Just in Time: Chocolate for Yom Kippur

It's never too late to keep a promise. One of the things that sweetened the experience of the GRI Global Reporting Conference in Amsterdam in May 2013 was the free chocolate dispensed with a smile by Tony's Chocolonely at a stand in the exhibition area and throughout the conference. In return for an even bigger gift of free chocolate, I promised to write about Tony's Chocolonely on the CSR Reporting Blog.

Chunky Chocolate with a Fair Trade taste

Yes, it has taken me only 4 months, but it's now quite opportune as it's the Eve of Yom Kippur, and atonement and reparations are the order of the day. So, I atone for not fulfilling my promise so far, and attempt to repair my tarnished integrity by doing so, possibly earning myself a better chance of being inscribed in the Book of Life for yet another year. I hope so. The year ahead promises to be an exciting one - and a whole lot sweeter now that I have discovered Tony's Chocolonely.

Arjen Boekhold dispensing chocolate with a smile

Of course, chocolate comes second to ice-cream on my indulgence league-table, but in this case, it's very special chocolate. "The Tony’s Chocolonely slogan ─ “on the way to 100% slavery-free chocolate” ─ means Tony’s is 100 percent committed to ending chocolate slavery and to giving customers a slavery-free chocolate choice." 

Slavery in chocolate is still prevalent enough to put us off our daily (hourly?) treat.  The “good life” is still a distant dream for many cocoa farmers and the problems of child and forced labor are still very much in evidence. Based on estimates for the year 2013, at least 460,000 people (children and adults) in West Africa work as cocoa “slaves”, of which about 15,000 to 30,000 children are trafficked into slavery (human trafficking).

This is what Tony's Chocolonely says about slavery in the chocolate industry in West Africa:
 

"There’s a nasty ingredient hidden in that sweet chocolate bar: Slavery. That’s right, lurking in the shadows of the monolithic chocolate industry, modern-day slavery is common practice in many cocoa-producing countries. West Africa, accounting for 60 percent of the world’s cocoa supply, is a notorious haven for chocolate slavery, most often taking the form of child labor abuse. In the Ivory Coast and Ghana, children, hoping for a better life, are lured onto cocoa plantations and tricked into slavery. Most are under the age of 16, working excessively long days, for little or no pay, under physical and mental duress, with no option to leave."
 

Tony's Choc has a different approach, based on the development of direct relationships with farmer cooperatives, working together to develop programs with specific goals and targets for production, in order to support the development of farmer organizations. This means that Tony's Chocolonely has its own  Bean-to-Bar segregated supply chain, through which the cocoa beans of the farmer cooperatives are shipped directly to the production facility. This way, the folks at Tony's Choc know exactly where the beans in their chocolate come from.

In 2012, Tony's Chocolonely signed long-term contracts with two cocoa farmer cooperatives: ABOCFA (Ghana) and Ecookim (Ivory Coast), committing to a five-year purchasing agreement in which the farmers can be certain there is a buyer for their cacao, and at a good price. With the certainty of a buyer, the farmers invest in improving their farms, professionalize and grow. In buying directly from the farmer,  intermediary trade is effectively eliminated and the farmer gets more compensation.   Within this long-term arrangement, Tony's Chocolonely facilitates training for farmers, enabling increased cacao productivity per hectare and also drives awareness of the need to eliminate child and forced labor and help strengthen the position of women.

ABOCFA is a farming cooperative of around 400 farmers in 13 communities in Ghana. In 2008, the ABOCFA farmers gained organic and Fairtrade certifications, becoming the first such operation in Ghana to do so, based on interest expressed by Cadbury's for the Green and Black label. However, after the subsequent acquisition of Cadbury's by Kraft (now Mondelez), interest in ABOCFA farmers' Fairtrade organic cacao ceased, leaving hundreds of farmers wondering how they would recoup their investment. Enter Tony's Chocolonely, who in 2012 became the first purchaser of the Ghanan ABOCFA cacao, turning it into that fabulous-tasting chunky chocolate that 1,600 delegates at the GRI Conference in Amsterdam could enjoy. Me included. Part of Tony's Choc's approach is to help drive interest in the ABOCFA cooperative, to attract more buyers and help ensure the sustainability of the operation. In the Ivory Coast, Tony's Chocolonely purchases from a single village of 128 farmers, working under the auspices of the bigger cooperative union. Again, these farmers have achieved Fairtrade certification and revenue from sales is reinvested to drive increased efficiencies and professional long-term supply.  

Arjen Boekhold recently visited both Ivory Coast and Ghana, taking with him a generous supply of 'Bean-to-Bar' chocolate with him, so the farmers could taste the chocolate which was made from their own cocoa beans. This made them very proud. For many of them, it was the first time they tasted chocolate at all. Can you believe that? Arjen reviewed the cooperative activities and the ways in which funds to support human rights in the chocolate supply chain have been used. For example, Tony's Chocolonely initiated and supported funding for an awareness campaign on (child) slavery and women's rights, and also provided funds for a cocoa warehouse. The collaboration is as sweet as the chocolate itself.
 

Photo with permission from Tony's Chocolonely

Check out Tony's Chocolonely also on Facebook.
More importantly, go buy some!
Even more importantly, go eat it!
But maybe not on Yom Kippur :)

(Oh and by the way, for all those of you observe Yom Kippur, the CSR Reporting Blog, and me, wish you Well over the Fast and that you should be inscribed in the Book of Life for a healthy, safe, prosperous and happy year ahead!) (Even if you don't observe Yom Kippur, we wish you that anyway, except for the Fast bit).


elaine cohen, CSR consultant, winning (CRRA'12) Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of Understanding G4: The Concise Guide to Next Generation Sustainability Reporting AND Sustainability Reporting for SMEs: Competitive Advantage Through Transparency AND CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen   or via my business website www.b-yond.biz   (Beyond Business Ltd, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

can cows save the planet ?

hi blog and blog-readers,

been a while since i last posted .... too busy reporting, i guess. Working on two fascinating reports at present, amongst other things... important and exciting work.

In between times, i am reading a good book called Reporting Non-Financials by Kaevan Gazdar.
Kaevan takes us through a multitude of csr reports and companies who report on csr. He maintains that nonfinancial reporting is a way to present the company's true value, much of which is not reflected in the company's annual report. "How can today's value drivers be reflected in corporate reporting ? he asks. There are tremendous insights and relevant guidance for reporters and those who read reports in this book which i thoroughly recommend.

A few more quotes from Keavan which i particularly enjoyed:

"Most companies churn out documentations in the guise of reports; information is given because its available, not because it is important" (page 280)
"The real trade-off for ambitious reporters is between trade-off and detail"(page 73)
As a reporter, i agree that some of the hardest decisions are around what to leave out.

'Printed reporting has the great advantage of forcing a certain basic structure on report producers" (page 281)
As a GRI reporter, I agree that structure is necessary for reporting. A report, by definition, contains all the relevant data and information in one place. Reporting solely on a website, simply by cross-linking to all bits of information relating to csr, may count in terms of transparency but doesn't usually make for a coherent and complete report.

"Reasearch carried out by the HR consultants Watson Wyatt in 16 European countries shows that companies with strong HR management deliver almost twice as much shareholder value as their average competitors"(Page 132)
As a former VP HR, and as a consultant / reporter specialising in reponsible workplace issues, i have seen time and time again the benefits of good HR practices in moving the business forward, and in supporting sustainability.

"Independent verification certainly increases the respectability of the reporting effort"(page 186)
And as an assurer, I couldn't agree more ...

By the way, i am sure you will notice that my selection of quotations is entirely random, with absolutely no connection to my interests or fields of expertise, right ?

So to compensate for all that self-promotion, I will ask you to contemplate the question:

can cows save the planet ?

I read this article (courtesy of Corporate Citizenship media briefing) about Cadbury's (the chocolate company and a super reporter) who are working with 65 famers in the UK to find a way to reduce cows from burping (belching, making impolite noises , you know). Apparently all these burping cows are responsible for a big part of our global warming, in the form of methane emissions. "Contrary to common belief, most gas emerges from their front, not rear ends." By changing the cow's diet, the gases they belch can be sustantially reduced, apparently. (Hmmm, I wonder if this will work with my husband ?!)

Well, in any event, this sounds like truly breakthrough creative thinking in sustainability and i for one look forward to a more sustainable future with burpless cows and belchless bulls.
(I guess if we drank less milk and ate less beef, we could make a similar impact, no ?)

So this got me wondering what Cadbury's will be writing in their next csr report.
Probably something like this:

Cadbury's is committed to saving the planet, and reducing global warming. In order to reduce the negative impacts of our supply chain, we have started to provide a diet to our cows which consists of methane-blech-inhibiting-organic-pasture-farmed-grassland food enriched with fumaric acid and vitamin b3. The result of this is a 48.3% reduction in methane gas burped by cows, which means that for every 200g bar of chocolate consumed by our stakeholders, the negative effect on global warming is reduced by 0.0723%. In an interview with cow farmers, who are fully supportive of this move, we asked if the cows are happy now that they are not belching so much. One farmer replied "We believe our cows are totally appreciative of our efforts to save the planet. Now they can do something constructive instead of just waiting around to be slaughtered for Sunday lunch. "

Perhaps the GRI will develop a reporting indicator for cow-belching reduction?
I hope not.
If i have to assure Cadbury's report, i prefer not to be travelling to UK cow farms counting burps.
Well, if they give me enough Dairy Milk chocolate, i might consider it .....

elaine