Shifting towards carbon neutrality: how we offset our greenhouse gas emissions

Climate change is no longer an abstract concept or something that will happen in the distant future. We see its effects regularly, especially on coffee-growing communities. At Faro, we ask ourselves every day: how can we deliver the experience our customers expect while also making a positive contribution to the fight against climate change?

Since 2018, we have implemented various concrete initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of our operations. This year, we have decided to take another step and offset the greenhouse gas emissions from the operation of our sorting center, our roasting center, and the transport from the plantation to your cup.

Carbon neutrality is a principle by which an organization minimizes its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and offsets any remaining emissions. Therefore, in collaboration with ADDERE Consulting Services , we have conducted a carbon emissions inventory according to the ISO 14064 standard. Thanks to this initiative, we are able to offset 1,155 tonnes of CO2 equivalent for the years 2022 and 2023. This includes the delivery of your online orders, the importation of coffee from producing countries and our packaging, the recycling and composting of our waste materials, the energy consumption of our buildings, and much more.

Source: Faro GHG Inventory by Addere

How are our emissions offset? 

We chose to collaborate with Arbre-Évolution on the Riverbank Carbon program, a project focused on developing agricultural riparian buffer strips. Two farms are involved in this project: Ferme Bonne Terre (2023) and Ferme Sternli (2024) in Quebec. Coffee is grown in tropical climates; therefore, the green beans inevitably have to travel long distances by boat before arriving at local roasters. As a roaster, it made sense to offset our greenhouse gas emissions by planting trees locally, closer to home.

In total, more than 6,000m of hedge were planted including a row of hybrid poplars spaced 3 meters apart and a row of various trees and shrubs (sugar maple, white pine, bur oak, etc.) spaced 2 meters apart.

Source: Riverside Carbon

Why widen riparian buffer zones?

The Carbone Riverain project widens riparian buffer strips along agricultural waterways by five meters, increasing them from the legal minimum of three meters to eight meters. The first three meters are left undisturbed, and two rows of trees are planted in the remaining five meters. The bare soil is then sown with a mixture of flowering and nectar-producing herbaceous plants to limit weed growth and encourage pollinators.

Renaturalization in riparian strips increases CO2 sequestration through tree planting, but also has many other advantages: 

• Pure River

Riparian buffer strips help preserve water quality, a vital resource. When sufficiently vegetated, the bank near a field slows the water's flow towards the river, thus increasing its infiltration into the soil. Once underground, the water encounters numerous roots. This long subterranean journey allows the water to gradually shed the fertilizers, pesticides, sediments, and fecal coliforms it carries before reaching the river.

• Solidified shore

The vegetated riparian buffer stabilizes the sometimes steep and erosion-prone riverbank, in addition to counteracting erosion caused by the river itself, such as ice, flooding, and waves. Acting literally like a sponge, the riverbank needs the root systems of plants to anchor itself to the agricultural soil. Without sufficient vegetation, the riparian buffer can be prone to landslides, resulting in the loss of arable land and disruption of aquatic ecosystems.

• Gentle breeze

The leaves, needles, branches, and trunks of trees are excellent barriers against excessive winds. Less wind provides significant and varied benefits, such as the creation of microclimates, the retention of arable land, the maintenance of plant evapotranspiration, and an increase in protective snow cover for crops.

• Favored pollinators

Most pollinators do not have beehives to complete their life cycle and therefore require tree bark or undisturbed soil. Vegetated riparian buffer strips are thus prime locations for bumblebees, butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles, and other insects, as well as for honeybees, because the diversity of food, such as amino acids, is enhanced there. Carbone riverain™ proposes sowing melliferous herbaceous plants such as lotus and clover, in addition to planting fruit-bearing shrubs.

• Increased biodiversity

A naturalized riverbank, in addition to serving as a corridor for animals between different biomes, is a place where a wide variety of plant species can thrive, offering terrestrial animals significant food diversity, as well as necessary shelter from predators and harsh weather. Plant debris that falls into the water also provides essential habitats for aquatic and amphibian fauna.

• Clean air

Deciduous trees and plant branches act as filters, capturing aerosols and gaseous emissions from the air on their leaves. Carbone riverain™ proposes the mass planting of poplars, other hardwoods, and leafy shrubs, thereby promoting the dilution of gas concentrations and the absorption of dust and chemical compounds suspended in the air.

On the Arbre-Évolution cooperative

Voluntary offsetting of GHG emissions is not regulated, unlike mandatory markets such as the Quebec-California Carbon Exchange, which opens the door to programs of uneven quality.

Carbone riverain prioritizes transparency by entrusting the monitoring and verification of its plantings to watershed organizations (OBVs), whose reports are publicly available. By choosing to be verified and validated by local OBVs, we ensure that they have absolutely no vested interest in favoring the cooperative; their sole objective is the quality of the waterway.

Carbone riverain is also taking a cautious approach by selling carbon credits for 60% of the carbon its plantations will sequester, thus maintaining a 40% "safety margin" to account for various factors that could reduce sequestration, such as higher-than-expected tree mortality. The calculation of carbon sequestration potential in Quebec's agricultural landscape is based on two years of research.