The key cause of a coffee shop’s carbon footprint is (you guessed it) lattes

United Baristas founder Tim Ridley maps the journey, in this presentation at Caffè Culture 2022, from our first article on coffee’s carbon footprint over three years ago and brings our knowledge up-to-date with fresh research from a recent pilot study scoping the carbon footprint of coffee shops.
Understanding the causes of a shop’s carbon footprint allows the coffee industry to focus their energy and resources on areas with the greatest potential benefit.
There are a variety of actions baristas and coffee businesses can take when seeking to lower their carbon emissions. The research shows a focus on milk selection and espresso machine electricity consumption is mission-critical. This is both because of their magnitude and the relative ease with which significant improvement can be made.
The industry needs to do more comprehensive research on its carbon emissions to better understand where cost-effective carbon reductions can be made. However, the need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with milk selection and espresso machines is clear. By tackling these issues alone, it’s possible to reduce the carbon footprint of a flat white from ~ 250 grams to less than 50 grams.
More information, and a copy of the slides, is available on United Baristas at
unitedbaristas...

[@gdonaldson6711]

Super interesting to see it broken down like this with each aspect of what a coffee shop uses in a year. I wonder what the difference would be between commercially bought dairy milk and locally sourced? Seems to be a growing trend just now but I'm not convinced it's as beneficial as making the swap or increasing the use of oat milks.

[@jannenmakinen]

That was super informative and a bit surprising, to be honest. Milk and and to a lesser extent espresso machines are the main culprits in CO2 creation. Shouldn't the coffee industry then start moving away from Italian origin, 2nd wave type of drinks such as lattes and cappuccinos? Wouldn't it make sense to motivate (through pricing or otherwise) consumers to start trying very good quality pour overs and french presses and if the coffee is needed quicker, having the normal filter coffee. Is there any data on how heating the water in a boiler to make, say a pour over, compares with making an espresso, in terms of CO2?

[@DonalSquires]

Who's allowed to claim the taxes which corporations do U apply to

[@DonalSquires]

I'm not a big drink or have we paid carbon taxes