Towards greater sensitivity: advancing social life cycle assessment for the coffee sector in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
4 affiliations
- 1Agroecological Transitions, Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 2, Zurich, 8092 Switzerland.
- 2International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Route Kavumu, Km 18, Bifurcation Birava, Site Kalambo, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
- 3Ecological Systems Design, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, ETH Zurich, Laura-Hezner-Weg 7, Zurich, 8093 Switzerland.
- 4Programa de Ciencias Sociais em Desenvolvimento, Agricultura e Sociedade, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), BR-465, Km 7 in Seropédica Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Abstract
Purpose
Literature on coffee sustainability focuses on environmental and economic challenges and often falls short on social factors that strongly influence overall sustainability. For coffee producers, social aspects are existentially important, while environmental concerns take lower priority. Recognizing that social aspects are critical to sustainable development, we assessed the social impacts of nine coffee case studies in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).Methods
Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) has gained interest and importance to better understand and measure the positive and negative social impacts of products on various stakeholders. However, many challenges in its applicability still exist. Therefore, in this study, we operationalized and applied the S-LCA methodology for the coffee sector, based on the UNEP guidelines and the ISO standard 14,075. We used the reference scale approach based only on primary, site-specific data and systematically involved different actors at the upstream stages of the coffee value chain to capture multiple perspectives. In total, we conducted 170 inventory interviews and included six validation interviews.Results
We found significant differences in social performance both within and across the two countries; cross-country differences are reported to contrast the two contexts rather than to rank performance. The differences we found within the two countries show that not only context but also organization matters. Especially in Brazil, the cooperative models scored higher than the commercial plantations. In the Brazilian case studies, mean performance scores were highest for the stakeholder category 'farmer', followed by 'local community', 'worker', and 'value chain actors'. In the Congolese case studies, mean performance scores were highest for the stakeholder category 'local community', followed by 'farmer', 'worker', and 'value chain actors'. The impact subcategories showing the lowest social performance scores, such as 'fair salary', 'livelihood and well-being', and 'productivity', are the ones that were ranked highest during the validation interviews. We found that workers mostly do not earn living wages, with only seven exceptions in Brazil and one in the DRC.Conclusions
This study contributes to the limited body of S-LCA research on coffee production, and, to our knowledge, is among the first to be based on primary data collected in Brazil and the DRC. It presents a novel approach for achieving greater case sensitivity in S-LCA through primary data and context-specific reference scales, going beyond generic databases. This approach makes it possible to account for differences among case studies within the same country and sector.Supplementary information
The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-026-02760-8.
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BibTeX
@article{thom2026towards,
title = {{Towards greater sensitivity: advancing social life cycle assessment for the coffee sector in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.}},
author = {Braida Thom and Lea Fabritius and Marie Sigrist and Didace Banyanga and Stephan Pfister and Réussite Bugale Malembaka and Gabriela Schneider and Kokou Kintche and Johanna Jacobi},
journal = {The international journal of life cycle assessment},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1007/s11367-026-02760-8},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42898282},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Towards greater sensitivity: advancing social life cycle assessment for the coffee sector in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
AU - Braida Thom
AU - Lea Fabritius
AU - Marie Sigrist
AU - Didace Banyanga
AU - Stephan Pfister
AU - Réussite Bugale Malembaka
AU - Gabriela Schneider
AU - Kokou Kintche
AU - Johanna Jacobi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/18
JO - The international journal of life cycle assessment
DO - 10.1007/s11367-026-02760-8
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42898282
AB - Purpose Literature on coffee sustainability focuses on environmental and economic challenges and often falls short on social factors that strongly influence overall sustainability. For coffee producers, social aspects are existentially important, while environmental concerns take lower priority. Recognizing that social aspects are critical to sustainable development, we assessed the social impacts of nine coffee case studies in Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).Methods Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) has gained interest and importance to better understand and measure the positive and negative social impacts of products on various stakeholders. However, many challenges in its applicability still exist. Therefore, in this study, we operationalized and applied the S-LCA methodology for the coffee sector, based on the UNEP guidelines and the ISO standard 14,075. We used the reference scale approach based only on primary, site-specific data and systematically involved different actors at the upstream stages of the coffee value chain to capture multiple perspectives. In total, we conducted 170 inventory interviews and included six validation interviews.Results We found significant differences in social performance both within and across the two countries; cross-country differences are reported to contrast the two contexts rather than to rank performance. The differences we found within the two countries show that not only context but also organization matters. Especially in Brazil, the cooperative models scored higher than the commercial plantations. In the Brazilian case studies, mean performance scores were highest for the stakeholder category 'farmer', followed by 'local community', 'worker', and 'value chain actors'. In the Congolese case studies, mean performance scores were highest for the stakeholder category 'local community', followed by 'farmer', 'worker', and 'value chain actors'. The impact subcategories showing the lowest social performance scores, such as 'fair salary', 'livelihood and well-being', and 'productivity', are the ones that were ranked highest during the validation interviews. We found that workers mostly do not earn living wages, with only seven exceptions in Brazil and one in the DRC.Conclusions This study contributes to the limited body of S-LCA research on coffee production, and, to our knowledge, is among the first to be based on primary data collected in Brazil and the DRC. It presents a novel approach for achieving greater case sensitivity in S-LCA through primary data and context-specific reference scales, going beyond generic databases. This approach makes it possible to account for differences among case studies within the same country and sector.Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-026-02760-8.
SN - 0948-3349
SN - 1614-7502
ER -