The coexistence of the need to improve economic conditions and the conscious use of environmental resources plays a central role in today’s sustainable development challenge. In this study, a novel integrated framework to evaluate the impact of new technological interventions is presented and an application to smallholder coffee farms and their supply chains in Kenya is proposed. This methodology is able to combine multiple information through the joint use of three approaches: supply chain analysis, input-output analysis, and energy system modeling. Application to the context of the Kenyan coffee sector enables framework validation: shading management measures, the introduction of eco-pulpers, and the exploitation of coffee waste biomass for power generation were compared within a holistic high-level perspective. The implementation of shading practices, carried out with fruit trees, shows the most relevant effects from the economic point of view, providing farmers with an additional source of income and generating $903 of work for every million of local currency (about $9k) invested in this solution. The same investment would save up to 1.46 M m³ of water per year with the eco-pulpers technology. Investing the same amount in coffee-biomass power plants would displace a small portion of production from heavy-duty oil and avoid importing a portion of fertilizer, saving up to 11 tons of CO₂ and around $4k per year. The results suggest the optimal allocation of a $100m budget, which can be affected by adding additional constraints on minimum environmental or social targets in line with sustainable development goals.

Access to electricity is a crucial factor in boosting the economic, environmental, and social development of developing nations. This study presents a framework that combines and integrates indicators and methods to determine the most sustainable solution for off-grid electrification, focusing on the Mavumira village in Mozambique. The framework covers various methods including input–output, life cycle assessment based on SimaPro, and HOMER. Data for the analysis were obtained from the literature, the HOMER database, and the ecoinvent database. Our results show that renewables are the most sustainable solutions compared to diesel-only options as they can lower the cost of electricity by 20%, create approximately 26 more local jobs, reduce about 77% of greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels, and have higher values of HDI than diesel-only options. Using the MCDA (TOPSIS method), we found that the future renewable scenario ranked highest with a closeness value of one, while the diesel-only option ranked third and fourth on a ranking scale from 1 to 4. This study concludes with future research directions for applying the framework to other case studies using different renewable technologies like wind, hydropower, and biomass in villages with similar characteristics to Mavumira. The novelty of this study lies in applying various methods and indicators to analyze the sustainability of an implemented project for the current and future scenarios. Additionally, the framework presented in this study would assist policymakers in selecting the best energy alternatives for rural electrification.