CHICAGO — Blommer Chocolate Co. is teaming up with One Tree Planted, a nonprofit reforestation group, to plant trees in the United States and Canada.
The company has pledged to plant one tree for every 2,000 lbs of milk chocolate sold by the company’s four North American facilities. The trees will be planted in communities where the company and its customers operate facilities.
“As we are scaling up our reforestation efforts in our commodity supply chains, Blommer has recognized the importance to support biodiversity and climate resiliency closer to our own and our customers’ communities,” said David Meggs, chief commercial officer, Blommer Chocolate.
In the first year, trees will be planted in Pennsylvania along Chesapeake Bay waterways, in wildfire-damaged areas of northern California and in communities affected by climate change in the Midwest and across the Chignecto Isthmus in Canada, a narrow piece of land that connects Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
The company has committed resources to ending deforestation and forest degradation in their cocoa supply chains in Ivory Coast and Ghana. Blommer and its holding company, Fuji Oil Holdings, has also pledged to plant 1 million forest and fruit trees in cocoa growing regions by 2030.
Planting trees can have a wide range of benefits when well-executed, Blommer said. The company prioritizes planting native tree species and ensuring they will have long-term positive social and environmental impact.
One Tree Planted, which works with partners across six continents to ensure the restoration and new growth of biodiverse forests, planted more than 10 million trees in 2020. It expects to plant more than 20 million trees worldwide in 2021. The organization reforests lands degraded by natural disasters, industry and more.