Barry Callebaut has for the fourth consecutive year earned a place on CDP’s prestigious Supplier Engagement Leaderboard. This recognition places us in the top 8% of companies who disclosed their environmental data through CDP in 2021.
This news follows Barry Callebaut’s recent CDP Forest A-rating for being a leader in corporate action and transparency on deforestation announced in December 2021.
CDP’s Supplier Engagement Leaderboard recognizes the companies which have received the highest ratings in CDP’s Supplier Engagement Rating (SER). The SER provides a rating for how effectively companies are engaging their suppliers on climate change. CDP assesses performance on supplier engagement using a company’s response to selected questions on governance, targets, scope 3 emissions, and value chain engagement in the CDP climate change questionnaire.
According to CDP, carbon emissions in a food company’s supply chain are, on average, 87% of the total emissions. At Barry Callebaut, supplier engagement is therefore vital to achieving our ambitious Forever Chocolate target to be carbon and forest positive by 2025.
“Engagement with our extended supply chain and partners is key for Barry Callebaut’s Forever Chocolate strategy. We are once again proud to be recognized by CDP for our collaboration with suppliers in reducing emissions and implementing climate-positive actions. We look forward to working with our supply chain partners and driving impact as Barry Callebaut works towards meeting our 2025 science-based targets. The recognition by CDP is also testimony to the dedication of our people who continue to focus on approaches to innovate and scale our sustainability efforts. Initiatives such as Seeds for Change, our global employee engagement program, allow all our people to implement creative solutions to reduce our carbon footprint.”- Pablo Perversi, Chief Innovation, Sustainability & Quality Officer, Global Head of Gourmet
“Our data shows that companies currently have blinkers on when it comes to assessing their indirect impacts and engaging with suppliers to reduce them. Companies must act urgently to cascade action and manage environmental impacts throughout their supply chains to scale the level of action to secure a 1.5°C future. Many congratulations to the 500+ companies earning a place on CDP’s 2021 Supplier Engagement Leaderboard. As a Supplier Engagement Leader, Barry Callebaut is a trailblazer driving the transition towards a sustainable net-zero future. “Sonya Bhonsle, Global Head of Value Chains & Regional Director Corporations, CDP
Partnerships and innovation as key drivers to tackle emissions in our supply chain
Through the implementation of innovative technologies and in collaboration with academia, start-ups, and other stakeholders, Barry Callebaut is committed to reducing our carbon footprint and achieving a deforestation-free supply chain.
We have developed the first carbon footprint assessment tool for cocoa farming. Since 2018/19 we are also partnering with the Gold Standard Foundation to both capture the carbon benefits from the interventions in our own supply chain and to pass these benefits along to suppliers and customers. Barry Callebaut was also the first company to pilot our Value Chain Interventions Guidance and develop a methodology to implement carbon sequestration from value chain interventions (scope 3).
Based on this work, we also established a portfolio of supply chain interventions to be implemented in major cocoa-growing regions that are independently certified by the Gold Standard Value Change Program on an annual basis.
In 2020/21, we produced impressive results from two projects that we have been working on for some time. In partnership with EcoVision Lab, part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, we developed an industry-first, publicly available High Carbon Stock (HCS) map that indicates forests with high conservation values and areas where deforestation would cause the highest emissions. This map helps our suppliers identify the forest areas where preservation and protection activities have to be enhanced. In addition, in collaboration with the Gold Standard Foundation and Agolin, we elaborated a methodology to quantify and certify carbon insetting for dairy within our chocolate supply chain.
We are very proud to be once again recognized by CDP as a leader in supply chain engagement and we celebrate the other 500+ companies of the 2021 Supplier Engagement Leaderboard driving the transition towards a net-zero sustainable economy together with us.
Read more of the latest industry news and developments here: March 2022 Single Issue form – International Confectionery Magazine (in-confectionery.com)
Media contact
Roshini Bains,
Editor, International Confectionery
Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 922
Email: editor@in-confectionery.com
