Salt Spring Coffee, Nicaragua French Roast Coffee

Company Name: Salt Spring Coffee Company
Location: Richmond, BC, Canada
Industry Sector: Food and Beverage, Coffee
Carbon Neutral Claim: Carbon Neutral Product
Carbon Neutral Product Since: June 2010

Salt Spring Coffee has been dedicated to 100% organic, direct fair trade, shade grown coffee using only 100% Arabica beans since opening their doors on Salt Spring Island in 1996.  In 2007, after working closely with Offsetters, Salt Spring Coffee became one of North America’s first Carbon Neutral coffee roasters.

How we helped
In 2010, Salt Spring Coffee wanted to take their commitment one step further and we conducted a Product Life Cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory report on behalf of Salt Spring Coffee for their French Roast Nicaragua 400 gram bag.

Lifecycle analysis is an extensive study that follows and maps a product from its infancy to the end of its life and measures its full climate impact.  In determining the carbon footprint, we considered everything from farm practices in Nicaragua to shipping, roasting, brewing and even disposal to map every single step of the life of this particular bag of coffee.

Results and key learnings
Salt Spring Coffee decided to offset the carbon footprint of the 400 gram bag of their French Roast Nicaragua from the farm to the consumer point of purchase otherwise known as “cradle to gate”, as a result of the lifecycle analysis we completed. The study determined that there are 1,807 grams of carbon produced during the life of each bag of roasted coffee beans, the equivalent to that of running a refrigerator for 17 days in British Columbia or driving the average car five kilometres. Salt Spring Coffee also went a step further,  and voluntarily offset all their coffee.

Other key learnings from the lifecycle assessment:

• Only 2% of the carbon is from growing the coffee beans

• The consumer’s portion of carbon emissions make up more than 60% of the entire footprint, 39 per cent for getting it home, grinding and brewing and 24 per cent for disposal of the coffee and the bag
• Consumers brew 30% more coffee than they drink which wastes water, coffee and energy
• Coffee drinkers can reduce their portion of the carbon footprint by brewing only what they will drink, composting coffee grounds and getting creative with the coffee bag to reuse it as a planter or by taking it to an environmentally responsible disposal site.

Benefits
By offsetting the “cradle to gate” carbon footprint for the French Roast Nicaragua, Salt Spring Coffee was able to announce Canada’s first carbon neutral coffee, once again demonstrating their leadership and commitment to sustainability in their sector.

Communications
We worked with Salt Spring to announce our findings at a media event that generated close to 3 million impressions and over $200,000 in earned media attention including front page coverage. 

“Offsetters has always provided excellent guidance in our carbon management but working on this study has made us truly understand the level of their expertise. We were really surprised with the results of their work and decided offsetting the coffee’s carbon footprint made sense for us and our customers.”

Mickey McLeod, CEO, Salt Spring Coffee.

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