GHG emissions of green coffee production
Toward a standard methodology for carbon footprinting

CE Delft and Plant Research International have examined current knowledge of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of coffee as well as existing standards in the area of carbon footprinting to identify the main methodological issues and data gaps in carbon footprinting of coffee. Building on this report, the SAI platform working group on coffee will start working with stakeholders on "product category rules" (PCR) for green coffee footprinting. 

The following challenges were identified:

• Science: soil organic matter, shade trees/intercropping, emissions due to fertilizer use, emissions from fermentation and residue treatment
• Methodology: inclusions of sources (soil/above-ground carbon), data quality, calculation procedure, allocation (farm management)
• Process: many stakeholders, mitigation is only one of the issues