Environment
Yowie joins Amazon firefight with $20k donation to Rainforest Alliance
More than a chocolate company, Yowie offers educational content for children about environmentalism and endangered species. The ‘horrific’ surge of fires in the Amazon rainforest compelled the brand to expand its financial support of sustainability causes.
Describing the Amazon as ‘vital to global climate stability,’ Yowie said the $20,000 represents a ‘small part of the deep partnership’ with the Rainforest Alliance. The company announced earlier this month that sales of its Wildlife Conservation Series products had raised $250k for the organization.
Originally an Australian kids’ brand, Yowie recently relaunched its surprise-inside chocolates – which feature miniature collectible animals – in the US. Yowie uses only Rainforest Alliance certified chocolate, so a Yowie purchase always supports saving these essential natural resources, the company said in a statement.
“We are deeply saddened by the devastation of the rainforest over the past summer months in the Amazon,” said Yowie Group CEO Mark Schuessler. “Our team is proud to be able to support the local communities in any way possible and hopes that through a unified and global effort, we will be able to be a part of the improvement and recovery of the environmental impact these fires have caused.”
Chocolate companies stepping up to save the Amazon
Other chocolate makers have threw their hats in the ring to combat the wave of fires, which have ravaged large swaths of the Brazilian Amazon.
The Rainforest Alliance called on companies and organizations to work together in this fight, after Brazil rejected a $20m aid package put forth by leaders at the annual G7 summit in August.
Earlier this month, San Francisco-based Alter Eco enlisted the support of several likeminded companies to form the Amazon Alliance. “There’s something to be said about power in numbers,” Alter Eco CEO Mike Forbes told us.
