Our Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program

Is Lindt & Sprüngli using Palm Oil and is it sourced sustainably?

Palm oil, palm kernel oil, and their fractions are used in limited amounts in certain fillings of our chocolate. Lindt & Sprüngli buys less than 0.01% of the global palm oil harvest. While these products are important for their melting properties and for providing a neutral flavor, their production under uncontrolled conditions may be associated with environmental and social sustainability issues, including deforestation and conversion of peatlands, biodiversity loss, exploitation of workers, and adverse effects on local communities and Indigenous Peoples. However, palm oil can be produced responsibly when planted in suitable areas and with appropriate consideration for the environment and communities. Palm oil is a high yielding vegetable oil. In comparison to soybean, rapeseed and sunflower, palm oil needs significantly less land to produce the same volume. We recognize that banning and substituting palm oil with other crops would require more land to be dedicated to vegetable oil production globally, likely at the expense of natural forest land. We believe that the best way to protect and restore the rainforest and threatened habitats is to undertake actions for a more sustainable palm oil industry. For these reasons, we only purchase palm oil certified according to the Round Table of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) sustainable standard (in Europe: RSPO’s Segregated traceability level; in US: mix of “Segregated” and “Mass Balance”), and always declare palm oil use on our product packaging. Find out more here.

Where does our cocoa come from?

Cocoa beans are the heart of our chocolates. Knowing which of the many different origins of cocoa beans will best contribute to the distinctive taste of a product is a skill that we have perfected over time. A fundamental distinction is made between consumer and fine flavor cocoa. Consumer cocoa is cocoa with a robust flavor. It accounts for the largest share (90-95%) of total global cocoa production and is farmed mainly in West Africa. Lindt & Sprüngli uses Forastero beans (consumer cocoa) from Ghana. The remaining 5-10% of worldwide cocoa harvests are fine flavor cocoa. Fine flavor cocoa is a high-quality cocoa with nuanced, fine aroma. It is mainly farmed in Latin America and the Caribbean. Lindt & Sprüngli uses fine flavor cocoa beans (Criollo and Trinitario) from Ecuador, Madagascar, Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea and Peru. Our own sustainability program, the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program, is in place in all countries we source cocoa beans from. After achieving our goal to source 100% of our cocoa beans through the Farming Program in 2020, we extended the Farming Program to include cocoa butter from Côte d’Ivoire in 2021. These are major steps towards our target to source all of our cocoa products (beans, butter, powder, and chocolate mass) through sustainability programs by 2025. Learn more.

What is Lindt & Sprüngli doing with regards to sustainable sourcing of cocoa beans?

In 2008, we launched the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program in Ghana and in the subsequent years in all our other cocoa bean sourcing origins (Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and Peru) to support cocoa farmers, their families and communities. The three main objectives are to increase the resilience of farming households, reduce the risk of child labor, and conserve biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Find out more here.

Besides cocoa beans, cocoa butter and powder are also used in the production of chocolate. How sustainable are these raw materials?

Lindt & Sprüngli has set itself the target of sourcing 100% of its cocoa (beans, butter, powder, and chocolate mass) through sustainability programs by 2025. After achieving our goal of sourcing 100% of cocoa beans through our own Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program in 2020, the Program was extended to cocoa butter in 2021. In 2022, it was already possible to procure a small amount of cocoa powder through our Program. We are thus taking a step-by-step approach to achieving our target in 2025.

How sustainable is the packaging of our chocolate?

Lindt & Sprüngli is working on numerous packaging initiatives towards five targets which consider impacts along the lifecycle of a package, from raw material sourcing to designing for recycling or reuse. For example, we aim to source 100% of pulp- and paper-based packaging from certified sustainable supply chains by 2025 and to make 100% of our packaging recyclable or reusable. In addition to innovative packaging solutions that are being implemented on an ongoing basis, we are also proactively challenging our product portfolio to reduce packaging material weight, reduce packaging waste in production, and minimize packaging destruction. Chocolate is a delicate product that must be optimally protected from environmental influences. Therefore, sustainability criteria, food safety and quality specifications must always be taken into account when new packaging solutions are developed.

How does Lindt & Sprüngli combat the deforestation of rainforests caused by cocoa cultivation?

Cocoa cultivation has a high risk of biodiversity loss through deforestation or harmful farming practices. We acknowledge our responsibility to contribute to preventing cocoa-driven deforestation. We therefore began implementing the Lindt & Sprüngli Cocoa No-Deforestation & Agroforestry Action Plan in 2019. The primary objectives of our Action Plan for cocoa include:
– No cocoa sourcing from protected areas as per local laws
– No expansion of land for cocoa cultivation into areas defined by the High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach or equivalent
– Agroforestry systems for cocoa production
– Supporting community forest protection and restoration
The Action Plan applies to all suppliers delivering cocoa from sustainability programs, and it remains integral to our Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program.
Find further information in our latest No-Deforestation& Agroforestry Progress Report .

What are Lindt & Sprüngli's goals to address climate change?

Lindt & Sprüngli’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions management and reporting have historically focused on emissions from the production of chocolate within our factories (Scopes 1 and 2). This was a logical first step given our direct leverage. We are now fundamentally evolving our approach to align with the best available science on tackling climate change and consider our complete carbon footprint, including emissions from our entire value chain (Scope 3). As a result, in 2021 Lindt & Sprüngli committed to defining science-based targets (SBT), including a near term reduction target and a goal of reaching net-zero emissions in the long term. This year we submitted our targets to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and we will announce them in the second half of 2023.
In the interim, we are committed to achieving a 2% reduction of GHG emissions in our production process per year from 2020 levels, per ton produced. In 2022, we achieved an overall reduction of 21% compared to our 2020 levels.

Is Lindt & Sprüngli committed to sustainable business practices?

Yes. You can find all information about our sustainability commitment on our website. Lindt & Sprüngli annually publishes a sustainability report about its progress towards its commitments. For further information, please visit our corporate website .