Life Cycle Assessment of Dry Parchment Coffee in Two Coffee Crops in Cundinamarca, Colombia

The coffee sector is one of the pillars of the colombian economy. It generates nearly 800 thousand directs jobs at the rural sector and about 1,6 million indirect jobs. Although its social value, the coffee is going over a crisis where it opens a consideration about the current production models, starting from a Life Cycle Thinking perspective. Therefore, the aim of this study is to perform the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) from one (1) Kg of dry parchment coffee (DPC) in two crops from San Francisco, Colombia. Product environmental impacts were identified, based on ISO 14044:2006. The impact assessment method selected was the Eco- indicator 99, which evaluates three damage categories: human health, ecosystem quality and resources, using SimaPro 8 software. As results, it was found that usage of synthetic fertilizers contributes to a higher negative affectation, within the ecotoxicity and acidification/ eutrophication indicators, associated mainly to heavy metal emissions present in both air and soil. Finally, based on the most relevant environmental impacts raised in the DPC LCA, a series of recommendations were made based on the principles of the environmental management and focused on contributing to the national coffee industry sustainability and quality performance.