Which roaster is best? Should I be more concerned about the growers or supporting my local supplier? Soy milk or skinny? Maybe no milk? Fair trade? Rainforest alliance? Organic? What about rainforest destruction? And what about blends?!

It's enough to make you want to go home and have a cup of tea.

According to BBC, over a year, one person consuming one coffee per day contributes 155 kg of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. That's equivalent to driving a regular car 640 KM.

And how many people can stop at just one?

Local roasters, baristas, café owners and waste service providers shared the ways they try to make a difference environmentally within this enormous industry.

Darks Coffee Roasters have beans coming from supply chains in Colombia, Brazil, Nicaragua and PNG. Some are single estates that come from one particular farm, and some are processed from a plant in one village supplied by 100 growers.

"All of our coffees have full traceability, so that helps with the sustainability. We know where the coffee is coming from, the farms and the co-ops," Trent Alder says. "Not every coffee is the same, (but) it's all traceable to its origin."

He said the majority of his beans come from farmers not using pesticides, although they do have a special organic blend.

"Not everyone gets certified; there's plenty of people out there that follow the practices but don't get certified because of the costs that go along with it," he says. "When you're tracing your beans and you're paying more for them, you're getting farmers who are following good growing practices, which is good for the longevity of their farm."

Alder's not the only roaster selling beans from our nearby neighbours in PNG.

Suspension Coffee is roasted by its founder, Mishka Golski.

"Most of our coffee is from PNG where Mishka spent many years growing up. The coffee we use is grown in the highlands and picked by the locals, some of whom Mish calls family. Much of the coffee is wild grown, organic but not certified. The income from the coffee sales is literally the only income the villages receive," owner Chris Johnston says.

From locally made reusable coffee bags to a roaster powered by the wind-generated Power Shop, sustainable initiatives are evident within Suspension's business. Johnston said for 2020 their goal is to be plastic free, solar-powered and using as many local manufacturers and suppliers as possible.

James Carter of River Roast Coffee in Maitland has been in the coffee business for 25 years. He's found the biggest environmental impacts in the supply chain may be at the origin, where significant amounts of water is used and pollution is caused from separating the beans from the cherry they're grown in.

Over the years River Roast has purchased coffee direct from growers in Colombia and also from farms in the Byron region. They currently buy from a large trader and now use predominately organic beans.

"From a consistency point of view, it is more sensible to deal with a larger importer. From past experience, I have been let down by smaller importers," Carter says.

Crema Coffee Roasters, located in Broadmeadow have spent a long time trialing different brokers that focus on transparency and source from farms and regions that address social inequity and are environmentally focused. Their green beans are primarily from Central America, Africa, India and Indonesia. They also have some beans from Australia and China. In the future they hope to source beans directly from farmers, a process known as direct trade.

"We believe a better coffee industry cannot be achieved through purely traditional pathways like certifications, but rather through placing power and autonomy back into the hands of the people who work hard to produce coffee by carefully choosing who we purchase from." Crema's Shonavee Simpson says.

Rich Mosby works for Glitch Roasters, a company which uses predominantly South American beans which are "B Corp certified" suppliers, "businesses who are legally required to consider the impacts of their product environmentally and economically."

"Our team just returned from Colombia where we were able to take a few of our customers to experience the production of farms and actually pick and process the coffee," Mosby says.

After you take into consideration the way the beans are grown and the people who grow them, there's still the roasting process to consider. Most roasters in Australia are gas-powered, using rotary drum technologies. Suspension and Silverskin use renewable energy offsets via Powershop, and another one local roaster has a unique technique.

"Coffee importers and roasters place great emphasis on the sustainability and ethical treatment of their growers, which is of course extremely important - but very little attention is given to the huge environmental impact that this organic waste chain has at the end of the coffee cycle," says Chelsea D'Aoust of Sprocket Roasters.

Since its inception in 2009, Sprocket Roasters has been using coffee grinds, packaging and biomass as an alternative fuel source to roast their beans from South and Central America, Africa and Asia.

"Since our coffee roaster virtually turns waste into fuel, there is no need to be connected to mains gas supply," says D'Aoust. "The new design also drastically cuts emissions and has lower running costs due to the heightened level of automation and low cost programmable logic controllers (PLCs). All of our equipment has been built and manufactured on site or locally."

Another thing to consider is how the coffee is packaged. For example Darks and Glitch deliver their coffees in reusable tins. River Roast and local roaster Silverskin are exploring this option as well.

Crema gives away their Hessian sacks to the public to reuse. Silverskin save their specialty grade coffee bags and send them either to the Solomon Islands to help cacao producers or return them to Brazil.

Silverskin owner Matthew Pointon said that recently Brazil (the world's largest coffee producer) started using plastic interwoven with jute in their bean bags. This is unfortunate as it takes away the reusability of the old school coffee sacks which are no longer natural or biodegradable.

"We now have it written into our contracts that our coffee must come in natural jute and have taken the stand to buy no coffees in these plastic woven sacks and encourage other roasters to do the same. If every roastery said no it would bring it to an immediate end, simple as that," Pointon says.

Dave Pogson of Running Man Roasters has been roasting since 2014. He's worked in many cafes around like Equium Social, One Penny Black and Mr. Sister. He's an environmentalist who spends a lot of time thinking about coffee and is optimistic about future coffee technology.

He points out that coffee machines release a lot of heat, and are generally energy inefficient. A lot of cafes keep them on overnight too.

"(For the time being) you still have to heat a beverage up from room temperature. If you think about a 160 mil small flat white you have to heat up your brewing water from room temperature to 97 degrees, milk has to go from 5 to 65," he says.

Barista can reduce milk wastes with portion control. He used to tip excess milk waste into a bucket and stick it in the fridge. He'd take it home and make Labna.

Diary milk has the highest environmental impact, oat milk the lowest. Pogson wishes oat milk was more popular in Australia.

He's not the only one to notice the milk waste that correlates with coffee.

Hamish Macdonald is a barista currently working from Bank Corner Espresso in Newcastle West.

"What personally grieves me the most is the amount of plastic milk cartons that we waste in this game. Just go to any cafe in Newy and have a look in their recycling bins; it's really saddening. Not just one bin, usually a small cafe will have three to four bins," he says.

Suspension and Good Brother have plans to change their plastic milk bottles to a stainless steel beer keg system.

"If we can completely remove milk bottles from our cafes we will be eliminating over 20,000 milk bottles a year," Johnston says.

Coffee shops can also take care within their workplace practices.

"We hate to waste coffee," says Alaric Daley of Unison Roasters and New Slang cafe on Hunter Street. "It took a long time to grow and an enormous amount of care was put into processing and roasting, so our approach to brewing is extremely methodical. Everything is weighed and timed for repeatability, basically taking the guess work out. You definitely won't find us putting 25g+ in an espresso or the dreaded double ristretto."

Sustainability is and waste reduction is massive for Bec Bowie, owner of Estabar

"We want great food and great coffee to be available for all of us forever and ever, if we use those resources unwisely we lose them," she says.

Their baristas weigh every shot of coffee, ensuring consistency and less waste. She went to Costa Rica with Single O, their roaster of 13 years.

"When you see how much work is involved in picking one coffee cherry, and there's two beans in that, (wasting them is) insulting, worrying and unsustainable," she says.

Estabar invested in an automatic milk dispensing system to eliminate milk waste. They work with Little Big Dairy, a dairy just out of Dubbo with innovative and sustainable practices for their 800 cows, each of which the farmers know by name.

"This is the future, the cows can be looked after properly; farmers can make a wage. (They're) not hamstrung by corporations; they've stepped outside a system sending farmers to the brink," she says

Her customers tell her the coffee is tasting more delicious as well.

For the non-dairy drinkers, Bowie offers customers macadamia hemp plant mil blend they make in house. The macadamias come from a family farm in Madowie, and their trees are so established the farmers don't have to irrigate them anymore.

Bowie's coffee waste goes to Dave Sivyer from Feedback Organic Recovery. They convert coffee grounds and other waste into compost and spread it on beds in urban farms which then grows produce.

The importance of reusable cups is huge for Sivyer.

"Millions and millions of coffee cups go to landfills," he says.

Along with taking people's food waste, he's trialing a system with compostable cup company Biopak to make sure the cups actually get composted, as they don't break down properly in landfills.

Cafes and individuals can work with Feedback Organic Recovery to make sure their cups are properly composted.

Green Helping Hand is another local business who recycles coffee waste for compost. They emphasize sustainability with a focus on waste management, resource recovery and urban gardening.

Bean Cycled is a local mushroom provider, and all their mushrooms are grown on coffee waste at Charlestown cafes.

It can be challenging to filter through all the facts, but it's also good when the coffee you're drinking doesn't keep you up at night.

From the farmer to the seed to the mug to the grounds, coffee is a complex topic, one that can't easily be boiled down. Local roasters have much more information to share, and we've included a list of ways to get their beans here.

"What we know is we can only make the best choice in the moment, and sometimes we don't even know that there's a better choice," Bowie says." No one needs to feel too stressed, but just try to keep making the best choice. But people do need to remember to bring their own cup."

Crema

"While we do everything that we can as a business, we also have many restrictions to work with and many systems above us that can restrict the good work many cafes and roasters try to accomplish, so it's important as a community we keep putting the responsibility back onto our councils and governments to put the systems and policies in place that will allow all of us to lead a more sustainable way of life," Crema's Shonavee Simpson says.

(Crema works with cafes and restaurants across the Hunter Region, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Central Coast, as well as some cafes in Brisbane where they have a second location.) Find their coffee at places like Peterson House and Taste of the Country in the Hunter Valley; the Orange Tree Café in Maitland; the Vacy General Store Café & Gifts at Vacy; Stella Bistro at Dungog; The Crepe Myrtle Tea & Coffee Rooms at Stroud; Porky's Nest on Hunter Street; Sanctum on Darby; Jack's Hideout & The Village on Beaumont Street; The Barn on Brunker Road; The Verandah at Gateshead; Lakeview Café at Speers Point; Wangi Deck Café at Wangi Wangi and more.

Darks

Trent Alder sources some of his beans from PNG, an origin he hopes is growing in coffee popularity. Darks' main blend is called Year 47, and PNG beans make up a large portion.

"We go through with a broker in Australia. They are a middle man, but we have full access. We can pick up the phone and speak to the farmer," Alder says.

Try Darks' Blend 47 from their coffee shop, a converted shipping container located at the McDonald Jones Stadium. They supply beans to Dark Horse Espresso, Welsh Blacks, Barista Miss in New Lambton, Mama P's in Charlestown and Doubleshot Espresso in both Swansea and Belmont.

Glitch Roasters

"Our suppliers work with farmers to create a traceable, sustainable product that is being traded above the cost of production. Our suppliers are stationed all over the world in most coffee-producing countries, but we predominantly use South American coffees," Glitch's Rich Mosby says.

Glitch supplies local coffee shops in Newcastle and few "out of towners" on the Central Coast up to Port Macquarie. You can try their coffee at several places included but not limited to: Civic Digest, Hubro, guest appearances at Autumn Rooms, Culture Club, Edmonds & Co, Q & Co, and Black Sheep (both in Warner's bay). Onyx in Mayfield, The Beaumont in Hamilton. The Golden Goat in Kotara, Kaffeine in Shortland, Think at the University of Newcastle, Redhead Bakehouse, and The Newcastle food and Flower Market in Sandgate.

River Roast Coffee

"The specialty coffee industry as a whole is acutely aware of the impacts on the environment and are working to adapt. Some changes that have occurred recently are the use of yeast to process coffee to reduce water use." River Roast Roaster James Carter says.

Find River Roast Coffee wholesale at Organic Feast, Belmore Rd Grocer, Foodworks Tenambit, Kahibah Mini Mart, Local Crop and Nina's IGA Hamilton.

To try them by the cup head to Paterson Servo, Chinh's Vietnamese Restaurant or further afield to Cafe Sonder in Wagga Wagga or the Trundle Hotel, Trundle.

Silverskin

"The main regions we buy green beans from are Guatemala, Colombia, Indonesia, Brazil, Kenya and Ethiopia. Half of the beans we use in our blends we now source directly, so we do know exactly where they come from and what their story is" roaster Matt Pointon says. "Ideally we would like to source all our coffee this way as it ensures the producers get much more per kgs for their coffee than they would otherwise get, and significantly more than what 'Fair Trade' coffee is capped at. Most of the non direct coffees are still estate coffees so although we don't have the direct relationship with the growers, we know their story and for most we have been buying from the same estates for years."

Silverskin beans are at the Newcastle Farmers Market every Sunday. Try Door 34 at Cardiff, Sotos Tea & Coffee at Belmont. In Newcastle try The East End Hub, Restaurant Mason and Cocoa Nib. The Icky Sticky Patisserie at Lorn and Dragonfly Foods in Maitland. In the shopping centres you can go to Fifi La Femme at Charleston and Kotara.

Sprocket

Sprocket Roasters purchase beans from direct trade and Aussie coffee importers who emphasise fair pricing for growers, traceability and sustainability of origin communities.

"Our aim at Sprocket Roasters is to mix creativity with sound scientific principles, bringing the best beans roasted in the most sustainable way. We have designed, patented and locally manufactured a fluid bed coffee roaster that runs on biofuels and spent coffee grinds," says Sprocket's Chelsea D'Aoust. Customers can purchase bags of freshly roasted coffee from their coffee roastery in Lambton, online from their website and at local community markets such as the Newcastle Farmers Market and Olive Tree Market, and at retailers and wholesale cafes in the Hunter region.

Suspension

"We are currently putting in place some exchange initiatives with the dream of moving away entirely from any single use products, including takeaway cups. We currently use Bio Cup but there just has to be a better way," owner Chris Johnston says.

Get Suspension at Good Brother, Chiefly East, Ground Up Espresso, Bikesmith in Maitland, Aphotic in the ATO building near civic park, Burgerfiend in Cessnock, Carrington Bowling club, The Criterion in Carrington, Flotilla and The Edwards. Retailers include Local Crop, Your Food Collective and Fruit Bros.

Unison Coffee Roasters

"We use a few different importers that focus on high quality traceable coffee. Every step of the process is transparent including but not limited to: growing conditions (weather) altitude, variety, processing methods, Farmers name and their ideals," says roaster Alaric Daley.

Find his coffee at New Slang, Frothers, MoMos and Equium Social, and occasionally at Mr. Sister.