Spotted: The mainstream chocolate industry is affecting rainforests, damaging the environment, and contributing to global warming – and the problem begins when sourcing the cocoa bean. In normal chocolate production, cocoa farmers clear tropical forests to plant new cocoa trees rather than reusing the same land. This has resulted in massive deforestation in West Africa, particularly in The Ivory Coast.
But British chocolate company Love Cocoa has created a brand that makes chocolate consumption and manufacturing more sustainable. As the great-great-great-grandson of John Cadbury, creator of Cadbury chocolate, James Cadbury aims to follow in his footsteps by building his company on ethical grounds. For every product sold, the company is planting one tree in their Plant A Tree Project to create a fairer, more sustainable chocolate industry.
Love Cocoa is working in partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects, a non-profit NGO that works with local communities in developing countries to restore natural landscapes destroyed by deforestation, thereby creating jobs, protecting ecosystems, and helping to combat climate change. The company has already planted one million trees in West Africa. Planting more trees isn’t only ecologically beneficial, it also benefits local communities and cocoa farmers who can transition to more stable and sustainable practices.
Increasingly, the chocolate industry is looking to minimise its carbon footprint. Springwise has also spotted a 3D-printed dress made from waste cocoa bean husks, and a blockchain programme that supports local cocoa farmers.
Written By: Anam Alam