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The chocolate bars are made in Switzerland. Doesn't that increase the carbon footprint? |
Ideally, we would manufacture our own chocolate, just as we roast our own coffee. However, making high-quality chocolate in significant volumes requires huge investments and substantial expertise. For now it makes the most sense to work with our manufacturer in Switzerland as they are good business partners and make excellent chocolate.
Sending our Fair Trade cacao and sugar to Switzerland does increase the total distance traveled by our chocolate bars, thereby racking up more "food miles," but does not necessarily generate more CO2. This is because not all food miles are created equal. Generally, the larger the vehicle the more efficient it is. The huge container ships that characterize modern global trade emit only 1/8th as much CO2 as do trucks to move one ton of cargo one mile.
Consequently, it can sometimes actually be better for the climate to move products longer distances by water rather than a shorter distance by road. For example, if you look at just the Peruvian cacao as one ingredient, the ocean voyages to Europe and then to Boston add up to more than 10,000 miles. By our rough calculations the carbon footprint for the ocean voyages for one of our chocolate bars equals .044 pounds CO2.
This can actually be a smaller carbon footprint than if our chocolate bars were to be produced in North America. This is because the artisanal, organic chocolate manufacturing sector is centered on the West Coast which would necessitate trucking the chocolate cross country. Therefore when you take the ocean voyage from Peru to, say, San Francisco (.017 pounds CO2) and add the 3,000-mile truck trip to our building in Massachusetts (.105 pounds CO2) you'd get .122 pounds, which is almost three times the current carbon footprint to deliver our chocolate to our headquarters.
Theoretically, we could find a high-quality company to work with that is closer to Massachusetts. It’s a challenge to find a company that can meet all our criteria (organic certified facility, will work with our farmer partners, great quality, etc.).
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