A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to see Tensie Whelan, president of the Rainforest Alliance, speak at the International Supply Management Congress in Amsterdam. She was one of three keynote speakers at the event, and it was gratifying to hear her discuss in a positive way the work that Mars is doing on cocoa sustainability.
At the Congress, Tensie quoted Mars’s thinking
The Cocoa Barometer 2012 is out and it provides yet another snap shot into the urgency we must have as a sector to establish sustainable cocoa as the standard. The barometer is a joint initiative by several NGOs, and it provides an overview of the current sustainability efforts within the industry. This year’s barometer looked at initiatives in West Africa.
The barometer identifies some
What kind of news brings together the Wall Street Journal and the Huffington Post? Our announcement last week that the sector will need to invest in billions of dollars to make it sustainable was featured in both media outlets. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal (available here at NASDAQ’s web site) ran a story on the efforts by both Mars Chocolate and The Hershey
Congratulations to The Hershey Company, which announced this week it too will source 100 percent certified cocoa for its global chocolate product lines by 2020. It is gratifying to see more and more stakeholders recognizing the importance of certification to creating a sustainable future for chocolate. The more commitments from companies like Mars Chocolate and Hershey, among others to adopt certification protocols, the
Almost 200 members and supporters of the ISEAL Alliance came together at a conference in Bonn, Germany last week. Founded in 2002, ISEAL has provided 10 years of leadership in standards and certification.
Representing Mars Chocolate, I sat on a great Impact data panel with representatives from international supermarket retailer Ahold, UTZ Certified, and Marine Stewardship Council. We discussed that despite the challenges on
As you may have seen, we announced today that Mars Chocolate met its 2011 benchmark of purchasing 10 percent certified sustainable cocoa – or approximately 30,000 tons – as part of its total supply. In two short years, we have made dramatic progress towards reaching our ultimate goal of purchasing 100% of our cocoa from certified sustainable sources by 2020.
Mars Chocolate has set
On Sunday, February 26th, I participated in a panel on sustainable sourcing at Harvard Business School’s (HBS) Social Enterprise 2012 conference. Moderated by HBS professor Christopher Marquis, other participants in the discussion included Justin Bakule of Foundation Strategy Group, Pacita Juan of EchoStore, and Chuck Rubin of CommonSoles.
This was a chance to talk about both the business
Efforts to increase collaboration between cocoa producers, international traders, partner organizations and policy makers took a major step forward during the second annual Africa Fairtrade Conventionin Accra, Ghana on November 23rd through 26th. The convention, which has grown substantially in just a year under the leadership of Fairtrade Africa Chairman Yorokamu Abainenamar and Executive Director Michael Nkonu, provided an opportunity
Last Thursday, SustainAbility published a study to consider the future of certification systems. The study, Signed, Sealed, Delivered, was supported by Mars (along with many other companies) and found:
[…] there is a need to deconstruct and evolve the old model that combines standards, certification and on-pack marks. Instead we urge a shift towards a new model based upon increasingly demanding and pre-competitive
The following post is authored by Alastair Child, Mars Global Chocolate Cocoa Sustainability Director.
Today’s announcement of Mars Chocolate’s first Fairtrade product marks an important milestone in our mission to deliver better tools and opportunities to farmers so they can grow more productive crops and build vibrant, sustainable livelihoods.
More than two years in the making, our agreement with Fairtrade International is part of
