Gebrüder Weiss: Emission-free "Coffee Trip" with Sailing Ship and Hydrogen Truck

The coffee manufacturer Atinkana claims to pursue a sustainable vision: it aims to restore the original structure of the rainforest in Colombia in the long term and make the soil more fertile. Its project in the Colombian Sierra Nevada is financed by the Swiss company through the cultivation of coffee and cocoa as well as various fruits. These are grown in a natural cycle, and almost no emissions are produced through hand-picking and processing. For every kilogram of coffee sold, Atinkana plants two trees in Colombia. To make the 8,500-kilometer transport to Europe as sustainable as possible, Atinkana uses environmentally friendly means of transportation: the coffee beans are shipped across the Atlantic by sailboat to Amsterdam, further transported by truck to Antwerp, and then by rail to Basel. From there, they are delivered to the coffee roastery by Gebrüder Weiss using a hydrogen truck.

“Thanks to the collaboration with our innovative logistics partners Fairtransport and Gebrüder Weiss, we can cover 98 percent of the route from Colombia to Switzerland with sustainable means of transport. This makes our coffee in Europe almost as sustainable as a regional product,” says Andre Conte, responsible for logistics at Atinkana.

The transport with two sailing ships to Europe takes about 10 weeks. Thus, 14 tons of coffee are transported to Switzerland once a year. In addition to reforesting the rainforest, Atinkana also sets high standards in other areas. For example, coffee farmers receive better wages than with other companies. Eight dollars per kilogram of sold coffee stay in the country—five for the coffee beans, three for reforestation work. This corresponds to about 22 percent of the revenue. The profit is intended primarily to benefit Colombians.