Barry Callebaut CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique sent our delegation of 12 to One Young World on a mission to become “change agents in the company”.  We reflected on how to create impact back in our roles and, through our Forever Chocolate strategy, on the entire chocolate industry and indeed the world.   

One Young World celebrated the power of business and entrepreneurship to catalyze self-sustaining change. Being a part of the world largest cocoa and chocolate company, we are lucky to work inside a global business platform that also serves as a values-driven impact platform. We bring commercial solutions to address key sustainability issues in our industry, whether establishing startup businesses to offer farmers in Africa, Latin America and Asia microcredit and technology to invest their way out of poverty, or establishing the Cocoa Horizons Foundation to offer chocolate lovers a means to pool their impact and communicate the value of sustainable cocoa. Barry Callebaut and other like-minded businesses represent the ideal environment for young change agents and a driving force behind the success of One Young World!

The growing influence of millennials in Asia is just one of the many trends putting pressure on businesses and brands in the region to be more sustainable. Increasingly, companies - even in China and India - are adapting processes and production practices to make their products sustainable and seize the opportunities this rapidly growing generation of consumers creates.

But what am I personally able to do to make an impact? We all have a voice as well as a job. I believe that on one level, doing our job well is already contributing to sustainability. Smooth operations and accountability contribute to the well-being of the organization. However, what I’ve heard from our business leaders and what I’ve experienced from One Young World made me realize that doing my job well is not good enough.

There are more actions we can do at work. For a start: Play our part in ensuring ethics, governance, and transparency in how we operate. Put our energy into fair-trading business relationships and community development. Drive processes that value our customers’ desire for quality products and services. Support diversity, employees development and uphold policies that protect the environment where we work.

There are more than we can do to make this work. This is a journey for everyone to take. There will be challenges but "crisis creates opportunity to make a change", as I was aptly reminded by Professor Mohammad Yunus at the recent One Young World event.

This is a call for my fellow millennials and colleagues to go ahead strongly to make a change. I believe the results we achieve will be a sweet fruit for us as well as our future generation. I love Chocolate and I hope the everyone and future generation gets to enjoy it as much as I do.   

The stories that impacted me the most were the ones presented about peace. It was very powerful to hear first-hand accounts from some refugees and those living in conflict-ridden regions. I am filled with admiration for them. They were treated very badly, yet were able to rise above the offense, forgive their abusers and fight back in a positive way. These stories really opened my eyes to see that by reaching out a helping hand to people in need, we can already make a big change for them and give them the energy to stay on the right path.

I was also impacted by the message from AnnaLynne McCord who said that every child is born with the same mindset and wants to hug everyone independent of a person’s skin color, job or wealth. What did we, as a society, do so wrong to allow these children to grow up into adults who see violence as an only option and abandon their inclusive mindset? I hope that we, as One Young World ambassadors, will be able to take the principles of these change agents, and apply them where we are at. Let us drive the change and make our world a better place for the future generations.

we find out at One Young World 2017!