About

In 2012, global coffee brand Lavazza pledged its commitment to sustainability and began using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to evaluate the environmental performance of its products and services. This includes the full life cycle from raw materials and packaging to coffee processing, transportation, use and disposal. This is a scientific approach that reflects Lavazza’s vision: to understand every step of its value chain and reduce its impact responsibly.

Lavazza has used SimaPro Craft for more than ten years to study its decarbonization and ecodesign initiatives. In addition to their in-house expertise, they are supported by 2B – SimaPro’s partner in Italy.

Challenge

With a complex global supply chain and multiple product lines, Lavazza needed reliable, transparent LCA software to:

• Identify environmental hotspots across the value chain
• Integrate LCA into business and product development decisions
• Monitor changes over time while ensuring consistency and scientific rigor
• Support coffee farmers in reducing their environmental impact

The company wanted a solution that could handle a variety of data while maintaining scientific rigor and alignment with ISO standards.

Solution

With SimaPro Craft, Lavazza was able to build a robust foundation for decision-making across its sustainability initiatives. The software has the transparency and adaptability that allows the company to tailor data inputs, align assessments with real-world processes, and identify where improvements matter most.

We chose the SimaPro software mainly for its credibility, database richness, and alignment with the ISO standard. We use SimaPro because it is transparent—we can adapt data to be more aligned with our process, and to better understand the hotspots. It enables us to manage the hotspots and reduce the impact.

Angela Aiello, Environmental Sustainability and LCA Manager at Lavazza Group

Through the partnership with 2B, Lavazza continues to strengthen its sustainability strategy and turn credible data into actionable insight.

Our collaboration with 2B is long-standing and strategic. They support us both technically and methodologically, ensuring consistency in our assessments and helping us stay up-to-date with evolving LCA practices and the EU sustainability directive. They offer day-by-day services, check our models, and give expert advice. They truly support the evolution of our organization in the world of LCA.

Angela Aiello, Environmental Sustainability and LCA Manager at Lavazza Group

Benefits

LCA and SimaPro Craft play a central role in Lavazza’s sustainability decision-making. This is particularly true when developing targeted initiatives such as the Green Coffee Project, which promotes sustainable agriculture and supports climate and nature preservation.

To ensure accuracy and relevance, Lavazza collects primary data directly from suppliers in the countries of origin, using real information from coffee farms. This enables Lavazza to identify hotspots in its upstream supply chain and refine its strategies. The same data also serve to calculate scope 3 emissions – a key step in moving beyond industry averages toward more precise, data-driven insights.

The detailed modeling in SimaPro Craft provides clarity on where to focus impact reduction efforts and how to measure progress. It also allows Lavazza to share practical guidance and improvement strategies with individual farmers, empowering them to reduce their own environmental impact while contributing to collective sustainability goals.

A defining feature of Lavazza’s approach is its use of parameterized models in SimaPro Craft. By importing parameters directly from an Excel spreadsheet – where each column represents a specific farmer – Lavazza can analyze data from hundreds of farmers simultaneously. This reveals regional differences, highlights patterns, and helps identify the most effective actions across contexts.

One of the features we value most in SimaPro Craft is the importing of parameters. It’s a very practical solution for us: we can parameterize the model, feed it each year with updated data, and keep the base the same. This makes it easier to monitor changes, compare results, and maintain continuity across projects.

Angela Aiello, Environmental Sustainability and LCA Manager at Lavazza Group

Through this combination of credible data, adaptable modeling, and collaboration with 2B, Lavazza continues to strengthen its sustainability strategy, turning LCA insights into actionable steps that make a difference from bean to cup.