How much carbon is in your coffee cup?

Like all activities, making a cup of coffee has a carbon footprint. Coffee is grown on farms in the tropics, the ripe cherries are picked then processed at a mill where the pulp is removed, the beans are washed and then dried, it is transported across the world via ship and road, the beans are roasted using gas, wood or electric then packed for customers, who finally prepare by grinding, brewing and drinking it before disposing of the grinds. At every stage, CO₂ is released to the atmosphere whether directly or indirectly as a result of using energy, but do you know how much and which stage has the biggest carbon footprint?

Researchers Killian et al. ¹ analysed the carbon footprint of a cup of coffee originating at a farm in Costa Rica and found around 60 g of CO₂ equivalent is released per cup of coffee, or almost 5 kg per kg of raw coffee. According to Defra’s guide to carbon footprinting, that is classified as a high intensity activity producing large volumes of carbon emissions per kg.

Another analysis of coffee produced in Tanzania and roasted in Germany found even higher emissions of over 7kg CO2 per kg of coffee and up to 100 g CO₂ per cup³. The variation largely comes from the specific methods used to grow coffee and those used to brew it which are the two most carbon intensive stages of the whole process.

The graph below shows the CO₂ emissions each stage contributes. Perhaps surprisingly, the largest carbon emissions are created not in growing coffee or even exporting it around the world but right at the very end when we prepare and consume it thanks to the energy used in boiling water and the equipment used to prepare the coffee.

Tchibo, a German company which roasts and sells coffee among other household goods conducted an in-depth analysis of coffee’s carbon footprint and found that the brewing method used can massively affect the carbon emissions of your brew⁴ with a coffee machine generating a massive 60 g CO₂ equivalent per cup of coffee compared to just 10 g when a filter or french press brewer is used. Gosvalvitr et al. also compared coffee with and without milk, and found that a latte which is comprised of espresso and milk leads to a massive 679 g CO₂ per cup of coffee! If you don’t like black coffee, using oat milk instead of dairy can reduce the carbon contribution from milk down to 0.22 g CO2 per cup ⁵.

The second highest contribution to coffee’s carbon footprint is at the farm stage and mostly comes from the use of artificial fertilisers which uses large amounts of energy to produce and transport, contributing 26 g CO₂ per cup of coffee. Organic or low input coffee can massively reduce the impact of your brew. The processing method used for the coffee also affects the carbon footprint, with natural or honey process coffees emitting 95% less CO2 and using 88% less water than washed coffees⁶. As coffee roasters this is something that we can influence by choosing coffees from farms that use natural fertilisers, low inputs, and favouring natural process coffees over washed coffees.

A key limitation of the life cycle analyses covered here are that they fail to include carbon stored within plants on coffee farms, which can vary significantly depending on how intensively farmed the coffee is, and any land use changes. Shaded systems where coffee is interplanted with other trees or grown in natural forest stores were found to store 193 to 226 tons of carbon per hectare compared to 132 to 143 tons per hectare in unshaded coffee systems. They also fail to account for carbon emissions from any land use conversions.

These findings may be somewhat surprising to you as a survey we conducted via Mastodon showed that many people believe that the largest contribution of carbon is generated by shipping coffee around the world, but in reality it is the lowest. This is because shipping happens in bulk with large amounts transported via road and in ships, so per kilogram of coffee it is only a small amount.

This goes to show that when it comes to coffee, consumers can have a large influence on the carbon footprint of coffee and by using filter or french press brewing, drinking coffee black or with oat milk, and choosing organic or low input coffee, we can cut the carbon footprint by almost 75%.

We’ll be covering more of the carbon and biodiversity impacts of coffee and the ways we as roasters and all of us as coffee drinkers can help to reduce this so stay tuned and sign up to our email newsletter for more on this theme.

References

1. Killian, B. et al. (2013) ‘Carbon Footprint across the Coffee Supply Chain: The Case of Costa Rican Coffee’, JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 3, pp. 151–170. Available at: https://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/Contribute/55d17d4c702dc.pdf (Accessed: 10 September 2025).[↩][↩]
2. British Standards Institution. The Guide to PAS 2050:2011: How to Carbon Footprint Your Products, Identify Hotspots and Reduce Emissions in Your Supply Chain. BSI, 2011. https://www.ccn.ac.cn/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/The-Guide-to-PAS-2050-2011.pdf.[↩]
3. PCF Pilot Project Germany (2008) CASE STUDY TCHIBO PRIVAT KAFFEE RARITY MACHARE BY TCHIBO GMBH. Germany. Available at: http://www.pcf-projekt.de/files/1232962944/pcf_tchibo_coffee.pdf (Accessed: 10 September 2025).
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4. PCF Pilot Project Germany (2008) CASE STUDY TCHIBO PRIVAT KAFFEE RARITY MACHARE BY TCHIBO GMBH. Germany. Available at: http://www.pcf-projekt.de/files/1232962944/pcf_tchibo_coffee.pdf (Accessed: 10 September 2025).[↩]
5. Zhao, S. et al. (2024) ‘Reducing carbon footprint of typical coffee consumption from the whole lifecycle viewpoint’, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 106, p. 107476. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2024.107476.[↩]
6. Aswathi, K. n et al. (2025) ‘Eco-efficient robusta honey coffee process for energy and water footprint reduction: A life cycle assessment’, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 151, pp. 372–380. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2025.04.009.[↩]