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‘The Value of Values’:
Lessons from Tony’s Chocolonely

The story of impact-driven chocolate maker Tony’s Chocolonely has important lessons for sustainability practitioners — which makes its story even sweeter.

If you missed this LinkedIn post (or the full article) by Sustainable Brands®, you’ll want to check them out. The story of impact-driven chocolate maker Tony’s Chocolonely has important lessons for sustainability practitioners:

  • How values help attract customers and create business success

  • How to scale your positive impact on the world, even beyond what your own business can support

Customers

In Chapter 4 of my book, The Value of Values (MIT Press, 2024), I talk about how standing out helps customers find you. Tony's mission — to end exploitation in cocoa production and deliver 100% slave-free chocolate — makes it stand out. It stands out to conscientious consumers; to Tony’s “collegiate changemakers” — student movement-makers who network within their communities to share Tony’s chocolate and raise awareness about issues within the cocoa industry; and even to industry giants such as Barry Callebaut — which formed a strategic partnership with Tony’s to show that producing chocolate from fully traceable, ethically sourced, sustainable cocoa is possible at scale (a collaboration highlighted in the Netflix documentary, “Rotten”).

Catalyst

In Chapter 7, I tell the story of a company I worked with to take something it was doing for itself — helping and offer it to others, scaling its impact and creating a new revenue source. Tony's is doing that, too, through Tony’s Open Chain — an industry-led initiative that’s helping other chocolate brands transform their supply chains through transparency.

As Open Chain enables other companies to take advantage of its supply chain, it helps Tony's help even more farmers — those supplying its own production and those supplying other companies, as well. And the co-op fee paid by companies using Tony’s Open Chain covers program costs and improvement at the partner level.

Progress

Tony’s continues to make progress toward its mission: It’s paying living incomes to more farmers while increasing its revenue (to over $150 million) and helping improve cocoa supply chains — all while providing important lessons you can use to increase your company’s impact. That makes its story even sweeter.

Daniel Aronson is the founder of Valutus, which specializes in creating value through sustainability and responsibility, the creator of the Value of Values™ Model, and the author of the book The Value of Values (MIT Press, February 6, 2024). He has helped clients identify and quantify over $2 billion in sustainability-driven business value.

Daniel coined the term “submerged value” and created the first set of tools for dramatically accelerating double materiality (Materiality Science™).

He has guest lectured at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan’s Sustainability Lab and has written or been featured in over 100 articles and publications.



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