Falcon Coffees

Falcon Coffees is a green coffee trading company with global supply chains. They’re committed to building collaborative relationships with suppliers for mutual profit and positive social impact. A partnership with the University of Brighton is helping them fulfil that.

The company is working with the University via a Management Knowledge Transfer Partnership (mKTP). The mKTP is a 2.5 year business innovation project that is giving Falcon funding to work with a university academic team and employ an experienced graduate (Dr Mandi Caudill, pictured).

“This partnership will allow us to work with our farmers and supply chain partners to not only measure our collective emissions but to educate ourselves on how to move to Net Zero, in line with the Paris Agreement”

Driving down the carbon footprint of coffee

As part of the company’s positive social impact ambition, they wanted to get their carbon footprint down. But first, they needed to understand their current footprint.

With the support of a university academic team and mKTP graduate associate, the company is developing a methodology to measure carbon emissions associated with coffee beans, from farming them in countries such as Costa Rica and Peru to roasting them in the UK. They’ll then investigate opportunities for carbon mitigation, sequestration and offsets.

The project will give the company new expertise and knowledge that can drive their long-term sustainability and growth.

Specifically, the project will: 

• Review how the coffee industry approaches carbon offsetting
• Explore and develop solutions for mitigating carbon emissions, investment, and certification.
• Model supply chains based on different customer scenarios, to ensure the methodology can flex to suit different needs
• Create a communication strategy to promote the great work 
• Make the tools developed open-source across the coffee industry, cementing Falcon’s sector-leading approach to sustainability.

Konrad Brits, founder and CEO of Falcon, said:  

“The threat from climate change means that every business in every industry will need to plot its way to a low-carbon economy. This partnership will allow us to work with our farmers and supply chain partners to not only measure our collective emissions but to educate ourselves on how to move to Net Zero, in line with the Paris Agreement”.

Want to make your supply chain more sustainable? Talk to us.

Decarbonising a supply chain can be a tough nut to crack, but it’s an essential step in tackling any business’s carbon footprint. Talk to us about how Clean Growth UK University Hubs could help you access academic expertise and funding to understand and reduce the impact your supply chain has on the planet.