Coffee Supply Chains: Strategic stakeholders, reuse opportunities and key indicators for sustainability evaluation

Within the intricate tapestry of global commerce, an underappreciated yet substantial resource emerges in the form of coffee waste, contributing remarkable tons annually. This article extends a rigorous exploration into the transformative potential inherent in the coffee supply chain's waste stream, building upon a systematic literature review that dissects the industry's complexities and suggests an example of a questionnaire to analyze the coffee supply chain on the socio-economic scale and the environmental scale. The questionnaire is elaborated after the systematic literature review. Methodologically, this research employs a multi-faceted approach, incorporating insights gleaned from an exhaustive systematic literature review on the coffee supply chain. This systematic review serves as the bedrock, unraveling existing publications on coffee supply chain management, stakeholders, waste generation, and sustainability practices. Stakeholder identification, spanning growers, processors, distributors, retailers, waste management entities, policymakers, and consumers, ensures a holistic grasp of the intricate web of relationships. A meticulously crafted online questionnaire, informed by the systematic literature review, captures quantitative and qualitative insights. The questionnaire spans three dimensions of the coffee supply chain economic, social, and environmental. A pilot testing phase refines the questionnaire, and ethical considerations were included. Indicators and variables were inspired by the systematic literature review and were included in the questionnaire. Next, quantitative and qualitative data would be interpreted and compared to other results found in the literature. This article, synthesizing findings from a systematic literature review and original research and crafting a template for a questionnaire that can be useful to analyze the coffee supply chain, serves both as an observation and a clarion call, urging stakeholders across the supply chain to wholeheartedly adopt coffee waste valorization. Moreover, this article serves as a starting point to collect data and carry out a life cycle assessment, life cycle cost analysis, or social life cycle assessment