How can digitalization play a role in tackling climate change?
Written by Aída Palomo in collaboration with Revista Roast
We know that any answer to this question will be unsatisfactory, although, we want to take the first steps to grasp an answer. This invitation is to join together, float some ideas and talk about all those experiences that have demonstrated that digitalization in coffee has the potential to be a key tool in tackling climate change. We’re facing a global threat, so, everything counts.
Credits: Caravela Coffee
In this first webinar of the series “The intersection between climate change and coffee digitalization”, Juan Pablo Solís from Fairtrade International, Alieth Polo from Caravela Coffee, and Valerie Beard from Conservation International let us learn about their approaches regarding digitalization. Here some of their insights:
1. The most important: know the information we want to get and its purpose
Digital tools have proved to be effective and efficient instruments to obtain and analyze information, they are our allies when making decisions. There is a tool for everything and everyone (or can be developed), but it is critical to know what you want to obtain from it and, from there, to look for a provider and a solution that best fits you (big data, small data, georeferencing, mapping, remote sensing, wireless sensors, and so on). Concerning climate change, the main objective should be to increase the producer’s capacities and climate resilience, “otherwise, it doesn’t make sense”, declares Juan Pablo Solís from Fairtrade International.
2. We are not alone. We can all be part of the Sustainable Coffee Challenge.
There’s a growing number of alliances and collaborations among civil society organizations, associations, cooperatives, and many other stakeholders on sustainable coffee. Valerie Beard from Conservation International shed light on public and transparent commitments towards sustainable coffee efforts and the need to continue adding to the climate action networks. The Sustainable Coffee Challenge approach to sustainability relies upon digital tools to tackle climate change threats. From big agroindustry companies to coffee-related phone apps, we’re all looking for enhancing origin’s capacities and resilience.
3. It’s a 2-way conversation: producers should be part of it.
Producers are the main source of information, they are those who feed the databases and the digital tools at origin, and so, they have to be included in this conversation and be part of the solutions. If the information collected by these tools does not go back to origin, every initiative will be insufficient and will lack inclusiveness.
4. A SUCCESS STORY: calculating CO2 emissions and identifying good practices thanks to a digital platform.
Alieth Polo de Caravela Coffee shared with us how by using Cool Farm Alliance platform they got to monitor all their producer’s activities and calculate their CO2 emissions in several countries, especially in Latin America. Their objective: to identify the smartest practices on climate change, learn from them, and replicate them. Regarding the producers, Caravela’s app shows them their results and lets them establish communication with technicians and improve their practices, all of this sets in motion a virtuous circle in which the more information they get, the less their CO2 emissions are. Another successful Caravela’s implementation has been the “Coffee Compass”, a tool that identifies when the produces should perform important processes in the farm, such as fertilization and plague monitoring, and allow them to plan their activities and increase their productivity and benefits.
This and much more has been discussed during the first session of the event on March 25, 2021. Recordings are available on our YouTube Channel.