Sustainable Chocolate Deep Dive with Xocolatl Co-Founder, Elaine Read
Interview Notes
Xocolatl Chocolate Co-Founder, Elaine Read, shares her perspective on “sustainability” in the chocolate industry. The interview is formatted as a Q&A. Learn more about Xocolatl’s commitment to sustainability.
The original transcript of our conversation has been adapted for readability.Tyler: How do you see Xocolatl (and other small-batch chocolate makers) fitting into the global chocolate industry?
Elaine: Small batch chocolate makers like Xocolatl are such a tiny part of the global chocolate industry. One way we're working to improve the industry is by educating customers about what makes good chocolate, including how fair wages for farmers and healthy cacao forests help reduce deforestation. And, how high-quality ingredients produce more refined, nuanced flavors than mass-produced chocolate.
The hope is that by doing this, informed consumers will force the hand of industrial-scale chocolate makers by demanding more transparency, improved sourcing standards and better quality ingredients.
Tyler: What are some of the most environmentally damaging practices you associate with the major chocolate brands?
Elaine: The first thing that comes to mind is deforestation. Industrial chocolate manufacturers often choose cacao varieties that are disease-resistant, fast-growing, and high-yielding—traits ideal for plantation-style cultivation. Because these varieties can thrive in full sun, forests are often cleared for large-scale, open-field cacao farming. In contrast, heirloom and native cacao varieties require shade from biodiverse, multi-layered forests, which help preserve ecosystems.
A related concern is monoculture cacao. When just one or two “farmer-friendly” varieties are prioritized, many unique native strains are lost, leading to a reduction in genetic diversity. We’ve seen this in other crops, like apples and bananas, where biodiversity was sacrificed for uniformity, making plants more vulnerable to pests and disease over time.
Tyler: How would you describe the "cost(s)" of these damaging practices to society and/or the planet? That is, the costs that are NOT accounted for in the price that consumers pay for chocolate.
Elaine: A shift toward monoculture cacao brings at least three major costs: culinary, cultural, and environmental.
1. From a culinary perspective, losing unique cacao varieties erases entire flavor identities and potential in chocolate.
2. From a cultural and historical perspective, farmers may cut down trees that have been part of their family’s land for generations, replacing them with unfamiliar trees that bear fruit lacking the same connection to their heritage.
3. Environmentally, the impact of deforestation is clearly linked to climate change and rising global temperatures. And, whether it’s cacao or another crop, the agricultural practice of monoculture farming increases vulnerability to climate change impacts, such as the spread of new diseases and the risk of devastating crop loss.
Tyler: What are the financial costs of doing things differently? That is, the operational costs that contribute to your products being generally more expensive than those of the big chocolate brands.
Elaine: Well, we pay significantly more for our cacao beans--purchasing them directly from small family farmers, farmer cooperatives, and in a few cases, from social enterprises working specifically to help improve the livelihoods of small family farmers growing cacao.
We know that there is no child labor or trafficked labor in our supply chains because we travel to meet the farmers we work with to really understand their challenges, how they operate and what they would like to see from a long-term trading relationship with us.
Secondly, we make our chocolate here in the U.S. with humans heavily involved in every step of the process, unlike the industrial chocolate brands with large scale production. To be honest, we'd love to have the resources to purchase larger machines to be able to make chocolate more efficiently, but we wouldn't give up the human-centeredness in our production or values.
Secondly, we produce our chocolate here in the U.S., with people involved in every step of the process—unlike the large-scale, automated production of industrial chocolate brands. While it would be cheaper for us to invest in automation for improve efficiency, we’re committed to maintaining the hands-on, human-centered approach that reflects our values.
Tyler: If Xocolatl grew to the size of Hershey, do you think it would be possible to maintain your current values and ethics?
Elaine: We wouldn't grow any larger than we could possibly be while still maintaining our current values and ethics. The second we lose our values would be the same moment we lose the purpose behind this company.
Tyler: Which of your sustainability initiatives are you most proud of?
Elaine: We became Climate Neutral Certified in 2023. The certification process required us to measure greenhouse gas emissions from "cradle to grave". This encompasses everything at the farm level where the cacao is grown, our methods of importing the beans into the U.S., the electricity and resources utilized to transform cacao into chocolate at our facilities, our product packaging, shipping and distribution.
Once all our emissions were accounted for, we prioritized making operational improvements to reduce our carbon footprint. Additionally, we were able completely eliminate plastic from our product packaging and now use fully home-compostable pouches for our pantry items, which used to be plastic.
As for our unavoidable emissions, we have invested in high quality carbon capture and carbon credit programs to offset them.
Tyler: Which of your sustainability initiatives would you say are most under-appreciated?
Elaine: We have not had the bandwidth or the PR know-how to really get the word out about how seriously we take our responsibility to be environmentally sustainable.
Some of our customers know about our carbon neutral certification, but they may not know exactly what that means, or they may wonder if we're engaging in some type of greenwashing, which, unfortunately, many companies do.
Tyler: What are your biggest challenges in operating your business, "sustainably"?
Elaine: Financial costs are a major challenge. As we grow, we continue to absorb the additional costs of reducing and offsetting our carbon footprint. Since our chocolate bars are already priced higher than typical grocery store brands, we’re cautious about raising prices further.
We’re grateful to have a strong base of customers who recognize that, in the long run, choosing our chocolate can be more economical when considering the long-term environmental costs associated with conventional chocolate.
Tyler: What’s next on your sustainability roadmap? And how can people support this next phase of your journey?
Elaine: It’s really about refining how we share our story to help people better understand why choosing our chocolate is an environmentally impactful choice.
Not only do we actually know what our carbon footprint is, we’re committed to reducing and offsetting it to zero
We’re also working with an agricultural product that, when intentionally selected, nurtured and harvested, actually contributes to the overall health of biodiverse rainforests like the Amazon—places that we urgently need to protect.
