Fresh Roasted Coffee's Sustainability Report - September 2025
Welcome back to another monthly Sustainability Report, highlighting how Fresh Roasted Coffee is roasting smarter, cleaner, and more sustainably. Each month, we share the progress our solar array, roasting technology, and facility improvements are making toward reducing emissions and energy waste. September may have brought shorter days, but our commitment to long-term renewable energy goals stayed bright.
Powering Sustainability: Staying Bright Through Fading Days
September brought shorter days, cooler mornings, and a little less sunshine — but our solar array was still hard at work soaking up every ray it could. The result? 88.57 MWh of clean electricity generated and 69.1 U.S. tons of CO₂ emissions prevented. Even as the season shifts, our renewable system keeps proving that a little sunlight goes a long way.
For comparison, 88.57 MWh of energy would
- power 99 average U.S. homes for a month (assuming ~899 kWh per home/month) US EPA
- brew 885,700 (assuming 100Wh per brew on a standard machine) Silicon Valley Power
We used the EPA’s 2022 national average emissions factor of ~1405 lbs CO₂ per MWh, to determine that our facility avoided 69.1 U.S. tons of CO₂ emissions by using a renewable energy source for power.
As we transition into fall, shorter daylight hours and shifting weather patterns naturally reduce solar generation. September’s lower energy output compared to July and August reflects seasonal changes in sunlight duration, not efficiency. Even with the gradual decline in daylight, our system continues to offset a large portion of our facility’s energy use.
Looking ahead, we expect solar generation to taper further through the winter months before climbing again in spring. Every kilowatt-hour produced still counts, keeping our operations sustainably powered, no matter the season.
Cleaner Roasting: How'd We Stack Up?
In September, we roasted over 220,000 pounds of coffee across our fleet of Loring Smart Roasters. These systems are designed to drastically reduce greenhouse-gas emissions while maintaining unmatched roast precision.
Compared to traditional drum roasters, our Lorings cut CO₂ output by up to 80% thanks to their advanced heat recirculation and self-contained thermal oxidizers. For September alone, our roasting efficiency prevented an estimated 14.1 U.S. tons of CO₂ emissions. When added to the 69.1 tons of emissions avoided by using Solar power, we get a grand total of 83.2 tons of CO₂ avoided
For comparison, that equals
As colder months set in, our closed-loop Loring systems provide an additional benefit: they allow us to repurpose the heat generated during roasting to help warm the facility. This natural reuse of by-product heat reduces the energy required to maintain comfortable working temperatures, lessening our winter heating demand while maximizing every ounce of energy we create.
Coffee-Break Science: Energy Efficiency VS. Generation
When it comes to sustainability, most people focus on producing more renewable energy, adding panels, building wind farms, or finding new clean sources. But there’s a truth that often gets overlooked: the cleanest energy is the energy you never have to use.
Even renewable power has an environmental footprint. Manufacturing a solar panel or turbine still requires materials, transport, and energy, all of which create embodied emissions. That’s why improving efficiency at the point of use often yields faster, cleaner, and more permanent sustainability gains than expanding generation alone.
At Fresh Roasted Coffee, energy efficiency starts where it matters most: in our roasting systems.
Traditional drum roasters typically use 30–40% more natural gas and release large volumes of exhaust that dissipate into the air as wasted heat. Our Loring Smart Roasters reclaim that energy instead of losing it.
Each unit’s built-in heat recirculation system captures and reuses thermal energy from previous roasts, cutting overall fuel consumption by up to 80% while still maintaining precision temperature control.
That’s why every pound of coffee we roast isn’t just powered more cleanly. It’s roasted more intelligently. Efficiency improvements like these compound over time, reducing both our operational costs and our carbon footprint every single day.
In sustainability terms:
Energy generation makes you cleaner.
Energy efficiency makes you smarter.
Together, they move us closer to a roasting model where waste simply doesn’t exist.
Eco-Friendly Extras: Compressed Air System Upgrades
When Fresh Roasted Coffee first purchased our current manufacturing facility, a number of upgrades and improvements were completed to improve our overall energy efficiency.
One such investment was in upgrading our compressed air system, a crucial but often overlooked part of most manufacturing operations. These systems power many essential components of our production floor, from packing lines to automated controls.
Older compressor models tend to run continuously at full power, generating heat and wasting electricity. By switching to a modern, high-efficiency system equipped with variable-speed drives and leak detection, we dramatically reduced the facility’s energy consumption.
Though the upgrade was completed some time ago, it continues to pay off today. These improvements are a lasting example of how forward-thinking infrastructure changes can lead to long-term sustainability gains: proof that the best energy savings come from decisions made years in advance.
Looking Ahead
Our October goal is to continue monitoring and optimizing our energy use as daylight decreases, ensuring consistent renewable performance throughout the colder months. We’re aiming to surpass 75 MWh of solar generation and maintain peak roasting efficiency while exploring new opportunities to improve our facility’s energy management throughout the winter colder months.
Thanks for following along on this journey — we’ll keep raising the bar, one batch and one beam of sunlight at a time.
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