cycle Approach for Multiobjective Optimization in the Context of the Green Supply Chain: A Case Study of Brazilian Coffee," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Enio Campiglia & Laura Gobbi & Alvaro Marucci & Mattia Rapa & Roberto Ruggieri & Giuliana Vinci, 2020. "Hemp Seed Production: Environmental Impacts of Cannabis sativa L. Agronomic Practices by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Carbon Footprint Methodologies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-15, August.

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