Ethics & Sustainability
Our mission is to enable better food choices which avoid animal or human suffering and benefit or reduce the impact on the environment for a sustainable planet.
We do this because we care now as we have always done. Plamil is the original vegan company started the 1960’s, by those that were involved in the start of the vegan movement. This was at a time when ethics in business was unheard of.
The family company is now headed by Adrian Ling- who has been in the Plamil chocolate industry over thirty years- and is a passionate driver of the way we participate in the world.
Over the years the inheritance of those original ethics has developed and evolved. We care about deforestation, climate change, we care about people from all countries, all ethnicities, any sexual orientation, or gender identity. We not only look at how others are treated in the world, but always try to do the right thing with our staff, so we pay all our staff more than the living wage. Because we care, we take a long-term view, seeking knowledge and information from suppliers, customers, or any other stakeholder. We are not perfect, but we have always made the effort to ‘do the right thing’ and treat people fairly. We do not attempt to gain accolades or awards for our efforts as we consider these should be everyday values for everyone.
Today we are industry wide trusted manufacturer producing ethical, vegan, dairy free chocolate with our own dedicated manufacturing plant.
‘Being vegan’ is a journey and there are broadband definitions to what ‘being vegan’ means within everyone’s journey, with some achieving more avoidance of animal exploitation than others.
Chocolate does not require the same broadband definition, as it can be made to the animal free criteria as per the Vegan Society definition.
We believe that whilst vegans on their journey may well choose plant-based foods (a far better choice than dairy or meat) those plant-based products not made dairy free should not be labelled ‘vegan’, ‘suitable for vegans’ or similar. Chocolates are not dairy free if they carry statements like ‘may contain’ or ‘made in a factory which uses dairy milk’ or similar as these are all statements made when a brand considers there is a dairy milk content.
Tests in 2021 have shown dairy milk content in some brands of ‘vegan chocolate’ have severe dairy milk contamination. We consider these are plant-based chocolates- better than dairy milk chocolate- but not vegan chocolate. Simply put; we believe the broadband of definition should be for vegans on their journey not for chocolate.
That is why we choose Rainforest Alliance cocoa. For many years Plamil has been actively opposing modern day slavery in the cocoa industry. Rural poverty in areas where cocoa is grown has been the cause of many global issues from child slave labour and dire working conditions to the loss of rainforests due to unregulated agricultural expansion.
These issues are caused by economic desperation which result in environmental destruction and human suffering. By having Rainforest Alliance certification, we ensure that our cocoa is grown by farmers working to create a world in which people and nature flourish together.
Challenges facing the cocoa industry are highly complex, with no single solution. It is important to do what we can and make better individual choices every day.
Whilst we all enjoy vegan chocolate, avoiding child slave labour, we have been driven over the decades to help the environment.
Producing vegan chocolate, by its very nature does not use dairy milk, to which many now consider to be a considerable source of environmental challenges, regardless of animal welfare issues. By using crops to make our m!lk based chocolates, not animals, reduces the environmental challenges.
Our latest chocolate is made with gluten free oats, grown in the UK. This reduces travel miles of at least one of our ingredients, but we can’t get cocoa to grow in the UK. It takes quite a bit of power to make chocolate, so for over two decades our factory has been powered by renewable energy, regardless of cost, as it’s the right thing to do. Its not just about use of power but using less, so in 2021 we are investing over £½ Million in the latest chocolate machinery to enable more chocolate to be made with the latest in energy and water saving technology.
Eating less is just as important as eating ‘green’. We are even enabling customers to ‘eat less’; – our specially manufactured micro drops enable customers to ‘max out’ the chocolate taste but use less chocolate in so many applications! What other chocolate company is helping to reduce how much is eaten in this way.
We actively look and have always looked at ways to reduce or eliminate plastics, but we will not ‘trend greenwash’. We take an in-depth view of all aspects of this important issue to ensure we do the right long-term solution.
