Forever Chocolate, Barry Callebaut’s plan to make sustainable chocolate the norm, is considered the #1 sustainability strategy in the packaged foods industry. This is concluded by Sustainalytics after its annual assessment of 178 packaged food companies on the management of environmental, social and governance risks in their supply chains. Barry Callebaut is considered the leader among peers.
So what is Sustainalytics?
Sustainalytics is a company which assesses the sustainability approaches of listed companies. It looks at all the efforts we are currently doing on reaching our Forever Chocolate targets, in addition to other social and governance (i.e. a corporate code of conduct, anti-corruption policy etc.) indicators, and ranks it against the efforts of other participating food companies. These types of assessments respond to a growing interest from investors and societal stakeholders to understand whether sustainability strategies are actually managing supply chain risks and delivering impact.
We participate annually in the Sustainalytics assessment as it provides us with a solid and well respected third-party assessment of our investments in sustainability. The rating also has for Barry Callebaut additional importance, as our Sustainalytics score also defines partly the interest rate we pay over our banking credit facility.