That's what Forever Chocolate is all about...
That's what Forever Chocolate is all about...
Forever Chocolate is our plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm. Launched in 2016, the Forever Chocolate targets for 2025 are unique in terms of ambition in the cocoa and chocolate industry. In 2023 we presented our sharpened targets adding new measurable targets for 2030 and beyond.
Forever Chocolate is focusing on four pillars, addressing the material challenges in the cocoa and chocolate supply chain:
Forever Chocolate - extending our scope and impact
We are committed to driving long-term systemic change for a sustainable cocoa supply chain, with the support of our customers and to the benefit of all stakeholders.
For Forever Chocolate to become a reality, public intervention is required to drive structural change beyond Barry Callebaut’s direct supply chain. An enabling policy environment and government action in origin countries is essential to address the issue of traceability, rural infrastructure development and proper enforcement of national policies and legislation.
Prospering Farmers
- By 2025, more than 500,000 cocoa farmers in our supply chain will have been lifted out of poverty.
- By 2030, we will have mobilized key stakeholders around a transformative cocoa farming model generating living income.
As of 2021/22, almost 215,000 cocoa farmers in our supply chain are lifted out of poverty. Lifting cocoa farmers out of poverty is a first step. We aim for a longer poverty reduction perspective towards 2030, towards a living income. For this, we will therefore shift our focus away from training cocoa farmers, towards providing input support, through subsidized soil inputs, planting material, financial support for third-party labor services and additional premiums. Cocoa farmers have a solid understanding of sustainable agricultural practices, but their main struggle is access to investments in their farms.
We measure success by focusing on outcome over outputs. Our Prospering Farmers ambition for 2030 will create a framework where our performance is measured on average yield, income and size of farms of the cocoa farmers we source from. Delivering some of these outcomes, such as farm size, are beyond our direct influence. We therefore commit to mobilize key stakeholders including governments, to unite around a transformative cocoa farming model generating living income.
Human Rights
- By 2025, our entire supply chain will be covered by Human Rights Due Diligence, remediating all child labor cases identified.
- By 2030, the farming communities we source from are empowered to protect child rights.
We have sharpened our 2025 target, committing to covering our entire supply chain by Human Rights Due Diligence. This includes the continued monitoring and remediation of child labor cases. At the same time, we are adding a target for 2030, supporting cocoa farming communities to protect child rights and prevent child labor from occurring. This approach focuses on the adoption of child- centric due diligence systems in cocoa farming communities, empowering communities to protect child rights. This means early recognition of children at risk of being involved in the worst forms of child labor and action to mitigate these risks.
We measure success through the amount of cocoa farming communities with functioning child protection systems, as well as the percentage of adults and children reporting an improved sense of wellbeing.
Thriving Nature
- By 2025, we will be forest positive.
- By 2030, we will have decarbonized our footprint in line with global efforts to cap global warming at 1,5 degrees Celsius.
- By 2050, we will be a netzero company.
While maintaining our target to become forest positive by 2025, we move away from offsetting our carbon footprint and instead focus increasingly on insetting through agroforestry. This shift will align with the emission reduction trajectory of the Paris Agreement by 2030 and make us become a net-zero company by 2050. To assess progress, we will measure the reduction in our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, the number of cocoa farming hectares in our supply chain under agroforestry, the tonnes of carbon removals achieved, the percentage of raw materials demonstrated to not have contributed to deforestation and the carbon intensity per metric tonne of product sold.
Sustainable Ingredients
- By 2030, we will have 100% certified or verified cocoa and other ingredients in all of our products, traceable to farm level.
We are extending the deadline for all our ingredients to be certified or verified to 2030, in order for them to also be traceable to farm level. We will measure by reporting on the percentage of ingredients sourced which are certified or verified and traceable to farm level. In addition, recognizing that certification is only a starting point for building a sustainable cocoa and chocolate supply chain, we will continuously benchmark the certification and verification criteria we apply to ensure the standards remain meaningful.
Our approach to materiality
Read Barry Callebaut’s most recent materiality report (2023)
As the global sustainability landscape evolves, we are committed to evaluating what priorities and risks our stakeholders in the chocolate and cocoa value chain deem important for us to focus our efforts on. We do this via regularly updating our ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) materiality assessment to align with the evolving needs of our stakeholders and the changing dynamics of our industry.
The chocolate and cocoa value chain is characterized by its complexity and structural challenges, making it crucial to effectively identify and address key areas for achieving impacts. In 2023, Barry Callebaut conducted a comprehensive double materiality assessment to better understand and prioritize these areas. This process involved extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. Their feedback and insights have been integral to ensuring that our approach aligns with both the realities of the cocoa sector and the expectations of our stakeholders.
The purpose of our materiality assessment extends beyond compliance with reporting standards. It serves as a strategic tool, helping us to prioritize and report relevant sustainability issues systematically.
Results of Barry Callebaut’s Double Materiality Assessment, 2023
Our 2023 double materiality assessment reinforces our focus on Prospering Farmers, Human Rights, Thriving Nature, and Sustainable Ingredients. Barry Callebaut's Forever Chocolate strategy is fluid, recognizing that our understanding of a sustainable chocolate supply chain is both deepening and evolving. The results showed that our 'Forever Chocolate' strategy is adapting in tandem with stakeholder expectations and is prioritizing areas where significant impacts and risks have been identified. A prime example of this is our revised goal to achieve complete traceability to the farm level within our supply chain by 2030. This includes both certification and verification processes, an issue which was highlighted as crucial from both stakeholder and impact perspectives in our materiality assessment.
A clear consensus emerged around five standout topics as being material:
- Supply Chain Traceability
- Climate and Energy
- Biodiversity and Ecosystems
- Workers in the Value Chain
- Affected Communities
Throughout the assessment, these topics consistently emerged as priorities, from a stakeholder, impact and financial perspective. The material topics were approved at the Board of Directors' meeting in April, 2023.
