the objective of this research was to evaluate the environmental impact associated with the production of ground coffee that included the following stages: (i) Agricultural production, (ii) wet processing of the grain, and (iii) roasting and grinding of the grain. Furthermore, with the purpose of reducing the system’s high energy consumption, energy recovery was carried out through the energetic valorization of the residual biomass from the pruning of the coffee plants and the coffee bean straw left behind after the same production cycle, which was demonstrated through the establishment of two energy scenarios for the primary processing of the coffee bean: (1) The base case, including a “waste to energy” system (S-A); and (2) conventional fossil energy supply (S-B). The residual energies for the drying and roasting of the coffee were also quantified. In order to have an integral analysis system, sensitivity cases were proposed with the transport of inputs and energy losses in the drying oven with respect to the environmental indicators analyzed

Literature on sustainable supply chains from the period of 2000 to 2010. Frameworks and performance measurements for supply chains are given, as well as a case study to illustrate the authors' theories.

This paper analyzes the understudied gendered dimensions of fair-trade coffee networks and certification practices. It combines data collected during 14 months of fieldwork among the members of a Guatemalan coffee cooperative with a survey of the existing literature on fair-trade coffee cooperatives to demonstrate that the current fair-trade network is falling far short of its goal to promote gender equity, particularly in three important realms: voting and democratic participation, the promotion of non-agricultural income generating programs, and support for female coffee producers.

This paper looks at the impact of certifications on social equity both at farm and wider landscape levels ensuring that the compliance of certification requirements meets the set standards. Coffee certifications that address environmental and social issues are becoming more prominent and in fact, coffee is one of the first crops to be targeted for sustainability certification. The motivation for this study was because certifications’ management requirements are often deemed disproportionately burdensome for small, resource-poor producers, and hence a barrier to landscape-level equity. There is currently a lack of research looking at how management criteria impact farms of various sizes differently. This study analyzed 435 certification audits which covered all Brazilian coffee farms that sought Rainforest Alliance certification from 2006 to 2014, including 80 individual farms and 23 groups of farms. The results revealed a positive correlation between compliance with procedural (managing sustainability plans) and social performance criteria. However, it was stronger for groups than individual farmers, suggesting that group certification is more easily achieving its purpose for socio-economic levelling of certified farmers. The results suggest that management requirements play an important role in improving smallholders’ overall social sustainability performance, but also that further work is needed to better understand underlying relationships. It is also suggested that further insight is needed to ensure that profits are distributed positively throughout the value chain.

This paper looks at the impact of certifications on social equity both at farm and wider landscape levels ensuring that the compliance of certification requirements meets the set standards. Coffee certifications that address environmental and social issues are becoming more prominent and in fact, coffee is one of the first crops to be targeted for sustainability certification. The motivation for this study was because certifications’ management requirements are often deemed disproportionately burdensome for small, resource-poor producers, and hence a barrier to landscape-level equity. There is currently a lack of research looking at how management criteria impact farms of various sizes differently. This study analyzed 435 certification audits which covered all Brazilian coffee farms that sought Rainforest Alliance certification from 2006 to 2014, including 80 individual farms and 23 groups of farms. The results revealed a positive correlation between compliance with procedural (managing sustainability plans) and social performance criteria. However, it was stronger for groups than individual farmers, suggesting that group certification is more easily achieving its purpose for socio-economic levelling of certified farmers. The results suggest that management requirements play an important role in improving smallholders’ overall social sustainability performance, but also that further work is needed to better understand underlying relationships. It is also suggested that further insight is needed to ensure that profits are distributed positively throughout the value chain.

This "toolkit" recommends practices that support coffee farming as a family endeavor that also includes women and children. Addressing both the future of youth in coffee families as well as the already existing distrubution of resources, this project both discusses and offers suggestions pertaining to the involvement of the entire family in the coffee supply chain.

This research article focuses on the integration of blockchain technology in the Burundi coffee supply chain as a possible solution for a more sustainable system. In order to explain the rationale behind the use of blockchain, the authors present the different challenges connected with the coffee production and its trading system. They report the complexity of coffee production connected with the consequences of climate change, a fragmented system where many intermediaries are involved and frequent market instability causing consistent price crises and economic loss. Coffee has an important economic and social role in the country but the current challenges are directly affecting the sustainability of the industry. The authors report the benefits of blockchain in providing enhanced traceability and transparency of the supply chain and therefore, further investigate the different perspectives of coffee professionals and companies in the integration of blockchain technologies. To assess their perspectives, they survey 49 actors among roasters, importers, traders, exporters and producers. Results show a very compelling interest of using this technology for a more transparent and traceable system. This article is particularly interesting for coffee professionals looking at digitising their supply chains or wanting to know more about what blockchain has to offer for the coffee industry.

In Kenya, there are gaps on the availability of studies of the specific extension approaches and their effectiveness on the adoption of technologies. This study sought to investigate and document the effectiveness of farmer field school training in promoting adoption of best agricultural practices (BAP) by smallholder coffee farmers in Kenya. The target population were the smallholder coffee farmers in Kenya. A descriptive survey research design was used. Data was collected using an interview schedule comprising of both closed and open ended items. The instrument was validated by experts from the Egerton University’s department of Agricultural Education and Extension and the chief executive officers in the study coffee societies. The research instrument was pilot tested to determine its reliability. Using Cronbach's alpha, an index of 0.936 was obtained. Descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics technique were used to analyze data with the help of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 for windows. Chi-square and correlation analysis were used to determine whether Farmer Field School training had statistically significant effect on enhancing uptake of best agricultural practices amongst smallholder coffee farmers in Kenya. To make reliable inferences from the data, all statistical tests were verified at α ≤ 0.05 level of significance.

This article explores the contemporary trend of deploying feminist values in the case of ethical branding. Using the psychoanalytical concepts logics of fantasy and enjoyment, we analyse the campaign by Swedish coffee brand Zoégas, Coffee by Women, to understand how a combination of development discourse, ‘women’s empowerment’ and the opportunity to ‘do good’ is employed to sell coffee. The analysis shows that the campaign depicts the threat of a future lack of coffee, creating anxiety in the consumer, supposedly motivating her to purchase Zoégas, as Coffee by Women is claimed to secure and educate new generations of coffee farmers. Simultaneously, this is presented as ‘empowering women’ in the global South. We argue that this narrative builds on a colonial fantasy of global sisterhood and shared interests that works to conceal the political conflicts connected to global trade and climate change. Through a commodification of feminist values and aesthetics, this fantasy works to redirect the desire for social change towards consumption, offering an enjoyable solution that disregards any wider responsibility. It has been argued that the structure of the social bond before the era of mass consumption was characterized by a prohibition on individual enjoyment for the benefit of the common good. After the arrival of mass consumption, the social bond instead became marked by a duty to enjoy. In the contemporary context of ethical capitalism, we suggest that the social bond is rather structured by a ‘duty of ethical enjoyment’, containing elements of both prohibition and pleasure.

Basado en el estudio del caso de los cafés especiales, este documento examina el papel de los
diferentes tipos de estándares que determinan las características que gobiernan el comercio
internacional. La industria de los cafés especiales es el segmento de mayor crecimiento en el
mercado mundial de café, que hoy se encuentra inmerso en una profunda crisis

This paper reviews research from the past decade on the effects of coffee sustainability schemes to see what we have learned about the impact of such schemes, and whether positive livelihood effects are mainly the result of relatively better off households choosing to participate. Overall, the available research suggests that certification schemes can be beneficial, but context matters, and the poorest, most vulnerable smallholder producers are able to comply with sustainability standards only with substantial external help.

This study looks at physio-chemical characteristics of Ethiopian coffee processing to determine the anaerobic bio-methane potential created from coffee husk, pulp, parchment, and mucilage. The paper begins by discussing coffee production in Ethiopia, the history, and the important role it plays for farmer’s livelihoods and the national economy. Ethiopia uses both dry and wet methods for coffee processing however, the mills have different power sources. Unlike dry mills, wet mills are not connected to an electric grid and it is common that they run on diesel engines. The goal of this study was to see the potential in generating bio-methane for electrical and thermal energy to power the mills. Biogas technology is newer to Ethiopia, but the authors envisage that a de-centralized energy source could improve livelihoods and coffee processing. The study details the biochemical methane potential of each form finding that anaerobic digestion of husk, pulp, and mucilage could generate as much as 68 × 106 m3 methane per year (238,000 MWh of electricity and 273,000 MWh of thermal energy in combined heat and power units). This means that Coffee processing facilities could utilize both electricity and thermal energy for their own productive purposes, which would be beneficial both environmentally and economically.

Kenya has a reputation for incredible coffee, and many farmers in Kenya rely on coffee for their income. Yet Kenyan coffee production is declining due to its economic instability. A team of social scientists in Kenya came together to conduct an extensive study of six cooperatives in communities surrounding the Mt. Elgon volcano. Interviews, meetings, and focus groups helped them zero in on some recommendations for the coffee industry in Kenya. Their findings apply to governments. NGOs, and cooperatives themselves. And finally, they conclude that interventions and programs must be targeted toward young farmers to encourage them to sustainably intensify coffee production as the older generation ages. Readers interested in East Africa, youth issues in coffee, and economic sustainability in coffee will be particularly interested in this paper.

This study carried out by the multi-country research team that includes scientists from Brazil, France and India studied two widely-grown coffee varieties – Coffea arabica and Coffee robusta – under contrasted management systems with native and exotic shade trees of silver oak (Grevillera robusta). The study measured carbon storage and shade tree diversity in native forests and the two coffee agro-forestry systems at 67 plots along a slope that receives 3500 mm of rain in the Kaveri watershed in southern India. The study conclude that native coffee agroforestry systems and forests have comparable carbon stocks and tree diversity as the original forests. But introducing exotic shade trees such as silver oak reduces these carbon stocks and tree diversity. The scientists also found that switching from Coffea arabica to Coffee robusta agroforestry systems affects carbon storage. The current trend towards introduction of Grevillera robusta in coffee farms of the study area negatively affects carbon storage and tree diversity, especially in robusta coffee systems. Despite a substantial reduction of shade tree cover in native Agro-Forestry Systems compared to forest (from 90% to 32% in the high precipitation area), native AFS and forests displayed high and comparable carbon stocks (max. 228 MgC ha−1 and 234 MgC ha-1, respectively) and tree diversity (max. 44 and 45 species, respectively). Both variables were negatively impacted by the introduction of G. robusta, especially in Robusta coffee systems (max. 158 MgC ha−1, 12 species). The current trend toward the introduction of Grevilia robusta in coffee AFS of the study area (exotic agroforestry) negatively affects Carbon storage and tree diversity, especially in Robusta coffee systems. Policy makers should take advantage of the carbon-tree diversity positive correlation found in the agroforestry landscape of the Western Ghats of India to promote conservation and climate change mitigation.

Global climate changes can affect coffee production in Brazil, and in other coffee producing countries. We examined the potential for an agroforestry system with the native species, macauba ( Acrocomia aculeata ), to mitigate impacts on coffee production by reducing maximal air temperature and photosynthetic active radiation. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of an agroforestry system with macauba on productivity, microclimatic characteristics and soil physical quality on a coffee plantation in the Atlantic Rainforest biome, in Southern Brazil. We measured soil attributes (moisture, temperature, and physical properties), microclimate conditions (air temperature, photosynthetic active radiation) and coffee production parameters (productivity and yield). Macauba palm trees were planted at different planting densities on the rows and distances from the coffee rows. Planting density of macauba and their distance from the coffee rows affected soil thermal-water regime. Compared with the traditional unshaded sole coffee planting, the intercropped cultivation provided more coffee yield on both macauba density planting and distance evaluated. On the other hand, coffee productivity was increased by agroforestry systems just for 4.2?m distance between palm trees and coffee rows. Planting density of macaubas did not affect coffee yield and productivity. Best coffee harvest in agroforestry systems with macauba was related to higher soil moisture at the depth of 20-40 cm, higher photosynthetic active radiation, and maximum air temperatures lower than 30C. Agroforestry with coffee and macauba trees can be an adaptation strategy under future climatic variability and change related to high temperatures and low rainfall.