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
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
