Join us in making sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025!
Join us in making sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025!
In the last few months I was often asked about FOREVER CHOCOLATE; why we started it and what the business case is. Let me try to explain.
FOREVER CHOCOLATE is about Barry Callebaut’s roots and our future.
Sustainability is in our genes
Our roots first: as a company we have a long and constant commitment to sustainability. Directly, through programs in origin countries like Cocoa Horizons, or via our unique direct sourcing and farming model Biolands; through our constant effort to eradicate child labor from our supply chain but also through partnerships with customers and industry initiatives, from the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) up to the stakeholder conference Chocovision, which our company initiated in 2012.
Barry Callebaut has sustainability in its genes. Literally!
We contribute to educational infrastructure in communities where facilities are inadequate. This includes building and furnishing classrooms and school canteens, building separate latrines for boys and girls, providing solar panels for lighting, and building teacher housing.
50% of our profits go into education
Probably it is also because we are at heart a family business. And, as a family business, the future of the next generation is top of our mind. Our main shareholder is the Jacobs Holding, who is the shell of Jacobs Foundation. This Foundation provides children and young people with better opportunities for development. Put simply, 50% of all the dividends we produce goes into education. Or said differently, the better we do, the more good we do!
Launching FOREVER CHOCOLATE, or our ambition to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025, would not have been possible without our heritage, our work and experience from the past. FOREVER CHOCOLATE is built on four ambitious, measurable targets:
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to eradicate child labor from our supply chain,
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to lift 500,000 cocoa farmers out of poverty,
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to become carbon and forest positive and
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to have 100% sustainable ingredients in all of our products.
All of these have to be achieved by 2025.
A strong business case for FOREVER CHOCOLATE
But FOREVER CHOCOLATE is also very much about our future. It is about making sure that we can deliver to the needs of end consumers, to enjoy chocolate in the future to come. There is a clear consumer driven business case for sustainability. A recent study showed that 66% of global consumers indicate that they are willing to pay more for sustainable brands. And it shows everywhere: you see it in the trade, you see it with start-ups or with the public commitments of major industry players. And I can tell you, I see it at home, every day with my 4 kids: they want to see what goes into what they eat, who has made it and how it was made. Today’s consumers want to be sure that what they eat is good, natural, traceable, and ethically sourced.
We all love chocolate and we want it to be around forever. But to do that, sustainable chocolate should become the norm. That is why we've got to find bold new ways of doing business and bringing partners together to make it happen.
Let’s travel together!
FOREVER CHOCOLATE is also about a movement. Because what lies ahead of us is challenging to reach, takes time, and is too big for any organization alone. FOREVER CHOCOLATE is an ambition for the entire chocolate industry, including farmers, civil society, industry, governments and chocolate lovers around the world. Those who embark on the journey to make sustainable chocolate the norm - like us - will create a formidable competitive advantage for the future.
FOREVER CHOCOLATE is ultimately about delivering great performance in the right way: doing well by doing good, and doing good by doing well. So join our movement to make sustainable chocolate the norm by 2025! An African proverb sums it up nicely: “If you want to go fast, travel alone. If you want to go far, travel together”. Let’s travel together along what is a challenging, but truly exciting path!
"Forever Chocolate" - making sustainable chocolate the norm!
