Nourishing a sustainable cocoa trade

There are a few stats in our ongoing Pulse data that have troubled me for quite some time: 70% of people living in America say they feel moderately to very strongly responsible for changing their daily choices to positively impact the environment. 77% say the average person should be taking concrete steps to reduce their environmental impact (though this is down from 90% in 2016). 80% agree that we have a moral duty to leave the earth in as good or better shape than we found it. I’ve been troubled because it’s not what’s actually happening. We don’t see three-fourths of the American population taking steps to reduce their environmental footprint (beyond recycling or wishcycling). Even in our own studies, only 26% of the American population can name a brand they’ve intentionally purchased or not purchased because of the perceived environmental or social record of the manufacturer. And while 26% is a great number — and headed in an upward right trajectory when you look at the data over the last 13 years — it’s still not 70-80%.