Barry Callebaut is sharing their knowledge with industry to improve carbon reduction goals in the cocoa supply chain. As part of our Forever Chocolate commitments, Barry Callebaut aim to be carbon and forest positive by 2025 and working with Quantis to develope an innovative assessment which will help to link forest protection activities with carbon reduction goals.
(video: Barry Callebaut)
Barry Callebaut has a target to become forest positive by 2025. This means that they have to develop a greater understanding of where deforestation is at risk of occurring in their supply chain.
For cocoa they have worked in close partnership with the renowned environmental sustainability consultancy, Quantis, to develop an innovative carbon footprinting assessment to evaluate the impacts of land-use change (LUC) and deforestation driven by cocoa farming.
Through the combination of GPS, satellite imagery and farm-level data, this new assessment enables to gain a better understanding of the contribution of each farm or cooperative that Barry Callebaut sources from to direct land-use change emissions.
“At Quantis, we’re proud of developing this cutting-edge carbon footprinting assessment with Barry Callebaut to evaluate the impacts of cocoa farming on land-use change and deforestation. It provides a more realistic snapshot of what is happening on the ground, paving the way for more precise footprints, reduction strategies and action plans to effectively tackle land-use change emissions in the cocoa supply chain. We hope this will inspire the wider industry to action and accelerate sustainable transformation“.
Michele Zollinger, Natural Capital Solutions Lead at Quantis.
Where deforestation is at risk of occurring? Protective actions
Having a greater understanding of where deforestation is at risk of occurring, Barry Callebaut can also establish a better link between forest protection activities and carbon accounting at farm level. Importantly, using satellite data also helps to analyze deforestation events on the ground in greater detail.
This provides with the opportunity to engage with cocoa farming communities on the adoption of natural resource management and avoid activities; such as land-clearing for agriculture, which can result in deforestation.
Importantly, using satellite data also helps to analyze deforestation events with even more focus. This depth of detail provides Barry Callebaut with the opportunity to engage with farming communities on the adoption of natural resource management and avoid activities such as land-clearing for agriculture, which can result in deforestation.
Enabling customers to account for the carbon impact of their cocoa and chocolate
The development of this new assessment also helps customers with calculating their carbon impact more accurately and will enable to provide carbon neutral chocolate. Customers can input recipes into Barry Callebaut’s carbon footprint calculator, get a clear view on the impact of their chocolate, and learn more about the methodology behind the numbers.
Working together to create a more sustainable chocolate and cocoa industry
As part of their Forever Chocolate commitments, Barry Callebaut aims to be carbon and forest positive by 2025. But the company also look beyond their own chocolate and cocoa supply chain.
They are working to create a movement to address the biggest challenges in their industry and they can only do this by working together to develop innovative and scalable solutions.
This is why Barry Callebaut recommend the assessment to other companies that are committed to forest protection or would like to link forest protection activities at farm level with their carbon goals.
