**** Update October 2018: Fantastic news: Lindt has just informed SumOfUs that it’s committing to a “No-Deforestation & Agroforestry Action Plan” to clean up its cocoa supply chain by 2025. This means no more sourcing cocoa beans from deforestation and making cocoa a much more forest-friendly commodity.

There’s still a lot of work to be done to follow through on Lindt’s commitment, and we’ll be working together with the company to ensure it leads on sustainability going forward. It was SumOfUs members like you that made this possible -- and with your help, we can make sure that other chocolate companies follow along. ****

Lindt is one of the biggest chocolate companies in the world. It likes to brand itself as luxurious and classy. Its supply chain, however, is not classy at all: Lindt has been sourcing cocoa beans grown on illegal plantations that destroy rainforests and the habitats of elephants and chimpanzees.

Lindt makes a huge profit from its premium image, and is sensitive to public pressure. If we expose how Lindt’s cocoa is produced, the company’s reputation will take a massive hit -- and that’s the one thing Lindt cannot afford.

Thanks to your efforts, the whole cocoa industry has come under pressure. More than 24 chocolate companies have already committed to cleaning up their act in West Africa and stop the destruction of rainforests. Lindt has been dragging its feet and so far refused to come out with a global policy. We refuse to accept that!

And we don’t have much time. If chocolate companies like Lindt don’t act soon, there will be no rainforest left at all. 

Together with our partners Mighty Earth we achieved an important win in 2017: We pushed big chocolate companies, including Lindt, to stop buying illegal cocoa from West Africa.

But we have to take the next step -- and here’s why: recent satellite imagery shows that massive deforestation for cocoa plantations is happening in Indonesia, Peru, Cameroon and Ecuador. If we put the pressure on Lindt now, we can make sure that not a single rainforest tree will be cut down for cocoa anymore -- neither in West Africa, nor anywhere else in the world.

Saving the rainforest from deforestation is a big challenge -- but we can do it: In the last 2 years, we moved McDonald’s and Starbucks to stop sourcing palm oil that causes deforestation. Let’s repeat this success for cocoa!

Ask Lindt to commit to deforestation-free cocoa and help save the rainforest worldwide!

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