People who mock green policies and ethical stances made by businesses are “afraid of change” said Tony’s Chocolonely chief executive officer Douglas Lamont.
“People are exploring ways to talk about how we balance our responsibilities to people, profit and the planet more effectively,” he told The Telegraph as he hit out against businesses resisting the move towards a more responsible social and environmental approach.
“I think many people who are mocking these things are afraid of that change,” Lamont added.
Tony’s Chocolonely actively campaigns against slavery and forced labour in the chocolate industry. Its mission includes creating a 100% slave-free chocolate supply chain.
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Lamont said a small number of cases were making most ethical businesses look bad.
“The problem in the world is there are some people that say, well, let’s just create a PR story… but [they] don’t do things. And then that gets used as the norm rather than the exception,” he said.
“The idea that the role of companies is just to maximise profits and forget about the externalities, whether that’s your employees, or whether that’s the impact we have on the planet… for me, we’re coming to the end of that era.”
Tony’s Chocolonely recently received an extra £17 million (€20 million) from its existing stakeholders to accelerate its mission of ending exploitation in the cocoa industry.
