Long before Charley’s, we had a deep understanding and acceptance of the need for business to be sustainable and environmentally and socially responsible. Starting Charley’s as a clean piece of paper provided an opportunity to do things well. So, the business model was drafted along sustainable lines.
The journey to the consumer opening a bar of chocolate is a long one. With Charley’s in control of the entire process, consumers can be assured that best practice is adhered to at every step.
Cocoa seed to chocolate bar journey
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Cocoa seedlings planting
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Plantation nurturing / managing
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Tree mulching / pruning
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Cocoa pod harvesting (at optimum ripeness)
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Pod opening & raw bean extraction
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Cocoa bean fermentation
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Fermented cocoa bean drying
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Bean roasting
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Cracking / winnowing (to yield nibs)
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Nib conching (to produce chocolate liquor)
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Cocoa liquor tempering (into chocolate with shiny look and smooth mouth feel)
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Tempered chocolate moulding & unmoulding
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Bar wrapping
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Dispatch to customers
Along this journey careful thought is given to researching, refining and implementing strategies to enable multiple objectives.
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Waste minimisation
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Resource allocation / optimisation
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Chemical use avoidance or safe chemical use where required
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Input reuse & recycling
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Staff training
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Ingredient sourcing consideration of food miles
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Packaging sustainability principles
Packaging is a particular hot button for Charley’s shareholders and customers. Here’s the Charley’s packaging information that comes with every order.
Charley’s packaging and our environmental impact
As a cocoa tree to chocolate bar and cocoa bean to chocolate bar producer, we care very much about the planet and our community. Our goal is to achieve the highest level of environmentally friendly packaging and at the same time have your order delivered safely, without damage, breakage and without melting.
We ship most orders in polystyrene eskies with the chocolate itself in a zip lock bag to protect it from moisture. Depending on the time of year and outside temperatures, the box then has a frozen cool pack included and is sealed and packed in the Australia Post Satchel.
This works very well and over the last few years Charley’s customers have had virtually zero problems with damage or molten chocolate.
Polystyrene esky
Made of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS). This does not involve ozone depleting CFS’s and CFC’s. EPS is recyclable. Some councils provide a recycling scheme specifically for polystyrene.
These eskies have many uses. They are great for kids’ lunches, picnics, day trips and much more. They are perfect for keeping icy poles frozen on a hot day!
Zip lock bags
Reusable as freezer bags and any of the thousands of uses that zip lock bags are sold for.
Small ice packs:
To re-use, simply put in water then freeze. This way they can be used again and again. The packs contain a totally biodegradable, non toxic gel polymer.
Paper
Single origin chocolate is wrapped in paper sourced from sustainably managed plantations and recyclable foil. The Chocolate Plus bars come in a see-though BOPP cello wrapper. BOPP stands for biaxially-oriented polypropylene. The biodegradability and non-toxic nature of this film makes it one among the best eco-friendly films and most importantly it is also recyclable.
