Comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the Agri-Food Industry, Focusing on Organic and Conventional Coffee

This study evaluates the environmental burden of organic and conventional coffee systems with a functional unit (FU) of 1 kg for market-ready, dried coffee. The ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 framework and guidelines are applied to organic and conventional coffee systems, using a cradle-to-grave approach and the methodology of ReCiPe Endpoint 2008, cumulative energy demand (CED), and the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Superior sustainability was achieved for organic coffee compared to the performance of conventional coffee, with values of 218.50 mPt (conventional) and 146.10 mPt (organic), and a global warming potential (GWP) of 2.12 kg CO2 eq FU−1 (organic) and 1.44 kg CO2 eq FU−1 (conventional). CED fossil-based consumption totalled 25 MJ and 35 MJ for organic and conventional coffee systems, respectively. Conventional and organic coffee system hotspots stemmed from the planting (chemical fertilizer), drying, and packaging processes. This study emphasizes the environmental benefits of organic practices and their relatively lower impact than conventional methods. Within a growing sector, best management practices in the form of actionable insights from a life cycle assessment must be sought to ensure environmental sustainability in parallel with the UN’s goals.