Agnieszka Pętelska
Sini Rantamäki
Chiara Locarno
Lilly Schoknecht
Hanken School of Economics
Martin Fougere
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EcoBean represents an innovative solution to address Sustainable Development Goals in terms of responsible production and waste valorization. The startup produces sustainable chemicals from coffee grounds, which are used to create different products, such as cosmetics or biofuels. By collecting coffee grounds from different sources, the startup contributes to SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production, giving them new life. It is also committed to SDG 13 – Climate action, as it provides a model of combating climate change through circular economy. Furthermore, its activities are connected to SDG 17 – Partnership for the Goals, since it contributes to creating a network of collaborations between organizations of the different spheres of society, such as Global Compact, Ellen Macarthur Foundation and EU EIT InnoEnergy. EcoBean also collaborates with the Warsaw University of Technology, the institution where its founders originally met. In addition, SDG 7 – Affordable and clean energy and SDG 15 – life on land, are integrated into the company’s innovation through a singular process of extraction in a single location that is partly powered by renewable energy.
EcoBean turns coffee waste into sustainable chemicals, to obtain products with a lower carbon footprint. The initial idea was to produce barbeque briquettes from coffee waste, but this did not seem impactful and profitable enough. During the pandemic, the final idea came about. The idea was to use coffee grounds to obtain five fractions of chemicals to make products more sustainable with reduced carbon impact: coffee oil, antioxidants, polylactide (PLA), protein additives and lignin, which are sold to different offtakers like the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry.
All the chemicals are derived from just one process. This allows EcoBean to use 94% of the potential contained in coffee grounds. When coffee is produced, only 6% of it is utilized. EcoBean maximizes the utilization through a process that does not leave waste behind. This is an opportunity for EcoBean to pursue the SDGs by tackling climate change through the less impactful production of chemicals and waste repurposing.
The R&D team is finding new ways to optimize the process. The idea is to build six new refineries in this decade across Europe. This would allow EcoBean to become a market standard. Their dream is to connect a refinery to every instant coffee production factory. The alternatives present in the market are made from natural resources, such as biomass, and thus have a higher carbon footprint. Extracting, harvesting and converting processes require a significant amount of energy, water or land to be cultivated and they have a disruptive impact on biodiversity. Ecobean is a more sustainable solution because it eliminates these impacting stages.
The person we interviewed previously worked in the marketing department of a large company, until she was fed up “making people buy things that they actually don’t need”. She decided to go back to education and earned a PhD in Sustainable Development.
The founders of EcoBean are known as “the coffee (industry) veteran”, Kacper Kossowski and Marcin Koziorowski, who bridges the communication between science and business. The two founders met at university and one day they discussed the amount of waste people generate with their coffee use. As the coffee veteran, Kacper discovered that the coffee industry is the 5th biggest emitter of waste in the food sector. Shortly after, they began to work on a solution by combining their knowledge and skills. Together, the duo built a team that drives the startup with passion, stubbornness and knowledge. They all believe that “circular economy is one of the solutions (...) to slow down climate change”. By 2022 EcoBean had revised their initial idea and developed a unique innovation, turning used coffee grounds into 5 different chemicals, that is both profitable and has a lot of potential to make a positive impact in the world of coffee, one cup at a time.
EcoBean hopes to collect 250,000 tons of coffee grounds by 2028 and have their innovative use of waste become a market standard in the coffee industry. In comparison, 9,000 tons of coffee grounds are used per day in Europe. Based on these predictions, market benchmarks have shown that EcoBean’s business model produces less emissions than others.
EcoBean partnered up with Bureau Veritas, a reputable certification agency, to calculate their carbon footprint. It became clear during our interview that by using a singular process to generate the 5 chemicals in house, they also use significantly less water resources and help maintain biodiversity. By almost eliminating third tier emissions, the startup’s model seems circular and waste-reducing from multiple angles.
It is also possible to calculate the positive impact based on the profit- every ton of coffee grounds generates about 8,000 € of profit.
EcoBean is applying to the recognized B-Corp label and has received funding from the EU’s initiative EIT InnoEnergy, both showing the impact their innovation has.
Considering the partners their business model has been able to attract, including Starbucks and Vattenfall, one could say EcoBean has managed to make circular economy appealing to certain bigger corporations, which is in line with their goal to become market standard.
The most important stakeholders are represented by the EcoBean team itself, business investors, and multiple-organization initiatives. EcoBean takes part in Global Compact, UNGC and Ellen Macarthur Foundation. Investments come from EU funds and different private investors. Initially, it was difficult to find people who trusted the process. While the process is still to be optimized and maximized, EcoBean is planning to become progressively more impactful in Europe, by building new refineries that will contribute to creating shared value for both the company and the society.
Currently EcoBean has 25 people employed in different areas of the firm, all with long-term contracts. Furthermore, their scientific, supervisory and advisory boards contribute to maintain the focus on sustainability/ They do this by supporting R&D and technology advancement, through their collaboration with EIT InnoEnergy and Warsaw University of Technology, and by exploring new opportunities from the industry.
Through social media and their participation in fairs they engage with the wider coffee community, as well as end-users, who do not have access to the B2B business model of EcoBean. Local businesses benefit from EcoBean bringing a hassle-free sustainable solution for their waste, whilst bigger chains can help their corporate responsibility with using EcoBean’s services. As their network grows, EcoBean is able to innovate coffee waste further with different products like dissolvable straws made from coffee waste. Hence, their business model allows to have an ongoing closed-loop process by reprocessing waste into final products which are in some cases resold to their suppliers.
EcoBean’s mission is not only about circular economy and recycling, it is a broader vision. Their dream is to become a benchmark for other startups and companies, to make a real change toward a more sustainable market. In order to reach that goal, stakeholder communication is essential, albeit not enough - the real difference comes when (brand) activism and urgency are involved as well.
Having a positive impact on the environment and society requires time. That is why it is important to operate step by step, being persistent. Good outcomes will come in the long term. We believe that EcoBean embodies this spirit in its products and its processes. However, change will not come if we act individually. EcoBean, in fact, contributes to creating a network of solid partnerships with different stakeholders. Although it is a B2B strategy, its mission incorporates society’s wellbeing through awareness and advocacy towards civil society.
The impact on the environment is clear: reducing waste and reinventing it to transform it into a valuable resource. This helps not only to reduce GHG emissions, but also to cut down the waste generated by the entire coffee industry. By producing green chemicals, the negative impact on the environment and on people’s health is reduced. This seems to be a win-win-win perspective: both business and the environment, as well as society, benefit from the process. From a wider perspective, all 17 SDGs are integrated into the core business and its supply chain, resulting in the creation of shared value.
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EcoBean is a Polish startup that was established in 2018 and makes spent coffee grounds, leftover solid material from brewing coffee, circular. Working together with several big coffee chains in a B2B model, EcoBean turns coffee waste into five sustainable chemicals in a singular process, which can be sold and reused in different sectors. They rely on a strong scientific foundation, closely working with the Warsaw University of Technology and they are part of the EIT InnoEnergy initiative of the European Union.