By working to reduce carbon emissions across its coffee supply chain, Volcafe says it will also be better able to support producers battling the climate crisis and the sustainability goals of its partner roasters | Photo credit: Volcafe

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Swiss coffee trader Volcafe has partnered with management consulting service provider dss+ to assess and work to reduce its carbon footprint across its global chain. 

The companies will devise and implement a global carbon audit across Volcafe's 25+ origin and destination offices to calculate an accurate baseline measurement of Volcafe's scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions – a key first step toward achieving carbon neutrality.  

In a press release, the two companies highlighted that coffee supply chain carbon emissions are increasingly overtaking farming and land use as the largest contributor to GHG emissions in the agri-food sector.

By working to reduce carbon emissions across its coffee supply chain, Volcafe says it will also be better able to support sustainability goals of its partner roasters.  

"We are very pleased to be working with dss+ as Volcafe undertakes these important steps to measure and tackle our carbon footprint. Taking stock of our current footprint will help us focus our efforts and reduce emissions more effectively, and also, we will be in a better position to support the climate commitments from our strategic roaster partners. We are all in this climate journey together," said Carlos Ortiz, sustainability manager and climate lead at Volcafe.  

In the last two years Volcafe, the coffee division of commodities trader ED&F Man, has partnered with researchers from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences on the development of a coffee-specific Life Cycle Inventory and Assessment tool, which factors in over 300 variables in the production of coffee, allowing for a holistic assessment of the environmental impact of a cup of coffee. 

An growing number of smallholder coffee farmers live in poverty because of an inconsistent and persistently low income. The impact of climate change on coffee cultivation is exacerbating the issue,  and negatively impacting coffee quality and yields with increasing frequency. 

The Volcafe Way farmer support programme, part of a Sustainability Strategy launched in October 2021, works with tens of thousands of coffee farmers and promotes sustainable profitability, regenerative practices, and responsible citizenship throughout coffee value chains. 

Volcafe is an international coffee merchant, specialising in worldwide green coffee procurement, processing in origin countries and distribution to roaster partners. It is one of the world’s largest traders for arabica and robusta coffees.