Memberships & Partnerships

World Cocoa Foundation

The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) is an international membership organization that promotes sustainability in the cocoa sector by providing cocoa farmers with the support they need to grow more quality cocoa and strengthen their communities.

Lindt & Sprüngli has been a member of WCF since 2015, and regularly supports specific projects and initiatives of the organization, including the Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) to end deforestation and restore forest areas.

Cocoa & Forests Inititiative

The Cocoa & Forests Initiative (CFI) is a public-private partnership to end cocoa-related deforestation and forest degradation and promote forest restoration. The governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana as well as 35 cocoa and chocolate companies collaborate within the framework of CFI with other stakeholders such as NGOs, farmer organizations and civil society organizations on the development and implementation of business-driven solutions. CFI is driven by the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF); IDH – the Sustainable Trade Initiative; and the Governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

The Cocoa & Forests Initiative contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 13 (Climate Action) and 15 (Life on Land) and is aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement.

As active member of the CFI since 2017, Lindt & Sprüngli reports on progress on an annual basis (see No-Deforestation & Agroforestry Progress Report).

Earthworm Foundation

The Earthworm Foundation is a non-profit organization working with global companies, NGOs and communities to transform supply chains for people and nature.

In 2015, Lindt & Sprüngli started working with Earthworm Foundation as external assessment partner and became an official member in 2016. At least once a year, Earthworm Foundation visits and evaluates each of the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Programs. Progress is regularly communicated on the Earthworm Foundation Transparency Hub.

National Initiatives on Sustainable Cocoa in Europe (ISCOs)

The National Initiatives on Sustainable Cocoa in Europe (ISCOs) are multi-stakeholder initiatives for more sustainability in the cocoa value chain. They foster collaboration between the cocoa and chocolate industry, the public sector, non-governmental organizations, and research institutes. Together, ISCO members actively engage on topics including improving the living conditions of cocoa farmers, protecting natural resources, and promoting biodiversity in cocoa producing countries.

SWISSCO (Since 2018)
The Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (SWISSCO): Lindt & Sprüngli (Switzerland) AG and the Lindt Cocoa Foundation are active members since its foundation in January 2018 and also participate in its working groups.

GISCO (Since 2014)
The German Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (GISCO): Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli GmbH is an active member since 2014.

FRISCO (Since 2021)
The French Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (FRISCO): Lindt & Sprüngli SAS (France) is an active member since its foundation in 2021.

UN Global Compact

The UN Global Compact (UNGC) aims to align business operations and strategies with ten principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption; and drive strategic business actions to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with an emphasis on collaboration and innovation.

As a UN Global Compact member, Lindt & Sprüngli reports yearly on its progress against the UNGC principles (see Sustainability Report).

Lindt Cocoa Foundation

The Lindt Cocoa Foundation was founded in 2013 and has the declared purpose of working to achieve social and ecological sustainability in the cultivation, production and processing of cocoa and other raw materials used in chocolate production. The Lindt Cocoa Foundation supplements the already existing endeavors of the Lindt & Sprüngli Group designed to improve the living and working conditions of farmers in the countries of origin of the raw materials, and co-funds certain elements within the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program. Its projects ensure that production of the raw materials is done in a way which works more effectively towards sustainable agricultural development.

IDH – Sustainable Trade Initiative

IDH works with over 600 businesses, financiers, governments and civil society to realize sustainable trade in global value chains. Together with partners, IDH designs, co-funds and prototypes innovative, business driven approaches to create new jobs, sustainable industries and new sustainable markets to have large scale positive impact on climate change, deforestation, gender, living wages and living incomes, in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE)

The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica, is dedicated to education, research and development in agriculture, and the management, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. CATIE maintains the second-largest collection of cocoa germplasm worldwide and works on the generation of better varieties with its Cacao Genetic Improvement Program.

Lindt & Sprüngli collaborates with CATIE on a project which aims to test the performance of different fine-flavor cacao varieties in agroforestry systems. Within the project, a multi-year trial with ten cacao clones and two types of agroforestry systems will be established in Costa Rica. As agroforestry is promoted as a sustainable production method with cacao farmers, this project will deliver new insights as to which fine flavor varieties should be distributed in sustainability programs.

Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation

Helvetas is an independent organization for development based in Switzerland with affiliated organizations in Germany and the United States. Helvetas supports poor and disadvantaged women, men and communities in about thirty developing and transition countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In collaboration with local partners, Helvetas implements development projects in the areas of water, food and climate, education, jobs and private sector development, governance, gender and social equity.

Helvetas is an implementation partner of the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program in Madagascar. Helvetas supports the strengthening of the capacities of exporters' trainers who support farmers to improve productivity and quality of cocoa produced, supports the development of additional income generating activities for farmers and the installment of community infrastructure, mainly water.

Ecotop

Ecotop offers services in the area of rural development in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The organization mainly focuses on sustainable agriculture based on the natural dynamic of ecosystems (Syntropic Farming, Successional Agroforestry, Dynamic Agroforestry). Ecotop’s objective is to promote agriculture and agroforestry as a central axis for sustainable development in tropical regions, considering food security, biodiversity and resilience of impacts of climate change.

Ecotop provides technical support for the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program implementation partners in Ecuador. The field staff learns how to establish agroforestry plots and monitor these demo plots. The goal of the collaboration is to enable the local teams to test and scale dynamic agroforestry in the Farming Program, allowing farmers to diversify their income sources.

ETH Zürich

ETH Zurich is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics university in Zürich, Switzerland. The EcoVision Lab at ETH Zurich conducts research at the frontier of machine learning, computer vision, and remote sensing to solve ecological questions. Its objective is to invent original, data-driven methods at the interface of computer science, ecology, and engineering that analyse environmental data at very large scale automatically. The EcoVision Lab has a growing focus and expertise on applying innovative (deep) machine learning and big data analysis technology to solve open scientific questions of high relevance to the cocoa industry.

Together with partners from The University of Queensland in Australia, ETH Zurich is developing methods for remotely estimating shade-tree cover and carbon stocks and spatially explicit recommendations for the implementation of cocoa agroforests. Once available, this technology will enable the monitoring of progress towards the implementation of agroforestry targets in the Farming Program.

Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC)

The Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC) is a Ghanaian non-profit organization implementing conservation initiatives to promote a greater awareness of and protection for the natural, historic and cultural diversity of Ghana and, ultimately, the West African sub-region. The organization is recognized internationally as a leader in developing rural ecotourism and community protected areas as a means of economic development and resource conservation.

Lindt & Sprüngli collaborates with NCRC in Ghana to promote greater collaboration in cocoa regions. The organization is developing a monitoring framework to measuring progress of sustainability initiatives at landscape level and implements projects based on the Landscape Approach in two Hotspot Intervention Areas in the country. As part of these projects, NCRC builds locally embedded governance structures from community-based resource management, enabling the protection of forests beyond company supply chains.