FIVE PILLARS
4. REDUCING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Climate change is affecting the world in a drastic way, extreme weather and warming of the Earth have impacts in food production, human health and contributes to ecosystem damage. In response to the Paris Agreement (2015), the UK Government has committed to becoming Net Zero by 2050, with Scotland committing to achieving this by 2045. At Matthew Algie, we have committed to Net Zero by 2040, ahead of the UK and Scottish Government goals. This section looks at the progress we have made against our goals, and what we have been doing to understand and mitigate the effect our business has on the environment.
Goal Update
Click on each of the below goals to see our progress in 2023 and 2024:
Our
Ambition
for 2025
- Reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 15% from 2023 baseline.
- Reduce percentage of waste that is not recycled to less than 10%.
- Reduce our fleet emissions by 20% compared to 2023 baseline.
- Reduce our business travel emissions (planes, trains and hotels) by 5%.
- 100% of employees participate in training on environmental issues.
Environmental Committee 2024 Targets
Our internal environmental committee meet quarterly, and support the implementation of our efforts to achieve Net Zero by 2040. Members come from different departments and work together to produce annual goals to set the agenda for the year ahead. The targets set by our Environmental Committee, break down the longer-term targets into manageable, smaller targets. Listed here are some of the complementary goals that were selected as focus areas in 2023 and 2024.
2023-24 Carbon Accounting
Carbon accounting allows us to accurately map our environmental impact and produce achievable action plans. We have an ambitious goal to be Net Zero by 2040, and accounting for our emissions plays an important role in that. 2023 was the first year we included Tchibo Coffee International and Capitol Foods in our calculations, ahead of our official merging in January 2024 to become Matthew Algie GB and Matthew Algie Ireland. In 2023, we were able to increase the amount of activity-based data (as opposed to spend-based data), and included a greater number of Scope 3 categories, leading to our most accurate footprint to date. 2023 is our baseline year for our Net Zero ambition. We continued to improve the quality of data when collating sources to produce our 2024 footprint.
Between 2023 and 2024, we observed a reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. This decrease is primarily due to a reduction in our ‘Mobile Combustion’ category. In 2024, we replaced 22 of our diesel vehicles with petrol hybrid models. Given the specific fieldwork requirements of our employees and the current infrastructure limitations in the UK, transitioning our fleet to electric vehicles as initially planned in our Net Zero 2024 Roadmap is not yet feasible, and as a result, petrol hybrids represent the most viable alternative. The combination of petrol hybrids in our fleet, and better route planning reducing milage, has decreased emissions that are attributed to ‘Mobile Combustion’ by 13.4%. Additionally, emissions from electricity consumption saw a significant reduction of 47.2%. This was achieved by transitioning the electricity supply in our owned buildings to 100% renewable energy. Emissions from ‘Stationary Combustion’ (gas used in our buildings) remained consistent compared to the previous year.
Overall, comparing 2023 to 2024, there was a 13.8% increase in emissions. Between 2023 and 2024, we observed an increase in emissions related to our 'Purchased Goods and Services' category. This is primarily due to the use of updated emissions factors for 2024, which enables us to better track FLAG (Forest, Land, and Agriculture) emissions in anticipation of future regulatory requirements. Although the quantity of green coffee purchased remained consistent between 2023 and 2024, the updated emissions factors have led to a notable rise in the reported emissions associated with green coffee. We remain dedicated to using the most current methodologies, even when, as in this case, it results in a higher emissions report.
In addition to this, when receiving our 2024 figures, we noticed there had been a calculation error in our ‘Use of sold products’ category in 2023, which led to overcounting. To ensure the accuracy of our data, we have now retrospectively adjusted the 2023 dataset to properly allocate the correct emissions to 'Downstream leased assets’ and ‘Use of sold products’, providing a more accurate reflection of our footprint. Due to a greater number of machines being sold, and a decrease in machines leased between 2023 and 2024, there has consequently been an increase of emissions in 'Use of sold products' by 14.91% and a reduction in ‘Downstream leased assets’ emissions by 2.52%.
Despite an increase in emissions, the improvements we have made to data quality in 2024 leave us optimistic for the year ahead. With more accurate data, we have been able to pinpoint emissions hotspots and, throughout 2024, develop targeted plans to reduce emissions in these areas. This year, we aim to implement these strategies and hope to see a measurable decrease in our Scope 3 emissions, which will be reported in 2026.
Graph showing a comparison between 2023 and 2024 carbon footprinting data. N.B. End of life treatment of sold products was an additional category for 2024, and hence there is not data available for 2023.
Carbon Neutral to Net Zero
At the beginning of our sustainability journey, we aimed for ‘Carbon Neutral’ operations. As climate science has improved and evolved, we recognise that this is no longer an appropriate strategy to reduce our environmental impact, and as such, we published our commitment to Net Zero by 2040 in 2022.
In 2022, when we set our target to be Net Zero by 2040, we also produced our Net Zero Roadmap. This roadmap sets out targets across milestone years, to help us achieve our goal. In 2023, we published our Carbon Reduction plan, including both near- and long-term targets that quantify our reductions. We have aligned our targets with the guidance provided by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), which provides a transparent and structured trajectory for our targets and reduction efforts. Although we have not yet sought external validation for our targets, we hope to in the future.
Despite moving away from the ‘Carbon Neutral’ terminology, we believe it is important to uphold our prior commitment and invest in credits to offset the emissions we originally had pledged to. Purchasing carbon credits is notoriously problematic, and we are not unaware of allegations of ‘green washing’ and other issues that have been highlighted in the media recently. It is therefore essential that the credits that are purchased are of sufficient quality, and respect the communities around where this investment goes. We have partnered with Fair Climate Fund to purchase ‘Gold Standard’ credits for our direct emissions (Scope 1 and 2) in 2023, offsetting our emissions - benefitting the coffee producers in our supply chain. By purchasing carbon credits from within our supply chain, we are supporting farmers to reduce their household emissions.
The credits that we have purchased for 2023 have been from the Ethiopian “Cookstoves for Coffee Farmers” project at Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU). OCFCU is the largest coffee cooperative union in Ethiopia, representing 400,000 farming families. Though the volume of coffee we buy from Ethiopia has reduced in recent years, OCFCU is one of our preferred Ethiopian suppliers and we have been buying from them for over 10 years. Through this project, famers are provided with energy efficient cookstoves that reduce wood consumption and minimise the volume of smoke produced, when compared to traditional methods of cooking on an open fire. Since 2015, this project has contributed to a 60,000-tonne reduction in CO2 emissions, and the equivalent of 75,000 trees saved. Additionally, a Climate Academy has been established, which has given farmers training in sustainable agricultural practices, including using land more efficiently, planting shade trees, and educating farmers on how to diversify their income.
This short video shows how Mulane, a coffee farmer at Oromia, has benefited:
Repurposing our Used Coffee Grounds
We are committed to reducing our waste, across all of our sites, and especially from our roastery. The process of roasting coffee produces organic waste, from irregular sized beans to the chaff that falls off the beans when they are roasted. Since the middle of 2023, we have implemented a more circular approach to dealing with our coffee waste products, with Mossgiel Farm collecting our coffee waste and chaff to use as compost. Mossgiel is an organic farm based in Ayrshire, close to our roastery site in Glasgow, with a herd of 45 Ayrshire cows. They work regeneratively, and with nature, handling all processes themselves, from the pasteurisation to the delivery of milk in electric vans. Over 2024, we have donated 27.7 tonnes of organic waste to Mossgiel Farm, reducing the amount of waste we send for anaerobic digestion. We have introduced the milk from Mossgiel Farm at our roastery reception, meaning visitors to our head office can enjoy a coffee made with their organic milk.
Leadership Pledges
Our target to achieve Net Zero by 2040 is ambitious, and without changes throughout the business, at all levels, it would be impossible. With ten pledges to choose from, each team was able to pick three, and throughout the year, work towards achieving these goals. Our ‘Leadership Pledges’ encourage staff to focus on small areas of the wider sustainability picture, which makes a huge contribution overall. The pledges also work to raise awareness of behaviours that impact the environment. For example, employees can help reduce our footprint by ensuring that they recycle properly. Managers have reported a greater understanding of the emissions associated with this, and teams in the Main Building in Glasgow have reduced the waste that is not recycled to less than 10% in 2024.
“The Leadership Pledges have had a great impact on my team. When we test our finished products, we sometimes have coffee left over which can be used in the lab for tasting, but we did not have an outlet for any excess coffee. One member of my team came up with the idea that if staff brought a container to the lab they could fill a container with beans of ground coffee to take home with them. This helped reduce the amount of coffee going to food waste - so far we have saved over 50kg! Putting the correct waste products in the correct recycling bins was always confusing. After a talk from our Sustainability Team we understood what went into each bin. This led to competition in the department of who recycled most.”
Andy Jeffrey, Head of QA Compliance
Roastery Upgrades
In 2023, we undertook a multi-million pound upgrade to our roastery. All areas of the factory required attention, with machinery requiring updating and the layout needing to be rethought. An essential component of this project was to upgrade equipment so it would be compatible with using recyclable laminate, with hopes that we can transition our product packaging to 100% recyclable by 2030.
The delivery point for raw coffee has moved, improving product flow and reducing the travel required inside the roastery. In addition, we have transitioned from hessian sacks to food safe, 1 tonne tote bags on pallets that can then be reused once emptied. Over the year, this change reduces the vehicle traffic between our warehouse in Liverpool and the roastery in Glasgow by 28 trips a year, the equivalent of an approximate 8,400* kg saving of CO2 emissions per year.
Both roasters were overhauled, and the previous roasted coffee transport system has been replaced with a fully enclosed chain-vey network, which allows greater flexibility and the ability to independently feed each coffee packing line from each roaster. Previous packing machines were replaced with a new fully automated line with the capability of running fully recyclable material. The new machines have also facilitated the reduction in length of our coffee bags by 7%.
These upgrades have increased the volume of coffee we can roast annually, reducing the transportation of roasted coffee between Glasgow, and the Tchibo roastery in Hamburg.
We were delighted to receive the Engineering Excellence Award 2024 from Scottish Engineering for this project, with this recognition reflecting our commitment to reducing the environmental impact that our operations have.
*based on DEFRA conversion factors for an average laden diesel HGV (2024)
Robert Milne, Roastery and Site Manager
