Sharing our knowledge with industry to improve carbon reduction goals in the cocoa supply chain

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carbon reduction - Barry Callebaut

Sharing our knowledge with industry to improve carbon reduction goals in the cocoa supply chain

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As part of our Forever Chocolate commitments, we aim to be carbon and forest positive by 2025. Working with Quantis, we have developed an innovative assessment which will help us and our customers link forest protection activities with carbon reduction goals.

Barry Callebaut has a target to become forest positive by 2025. This means that we have to develop a greater understanding of where deforestation is at risk of occurring in our supply chain. For cocoa we have worked in close partnership with the renowned environmental sustainability consultancy, Quantis, to develop an innovative carbon footprinting assessment to evaluate the impacts of land-use change (LUC) and deforestation driven by cocoa farming.

Through the combination of GPS, satellite imagery and farm-level data, this new assessment enables us to gain a better understanding of the contribution of each farm or cooperative that we source from to our direct land-use change emissions.

At Quantis, we're proud of developing this cutting-edge carbon footprinting assessment with Barry Callebaut to evaluate the impacts of cocoa farming on land-use change and deforestation. It provides a more realistic snapshot of what is happening on the ground, paving the way for more precise footprints, reduction strategies and action plans to effectively tackle land-use change emissions in the cocoa supply chain. We hope this will inspire the wider industry to action and accelerate sustainable transformation.
Michele Zollinger, Natural Capital Solutions Lead at Quantis

Having a greater understanding of where deforestation is at risk of occurring, we can also establish a better link between forest protection activities and carbon accounting at farm level. Importantly, using satellite data also helps us to analyze deforestation events on the ground in greater detail. This provides us with the opportunity to engage with cocoa farming communities on the adoption of natural resource management and avoid activities; such as land-clearing for agriculture, which can result in deforestation.

carbon reduction in cocoa supply chain

This unique assessment provides greater insights into deforestation events, which can help with greater engagement with cocoa farming communities.

Importantly, using satellite data also helps us to analyze deforestation events with even more focus. This depth of detail provides us with the opportunity to engage with farming communities on the adoption of natural resource management and avoid activities such as land-clearing for agriculture, which can result in deforestation.

Enabling customers to account for the carbon impact of their cocoa and chocolate

The development of this new assessment also helps customers with calculating their carbon impact more accurately and will enable us to provide carbon neutral chocolate. Customers can input recipes into our carbon footprint calculator, get a clear view on the impact of their chocolate, and learn more about the methodology behind the numbers.

Wholefruit Chocolate

This assessment can help our customers to calculate their carbon impact more accurately and enable us to provide carbon neutral chocolate solutions.

Working together to create a more sustainable chocolate and cocoa industry

Carbon reduction - thriving nature - Barry Callebaut

Our current Forever Chocolate progress towards becoming carbon and forest positive by 2025.

As part of our Forever Chocolate commitments, we aim to be carbon and forest positive by 2025.

But we also look beyond our own chocolate and cocoa supply chain. We are working to create a movement to address the biggest challenges in our industry and we can only do this by working together to develop innovative and scalable solutions.

This is why we recommend the assessment to other companies that are committed to forest protection or would like to link forest protection activities at farm level with their carbon goals. 

Interested in seeing the assessment?

Please view the video below or contact:

Geza Toth
Global Forest and Carbon Program Lead, Barry Callebaut
[email protected]

Quantis contacts:

Simon Gmuender
Senior Sustainability Consultant
[email protected]


Michele Zollinger
Natural Climate Solutions Lead
[email protected]

Video

Carbon impact of cocoa farming
Taryn Ridley

Taryn Ridley

Working as Head of ESG in the Sustainability team of Barry Callebaut. Native Australian, but loves living in the land of the Toblerone. Passionate about a range of sports, nature and travelling.

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