The climate footprint of ChoViva

The cultivation of cocoa plants has led to the deforestation of tropical rainforests¹: Between 1988 and 2008, 3 million hectares of this unique habitat were lost worldwide²; in Ghana³, a major cocoa-producing region, the rainforest loss amounts to over 80%.

This loss of forests is an environmental issue, as tropical rainforests store more than twice the amount of carbon dioxide per hectare compared to cocoa plantations. During deforestation, the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere, increasing the overall emissions for one kilogram of chocolate.

When it comes to measuring the climate-friendliness of products, you'll primarily encounter two terms: CO₂ and CO₂e. Here's how they are related.

The CO₂ balance¹, also known as the climate footprint, measures the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that occur directly or indirectly during the lifecycle of a product. This provides a detailed picture of how climate-impacting a product is—from the cultivation of ingredients to its arrival at the supermarket.

CO₂e¹ is used to determine a climate footprint; it compares the emissions from various greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) - on the basis of their global-warming potential (GWP). In the calculation, these emissions are aggregated, taking into account the amount of each greenhouse gas and its global warming potential (GWP) over a 100-year period compared to carbon dioxide (CO₂).

To determine our climate footprint, we collaborate with inoqo: a company helping food&beverage retailers measure the environmental impact of their products.

Each ChoViva formula is analyzed by inoqo using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which is aligned with the EU’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) framework. A scientific advisory board, LCA consultants and sustainability researchers ensure their high standards.

The LCA method measures the climate impact of a product at one or more stages of its lifecycle, expressed in CO₂e/kg. In our case, inoqo dives into the creating process of ChoViva, from farming sunflower seeds to the production of our ChoViva mass, measuring its climate impact.

For example: Our ChoViva milk version has a CO₂e footprint of 2.8 kg CO₂e/kg, while regular milk chocolate has a CO₂e footprint of 10.64 kg CO₂e/kg. This results in a CO₂ reduction of 8.6 CO₂e/kg.

Since ChoViva is used as an ingredient in products (e.g., as a filling or glaze), the climate footprint of ChoViva does not include the CO₂e emissions associated with the creation of the end product or the transport to our customer's factory or to the supermarket. These factors are covered in the climate footprint calculations of the end product manufacturers.

We do not know how you transport your ChoViva product home after purchasing it—whether by car, bicycle, or on foot. We also cannot track how the packaging is ultimately disposed of.

Currently, we do not account for emissions from the production facility that are independent of production, the commuting of our employees, or general business activities such as product development, marketing, or research. These aspects are difficult to attribute to a single product and are considered minimal.

The mentioned figures are primarily based on the fact that most of our sunflower seeds can be grown in Europe. The shorter supply chains of the sunflower seeds and the fact that their cultivation avoids deforestation contribute, among other factors, to a lower CO₂ footprint compared to cocoa.