⚡️Meet the Knowvember Brands: Ombar
The Knowvember Campaign x Following the Footprints
As part of our partnership with the Knowvember campaign, we’re profiling each of the seven founding brand partners. Taking a stance for climate transparency, each brand knows and shows the climate footprints of their products - making it easier than ever for consumers to make informed and climate conscious choices.
⚡️ BRAND: Ombar
Mission: Ombar Oat M’lk was born from our desire to have a positive impact in the face of the immense challenges of climate change and environmental collapse. We're a small chocolate company with a desire to make a big difference; and we believe that small actions can add up to a big impact. So we decided to start with chocolate! Ombar Oat M’lk has less than half the carbon emissions compared to ‘regular’ milk chocolate, and 3p from every bar is donated to an NGO in Ecuador to support reforestation of the Chocó rainforest, a global biodiversity hotspot.
Targets: Our Oat M’lk range has less than half the carbon emissions of ‘regular’ milk chocolate, and we offset the emissions we do produce – not just for Ombar Oat M’lk but across the whole business. Our aim is to continually find ways to lower our emissions in the first place.
⚡️ Can you describe one way you've reduced your product carbon footprint?
We use oats instead of milk; milk is one of the least environmentally friendly ingredients found in mainstream chocolate. Whereas the organic, British-grown oats which we’ve sourced are a highly sustainable alternative to dairy. Specifically, we use ‘naked’ oats which are much creamier than normal oats. This means our chocolate is just as indulgent as ‘regular’ milk chocolate, which we hope will encourage as many people as possible to switch. The more people move away from dairy chocolate to ours – the bigger positive impact we can have.
⚡️ What steps will you have to take to achieve the target you mention above?
We’ll keep tracking our climate footprint, working closely with specialist food and climate change researchers, Carbon Cloud. This holds us accountable and helps us to identify where there are opportunities to reduce our emissions further. As well as digging into our impact at a product level, we’ll also continue to find ways to make our total business operations more sustainable. For example, we’ve built an environmental commitment into the job descriptions of the entire team, no matter their role, so that all of us are committed to finding ways to make a difference.
⚡️ You recently launched your low carbon chocolate range. How have you achieved this, and how does this compare to other goods in the chocolate industry?
Truly putting sustainability at the heart of this range was crucial in achieving lower emission chocolate. For example, the climate footprint is half that of ‘regular’ milk chocolate, and it will also be lower than other plant-based chocolate where a less sustainable alternative to dairy has been chosen. We’ve gone beyond looking at our climate footprint alone; 3p from every bar is donated to Fundación Jocotoco, an NGO based in Ecuador (where we sustainably source our cacao) to aid their efforts to reforest the Chocó rainforest, a global biodiversity hotspot.
⚡️ Why do you feel like it was important for you to join the Knowvember movement?
In the UK, our food choices lead to the deforestation of 4 trees per person every year – that’s approximately 272m trees per year. Food systems are responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and 70% of global biodiversity loss on land. We feel deeply moved by this. There’s an urgent need to raise awareness of the role of food production in the climate crisis, and to be transparent about the footprint of food and drink products, so that people can make better informed and more sustainable choices. We call on all brands to face into this.
Learn more about the Knowvember campaign at www.know-vember.com.
