We're in the middle of the 2023 carbon assessment

Kua writes a Letter To Coffee Drinkers once a month. Topics range from daily goings on, to updates on Kua’s strategy, to recipes for coffee biscuits. The content below was the Letter To Coffee Drinkers for March 2023.

Dear Kua Coffee Drinkers,

Bri and Digby currently have their heads buried in spreadsheets for another Kua carbon assessment. We'll be releasing the results later in the month, but for now, a few words on the process.

The first step is to define the scope of the carbon assessment. The Kua assessment is ‘scope three’ which means we include emissions from the entire value chain (direct emissions - eg: roasting coffee - and indirect emissions - eg: staff commuting to work). The scope of a carbon assessment is super important. Next time you hear about someone ‘going carbon neutral’, dig a little deeper and ask: what emissions are included in their scope?

Next, we work through the chart of accounts. Financial reports are often the most accurate record of an organisation's activities, so naturally they provide the best starting point. You can take any company cost, plug it into an emissions database and see how much carbon has been emitted as a result of that cost.

We work through a big spreadsheet line by line and assign each dollar spent to a specific activity. For example, the Kua team went out for lunch on the 1 July 2022 and spent $22.50 on coffees and treats. That’s categorised as 'Entertainment and Meals' and we can work out the emissions of those coffees and treats. Going to this level of detail means we don’t miss anything within the scope.

Next we clean up the inaccuracies in the data. We use multiple databases to ensure accuracy in our assessment and sometimes run small studies with the team like tracking the electricity used by the coffee grinder in the Kua warehouse. When we find a problem we can't solve on our own, we ask the team at SHINE MIT, who have partnered with us to conduct our carbon assessments for the past three years.

Then we interpret the data. Interpreting is important as it means we can make better decisions in the future. For example: if we know that our packaging is particularly carbon intensive to manufacture, we might look for alternatives.

Lastly, we share the findings.The assessment will be complete by the end of the month so keep an eye out for a blog post. The team will publish as soon as they can extract themselves from the world of spreadsheets!

As always thanks for the wonderful support, and if you have questions about the carbon assessment, please email us at hello@kuacoffee.co.

Happy days,

The Kua team