Cadbury maintain that they are doing enough to be green this Easter

• Mar. 19 by Katie Fox (0)

Cadbury have released a statement confirming that under the new management of Kraft, they are still committed to maintaining an eco work ethic.

Since Kraft’s takeover of the Birmingham-based confectionary company in January this year, customers have been left wondering whether the company will commit to previously set goals by Cadbury aiming to reduce the brand’s carbon footprint.

Previous owners of Cadbury had set clear targets for the future of the company which included cutting back on energy wastage, reducing product packaging and controlling the use of water used in production.

Cadbury launched the ‘Purple Goes Green’ initiative back in 2007 to make the brand’s environmental goals clear to the public and to set achievable targets which could be built on.

Former Cadbury Chief Executive Todd Stitzer states on Cadbury’s website,

‘We recognise that if we are serious about tackling climate change, we need to be ‘absolutely’ committed.

This means re-thinking the way we do business, embedding sustainability into every decision we take.

Not only will this have a strong social and environmental impact but also a positive economic impact too in the longer term.’

We realise we cannot minimise the environmental impact of the manufacturing industry alone.

We need to work with our people, our peers and partners in our supply chain to reduce the size of our collective carbon footprint – acting as a united force for good.’

The Chief Executive left Cadbury, along with his colleague, the Chairman of the company Roger Carr after Kraft’s takeover bid was accepted.

Previous Easter Success

In their time at Cadbury, some good environmental progress was made. In 2008, the company was given a ‘Green Award’ for ‘Best Packaging’ in regard to their newly launched ‘eco’ Treasure Eggs. The eggs were wrapped in foil and displayed on ‘egg trays’ on supermarket shelves rather than in individual cardboard boxes.

These can still be found in most shops stocking Cadbury confectionary, but one has to wonder whether this product does enough to reduce harm to the environment to warrant the array of other heavily packaged Cadbury Easter Eggs.

Comment from Cadbury

The Easter Egg Trail Pack was one such product that the company was questioned about. This pack of mini Easter Eggs takes the form of a cardboard box with a formed cardboard carry handle. If the ‘Treasure Eggs’ don’t need unnecessary packaging then why should these?

Public Relations at Cadbury didn’t comment on the Easter Egg Trail Pack; however Tony Bilsborough from Cadbury’s PR department had this to say about committing to Cadbury’s eco targets:

‘Kraft has committed to maintaining our environmental pledges so there is no difference to the timetable or targets.’