Environmental sustainability consists in making responsible decisions that tend to reduce the negative impact of your business on the environment. It implies defining a line of action in the interest of protecting the natural world, with particular emphasis on preserving the ability of the environment to make human life endure. There is a simple rule in the world of environmental sustainability, and this is: "If any waste or pollution of any kind is generated, someone further down the production chain will be affected and will have to pay for it."
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“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity" - Albert Einstein In August of the year 2018, the price of coffee reached levels considered alarming by the majority of those who work in the coffee industry. For the first time in 12 years, the "C" price in New York fell below 100cts/lb. While it is true, the average price of the last 12 years is not much higher than 120cts/lb, this decline generated unprecedented reactions in the specialty coffee world, which we think is positive.
Kenya is probably one of the most advanced producing countries, in the study and experimentation with the genetic diversity of Arabicas, and is far ahead of important countries such as Ethiopia for example. On our last trip to Kenya we met the great "Dr. James", who works at the "Kenya Coffee Research Institute" station in Nyeri. In this place, he explained, how they are performing grafting of Ruiru 11 with SL 28, and the importance of its result for the future of the industry.
During the 1960s, to increase the food production around the world, and meet the demands of an extremely quick expanding population, it became imperative to change the methodologies of agriculture. These initiatives were called "The Green Revolution" and involved the use of high yielding varieties, higher fertilizers dosages, intensive and mono cropping, the development of highly toxic and life damaging pesticides, among others.
We live in a world of constant change, everything happens quickly and technological advances make us live in a permanent pursuit of new knowledge. Certainly, the specialty coffee industry has grown exponentially in the last five years. The progress we have seen and experienced in farming, processing, logistics, roasting and brewing are undeniable and certainly admirable. But is this level of growth sustainable in the long term? Are we neglecting quality to privilege the quantity?
Since time immemorial, people have always travelled and the world has always traded their products. But it is also true that global temperature never rose so fast as in the last 35 years. If climate change will be held in a temperature increase of 2ºC or less (Aim of the Paris Agreement 2015); By 2050 it is estimated that 40% of all Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions will be caused by ships and airplanes only, if not properly regulated.
There are no exact statistics, but it is estimated that 500 billion disposable coffee cups per year are produced in the world today. To have an idea, if we make a straight line with all these cups one after another, we could go around the world 1,360 times! The model "takeaway" or "coffee to go" in disposable cups, is undoubtedly necessary and an important source of income for coffee shops, but we must be aware of its silent and unprecedented impact on the environment.
Traceability is an organized collection of quantitative and qualitative data, associated with a certain chain of events.
From cultivation to picking, from depulping to drying or from storage to roasting; this data will provide us with key information to make improvements in quality, consistency, sustainability, transparency and food safety, throughout the whole coffee production chain. |
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