Valrhona

For the second time, we are B Corp

Having been a certified B Corporation® since January 2020, Valrhona is proud to have secured this demanding certification for the second time in December 2023. B Corporation rewards the world’s most committed companies that put equal emphasis on economic, societal, and environmental performance. This distinction serves as recognition of our sustainable development strategy shaped by our determination to co-create a model which has a positive impact on producers, employees, makers and everyone who loves chocolate.

B Corp: A movement of companies making a Positive Impact

Following its initial certification in 2020, Valrhona is renewing its B Corp status! This certification recognizes our commitment and all the initiatives we have implemented over the years to create a fair and sustainable cocoa sector and a gastronomy world that does good and tastes great. B Corp is also a great human adventure that has inspired all our staff to get involved.

Being a B Corp means being part of a community of the world’s most ethically conscious companies which all belong to a global movement for a more inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. Today, nearly 6,900 companies worldwide are B Corp certified, including just over 300 in France. Companies such as Patagonia, Danone, Nespresso, Veja, and Chloé are all part of this movement.

To secure certification, they have to meet extremely highstandards in terms of their social and environmental performance, legal responsibilities, and transparency across five areas: governance, workers, customers, community, and the environment.

The culmination of a long collaborative process

Certification is the culmination of long-standing collaborative efforts by all Valrhona’s employees. For over a year, 35 staff members worked on the recertification process, answering and documenting evidence for 325 questions, then taking part in a three-day audit. This long and demanding procedure gets tougher every year, with standards rising every time a company wants to retain its certification. The aim is to encourage companies to improve every day, break their own boundaries, and challenge themselves to do better and better. By securing its second certification, Valrhona has clearly demonstrated its determination to co-construct a model that has a positive impact on producers, employees, makers, and everyone who loves chocolate.

Being B Corp-certified also means joining a collective movement made up of companies that are finding ways of being the best not in the world but for the world.

Solid proof of our commitments

B Corp certification assesses a company’s actions, not targets. The actions that have made all the difference at Valrhona are as follows:

FACT NO. 1

Long-term partnerships

100% OF OUR COCOA COMES FROM A PARTNERSHIP WITH AN AVERAGE TERM OF MORE THAN 8 YEARS. Why is that game-changing? Because these long-term commitments, agreed on a case-by-case basis with each of our partners, give cocoa producers security by guaranteeing fixed prices, minimum purchase quantities or even zero-interest advance funding. These conditions enable them to look to the future with confidence and benefit from a stable income, which is not commonplace in our industry.

FACT NO. 2:

Protecting and regenerating ecosystems

WE ARE HELPING TO PRESERVE AND REGENERATE LOTS OF DIFFERENT ECOSYSTEMS. Thanks to the Valrhona Foundation, 52 hectares of plantations have been regenerated in Haiti, nine hectares have been developed using agroforestry principles in the Dominican Republic and Peru’s endemic cocoa variety, Gran Blanco, has been protected for over 30 years. In addition to helping the planet, these actions improve our cocoa producers’ living conditions by protecting and improving their incomes, making for a fairer, more sustainable cocoa industry.

FACT NO. 3:

Reducing greenhouse gases

WE REDUCED OUR CHOCOLATE FACTORY’S GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS BY 49% between 2013 and 2022. This is 2,574 tonnes of CO2, or the equivalent of 660 passengers flying from Paris to Tokyo and back. And this is just the beginning! As part of our Climate Plan, we are committed to contributing to worldwide net zero efforts by reducing our direct and indirect emissions by 50% between now and 2030.

FACT NO. 4

The Graines de Pâtissier program

155 YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE FOUND THEIR VOCATION THANKS TO THE VALRHONA FOUNDATION’S GRAINES DE PÂTISSIER PROGRAM. 315 young people joined the program between 2017 and 2022, 155 of whom entered training or found a job in the food industry. The next generation is ready to take up the baton! This is good news not only for them, but also for our customers on the lookout for up-and-coming talent!

FACT NO. 5

Gender equality in management

OVER 50% OF OUR MANAGERS ARE WOMEN. Valrhona takes great pride in this, as the equivalent figures for France and the wider world* are 33% and 20-40% respectively. But that’s not all: In 2022, we had 430 female staff members and 428 men - that’s near-perfect parity! At Valrhona, talent has no gender.

Hetsika: a recipe inspired by B Corp

Our work to drive forward a collective movement that unites the gastronomy world also entails inspiring customers and dreaming up pastry-making’s future together. With this in mind, Valrhona has come up with a recipe inspired by B Corp’s philosophy. From the choice of ingredients to the various stages involved in creating this dessert, nothing was left to chance by Baptiste Sirand, a pastry chef and instructor at L’École Valrhona who, along with Jérémy Aspa, won the 2022 Meilleur Pâtissier: Les Professionnels television show.

TOGETHER, GOOD BECOMES BETTER

There is still a long way to go, but we are convinced that companies like ours have an essential role to play in rethinking tomorrow's world. Valrhona will not succeed alone. It is together with our fellow B Corporations that we will really move the needle. Do you have any solutions to help us move these issues forward? Don’t hesitate to contact us at Rse@valrhona.fr.

Proud to be B-Corp®