By Dr. Erika Koss
April 22, 2026
It’s Earth Day today!
The first Earth Day took place in 1970, and this year’s theme is “Our Power, Our Planet.”
Buzzwords: An Introduction
Sometime in the 1940s, the phrase "buzzword" was coined, indicating a popular word or expression that becomes so trendy in a particular field that its meaning is diluted, sometimes losing its original meaning. A buzzword can also be jargon, or a slogan, so overused by media that it loses its precise meaning, sounding like a mass "buzz" of bees.
When considering our global coffee industry, so many buzzwords in English swarm like a hive of bees.
It’s important to keep in mind that buzzwords are often started as meaningful, innovative, terms. These words don’t have to be meaningless: we can learn to be more thoughtful and precise in the way we use these terms.
Even "environmental sustainability" itself has become a buzzword.
When I teach Coffee Sustainability courses, this is the most recognized of the three pillars—the others are social and economic—and I’ve noticed that it often gets reduced merely to recycling or composting.
But there is far more to it than that.
It is my hope that this post will lead us all to be more intentional when we talk about our Mother Earth -- and that one place to begin "climate action" is with our words.
1. "Climate Change"
Let’s cease using the term "climate change," shall we? Earth’s climate has shifted and changed throughout time. An excellent resource to look at here is NASA’s website, which devotes several web pages to explaining our Earth’s timeline of climate change over centuries, while providing evidence for how that change has gotten far more aggressive in recent decades due to human activity and greenhouse gases.
The phrase “climate crisis” has been a popular term for those who take the doomsday worldview. But my preference is the “climate emergency”—because it’s more precise, and because an “emergency” can end if we collectively address it properly.
An example of usage from climate activist and writer Rebecca Solnit: “Usually, if I ask people what they’re doing about the climate emergency, most will talk about what they’re not consuming or doing—but these will never add up to the speed and scale of change needed to change the system.”
As she says later in the same essay, “Changing the Climate Story,” our collective responsibility means that we must consider what are we doing (or not doing) both as citizens and as consumers.
2. Climate Mitigation or Climate Adaptation
These terms are both now so ubiquitous that it is necessary to emphasize that these are not interchangeable.
However, even a quick search on Google scholar will reveal thousands of articles claiming to offer innovative perspectives on climate mitigation or climate adaptation in all manner of crops, industries, and technologies.
In the last 25 years, more than 177,000 articles have been written on all subjects of “climate mitigation” (more than 8,000 on coffee). Double that on “climate adaptation” with 12,500 on coffee.
When it comes to both, we don’t need more articles. We need more action, especially if we want our children and grandchildren to enjoy coffee in the future.
But for the record, here’s the definition of both “adaptation” and “mitigation” from the glossary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Climate Adaptation:
“The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects.”
Climate Mitigation:
“A human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases (GHGs).”
3. Regenerative Agriculture
Regenerative agriculture is quickly becoming more than just a “sustainability option,” considering the dire challenges of soil degradation. In contrast to conventional industrial agriculture, which contributes a significant percentage of the world’s global emissions, regenerative agriculture is a solution that actively conserves and rehabilitates land.
But the term is often diluted. There is no consensus for a definition of ‘regenerative agriculture’; generally, there is an absence of any coherent philosophy, a point argued in a 2025 academic article. Coffee websites often list regenerative practices and solutions, but they lack clear data on what is most transformative.
No doubt: reversing soil degradation is vital to the future of our food, including coffee. A third of the world's soil has already been degraded according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Excessive use of agrochemicals is one cause with the global annual production of industrial chemicals doubling since the beginning of the 21st century. The FAO predicts this will increase by 85 percent by the end of this decade.
One manifestation is that some consumers are now demanding more than just “sustainable” labelling.
Enter a new(er) certification, Regenerative Organic Agriculture. A California-based organization, they recognize farmers who protect land, water, and all inhabitants from industrial techniques and toxic agrochemicals. Their focus? “We can rehabilitate soil, respect animal welfare, and improve the lives of farmers. We can sequester carbon, build healthier communities, and reap more nutritious and abundant yields.”
To avoid greenwashing, regenerative practices and its corresponding labels must restore soil health, reduce emissions, and build resilient ecosystems that lead to climate justice.
4. Eco-friendly
Eco-friendly is the epitome of an environmental sustainability buzzword in coffee. Look at most coffee websites: you’ll likely see multiple ways the adjective is used to describe everything from a coffee maker, coffee pods, coffee cups, sleeves, lids, paper products, and other kinds of packaging.
I’ve seen coffee beans and cafes described as “eco-friendly.”
But the question is: what does this vague term actually mean?
How friendly does anything need to be to be considered “eco-friendly”?
The truth is: anyone can make this up.
Anyone can write the words “eco-friendly” on a package, and it can mean nothing: the epitome of greenwashing.
As with regenerative agriculture, there’s no consensus on a definition. No certification. No global standard.
One tip: If you’re using the term “eco-friendly” to describe anything related to your coffee products or your shop, and if you want to avoid using this as a greenwashed buzzword, clarify what part of your coffee supply chain is “eco-friendly” and what difference this makes to your interpretation or application of environmental sustainability.
5. Carbon
The obsession with carbon in the coffee industry is new, noticeable in the last twenty years.
When it comes to specialty coffee, the most popular terms are carbon footprint, carbon sequestration, carbon neutral, carbon tracking, and carbon emissions, to name a few.
Consider one measurement of this rise: in the entire 20th century, there were only two published articles that mentioned anything related to “carbon coffee” or coffee’s carbon footprint. But in the last 25 years, there are now 267 (in English), likely with dozens more in progress.
Another evident turn toward coffee’s carbon-related popularity occurred in 2022, when the Specialty Coffee Association published its first-ever carbon-centered report, “Carbon and Coffee: GHG Emission Reductions Progress and Strategies Across the Value Chain." Soon after, the new 2.0 Sustainability curriculum created a new advanced course, “Climate and Coffee,” with one-third of the exam content focused on carbon and coffee.
“Carbon coffee” terms are so popular now that I’ll explore the carbon-related buzzwords in an upcoming post, explaining several of the core concepts and how they’ve been used in our industry in the past two decades.
Conclusion:
In 1946, writer George Orwell published an essay titled “Politics and the English Language,” where he argued that “the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language.”
If that was true in the 1940s, how much more evidence do we have of such a decay now?
If you feel powerless in our current day, we do have one clear opportunity. We can, each one of us, change our own habits of language. As Orwell says, “the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” We can, instead, use language not to conceal, but as an instrument for expressing our own thoughts – not merely replicating buzzwords handed to us by others.
All pictures by Erika Koss, taken at Chepsangor Coffee Hills or Kiqwetu Organic Coffee, western Kenya in 2025.
Key Resources:
Congreves, K.A. (2025) “Regenerative agriculture—a definition and philosophy.” NPJ Sustainable. Agriculture. 3, 60. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44264-025-00097-7.
IPCC: Data Distribution Centre (n.d.) “Glossary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).” https://ipcc-data.org/guidelines/pages/glossary/index.html
Orwell, George. (1946) “Politics and the English Language.” Why I Write. New York: Penguin Books.
SCA (2022) Carbon and Coffee: GHG Emission Reductions Progress and Strategies Across the Value Chain. https://sca.coffee/sca-news/webinar-discussing-the-carbon-and-coffee-report.
Solnit, Rebecca. (2025) “Changing the Climate Story.” No Straight Road Takes You There. Chicago: Haymarket Books.