5 facts about the Fairtrade minimum price

The Fairtrade minimum price is the minimum price that a buyer of Fairtrade products has to pay to a Producer Organisation for their product.

There are 5 things you need to know about it:

1. It's not a fixed price, but really the lowest starting point for price negotiations between producers and purchasers.

Purple goes Green - Carbon Footprinting

We have been reporting our corporate carbon footprint for a number of years and are proud supporters of the Carbon Disclosure Project. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organisation which holds the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. Our journey to measure the carbon footprint of a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk began with our desire to really get to grips with howwe contribute to greenhouse gas emissions such and how we can reduce our environmental impact.

Hot Choc Chunks Hot Chocolate

The perfect recipe for Mum:

1. Gently warm 200ml of milk until hot, then pour it into the most stylish mug you can find!

Purple goes Green - Energy

Welcome to first close look at Cadbury's Purple Goes Green initiative. Today, we're taking a look at what the company's energy ambitions are and examples of how it's been implemented. 

By 2020 Cadbury aims to reduce carbon emissions by half.

There are three ways we're making this happen:

1. Save energy
o Minimise the use of energy by improving processes and efficiency
o Install CHP/co-generation to optimise total energy requirements

2. Switch to more environmentally-friendly energy forms
o Switch to low or zero carbon fuels
o Purchase electricity on renewable energy tariffs
o Install “renewable energy” generation on-site (solar, wind, bio fuel)

3. Offset by incentivising Saving and Switching by others
o Purchase “carbon offsets” or buy (and retire) “carbon credits” for any remaining carbon emissions. Offsetting will be used as an option of last resort.

Is it working?

By end 2007, we had reduced our carbon emissions by 3%, as compared to 2006. We estimate that we will reduce our emissions by 10% by 2010.

Here are some energy action examples:

• In 2007, we changed all the electricity we use in Ireland to power provided by wind turbines, reducing the carbon emissions for the Irish business by almost 40%.
• In 2008, we launched the largest roof top solar installation in New South Wales, Australia, in our Huntingwood factory. The system is made up of a total of 640 solar panels manufactured locally at BP Solar's facility in Sydney Olympic Park. It is capable of producing enough energy to power 21 homes while saving 140 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions or the equivalent to taking 35 cars off the road.
• Cadbury has also invested in new technologies where appropriate, such as combined heat and power (CHP) plants in Rockford (US) and Nagoya (Japan).
• Our new office buildings in Cadbury House, Uxbridge and Bournville in the UK as well as Rolle in Switzerland – together home to almost 1000 employees – have energy considerations built into their design e.g. workstations in Uxbridge are designed and constructed in line with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) principles and contain 80% recycled materials; and all lights at Cadbury House – work floors, store rooms, meeting rooms and offices are activated by motion sensors.

Do you have any questions about our strategy  for energy? Any thoughts? Let us know, we'd love to hear from you.

Purple goes Green Part - The Series

We're about to kick off a series taking a closer look at  Cadbury's Purple Goes Green initiative. It was launched in July 2007 to set the vision for Cadbury to tackle climate change. 

The ambitions range across everything from energy use and reducing excess packaging to managing water use. In each of the posts, we'll focus on one of these at a time and share a bit about how Cadbury hopes to shrink its global environmental footprint.

Fairtrade citrus in South Africa

We really enjoyed this film about Faritrade citrus farmers in South Africa.

It's great becuase the film really brings Fairtrade premium to life and shows how the guys over there are using the premium to buy books and invest in sports programs.

There's also a really sweet bit towards the end where the Fairtrade farmers talk directly to the consumers of their citrus fruit, promising to never let them down and to always offer great quality.

Really lovely. We hope you like it as much as we did.

Of course, South Africa's political heritage makes it a particularly interesting area to look at from a Fairtrade point of view. If you'd like to find out more, visit this page on the Fairtrade website.

Hannah Tetteh visits the UK

Ms. Hannah Tetteh, Ghana's Minister of Trade and Industry was in the UK last week. She was hoping to promote the country as the best business destination and investment opportunities in the West African sub-region.

During her visit she met with Cadbury and chatted about the move to Fairtrade and the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership.

You can read more about her visit in The Chronicle and Ghana News.

World Fairtrade Day

World Fair Trade day got a lot of attention over the weekend. Brilliant!

People all over were talking about it and getting involved. From Slovak to Alaska, World Fair Trade truly is a global voice for the Fairtrade movement.

In London, a group of about 200 people gathered to create a massive drumming circle, watch the video above.

Tomorrow is World Fair Trade Day

global celebration of Fair Trade with events organized worldwide, on and around the second Saturday of May by members of the International Fair Trade Association across 70 countries.

It's a day for celebrating the far reaching affects of Fair Trade. The World Fair Trade Day 2009 organisers think it's a great opportunity to focus the world's attention on the significance of trading fairly with millions of producers, who are also the custodians of our ecology.

Read more about it and find out how to get involved by hosting an event or voluteering.

Extracts - Personal reminiscence

A couple of weeks ago, we shared the first of our personal reminiscence: the memories of Mrs Green (who was Phoebe Robinson at the time). This time, the story from the big, glorious book of memories comes from CH Brown who shared his recollection of the company's New Year Party. He writes:

"One of the great events of the year in those days was the Travelers' Conference and New Year Party. These always took place together in the last week of the old year. I can well remember the immense excitement which pervaded the offices when the travelers came in. It as an adventure in those days to come from Ireland or the North of Scotland and the presence of all these men at the same time gave us quite a thrill. I do not know whether it was because they nearly all grew beards, but they seemed a rave apart and were looked upon with considerable awe.

The New Year Party was held in what is now the Engineer's Office, but at that time was the Girl's' Dining Room. There we no length of service restrictions; every employee was invited, but i must say that even in those days it was a very crowded function, and to use one's knife and fork was a work of art. the party was generally timed to be over at about 9 o'clock, and each guest was, on departing, handed a paper bag containing oranges, apples, nuts etc."