What is corporate social responsibility?

‘Corporate responsibility encompasses not only what companies do with their profits but also how they make them.’ Harvard Kennedy School

Making chocolate involves processing cocoa, milk and sugar. Social and environmental issues arise from supplying chocolate.

Child and cheap labour

Read about child labour and slavery which are prevalent on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast. Watch a video about child labour in chocolate production.

Read about enslaved children in Ghana and Ivory coast. Reflect on trafficked child labour for cocoa farming.

Environmental degradation

Find out about the Earthwatch project studying the impacts of cocoa farming on biodiversity. Read about sugar cane farming leading to soil erosion and degredation.

Find out about soil erosion and eutrophication and algal blooms resulting from dairy farming and deforestation in New Zealand.

Scan palm oil quick facts and see how palm oil cultivation can impact on people, the environment and endangered species such as the orang-utan.

Actions

Learn about and how organisations have endorsed a commitment to ethical sourcing. Find out about ethical consumerism and the Rainforest Alliance which conserves global forests. Read about the International Cocoa Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation which promote initiatives to grow cocoa trees while maintaining biodiversity.

Visit Canegrowers to take virtual bus tours on topic such as environmental stewardship and irrigation efficiency.

What can I do?

Find out about Fair trade chocolate.

Make the choice to demand ethical chocolate.

Take part in the Don't Trade Lives campaign.