Preface This article set out to capture the essence of the major problems around deforestation in the industry. In hindsight, that may have been naively ambitious. Much of it represents my own learning journey, no doubt with some way further to go. There is a lot of data to trawl through, notwithstanding data from private […]
SUSTAINABILITY AND DEFORESTATION IN THE COCOA INDUSTRY Read More »
Let nobody say that Mondelēz hasn’t embraced ESG. The company just raised billions of dollars of cheap cash by labelling their bond issuance as ‘green’. The multinational with the cringing slogan of ‘snacking made right’. A tagline that has to make it on my least favourite list, beating out past winners like vacuum company, Electrolux,
MONDELĒZ SEES THE ESG LIGHT! RAISES €2BN CHEAP CASH ON BOND MARKET Read More »
Barry Callebaut released a brief announcement showing their ranking position with a leading sustainability rating agency, Sustainalytics. Sustainalytics is one of a few companies that crunches the numbers, often provided to it by the company themselves, and comes up with an ESG risk rating. Other companies in the space, include MSCI and Reprisk. You’re about
BARRY CALLEBAUT MOVES FORWARD ON ESG DISCLOSURE Read More »
By Erik Sanner This article is part of our FCIA Raising the Bar Column, produced by members of the FCIA exclusively for Bartalks. You can learn more about the. benefits of FCIA membership on their website. Working in developing countries brings with it a seemingly endless slew of challenges. So why bother? In the case
SOCIAL CHANGE FROM ETHICAL COCOA AND COFFEE: MOKA’S STORY IN CAMEROON Read More »
Here in Thailand, many city dwellers are closing up shop and moving out to the provinces where they have family and land. The two weeks to flatten the curve lockdown over the last eighteen months has taken their toll and sucked the joy out of the Land of Smiles. But Thai’s are a resilient bunch
FROM WALL STREET TO COCOA FARM Read More »
Ex-US vice president Al Gore has come out with some strong words against companies making vague long term promises of net-zero objectives. At Bartalks we’ve commented a number of times about some of the chocolate companies environmental claims, both in terms of setting goals and also the progress towards them. Reading through some chocolate companies
GREENWASHING IS A MOUNTING THREAT SAYS US EX-VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE Read More »
Ten men from Burkina Faso were jailed in Côte d’Ivoire last week for attempting to smuggle forty children between the ages of 10 and 17 years old. The children were earmarked for cocoa plantations and were intercepted by police along two main routes to the cocoa belt. The children were shortly returned to Burkina Faso,
CÔTE D’IVOIRE JAILS 10 FROM BURKINA FASO FOR CHILD TRAFFICKING Read More »
The BBC reported on 9th June that Côte d’Ivoire is in the latter stages of building a large power plant capable of powering millions of homes, and it all runs off the wasted shells of the country’s cocoa production. The country, which is the world’s largest cocoa producer, can make such an investment viable. The
CÔTE D’IVOIRE COCOA POWER! – LITERALLY, FOR MILLIONS OF HOMES Read More »
Reference to Net Zero emissions feature heavily press releases and companies sustainability reports. But less visible are details on how those businesses will accomplish their goals! Dig deeper into the text, and among the enthusiastic claims of making a better world are invariably references to using ‘offsets’ part of the overall strategy. That single word
A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF THE CARBON OFFSET MARKET Read More »
Barry Callebaut writes on their website about the relationship between biodiversity and sustainable cocoa and what biodiversity means to them in the context of their “carbon and forest positive by 2025.” action plan. The company is building their biodiversity approach around four pillars: Using Biochar on farms Tree nursery’s providing seedlings for cocoa and non-cocoa trees
BARRY CALLEBAUT ON BIODIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABLE COCOA Read More »
This week, we’ve covered a lot of information about Environmental and Sustainability issues, referencing the EU’s proposed legislation and the lobbying from certain chocolate companies (e.g., Cargill). As we are going to press (ok we’re a digital platform, but it represents an 11th-hour metaphor) Tony’s Chocolonely publishes an open letter, and it’s too good to
DEAR EU COMMISSION – A LETTER FROM TONY’S CHOCOLONELY Read More »
Your correspondent was listening to this week’s edition of the Economist on his morning walk (there is an audio version on their app) and the topic of greenwashing came up. This brief article is based on that story in the Economist. We were already writing a related article about the startup Sylvera who is building
GREENWASHING IS BIG BUSINESS. THIS MIGHT BE ABOUT TO CHANGE. Read More »
