Restless to find a better way

At Whittaker’s we believe best is always better. That’s why over the past few years, we have embarked on a complete overhaul of our sustainability strategy. We’ve measured our carbon footprint, implemented a company-wide waste reduction programme, and made significant progress on our ethical sourcing. All of our cocoa beans are sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and we achieved 100% of cocoa beans traceable from farm to factory ahead of our 2025 target, including geo-mapping the 2,400+ farms we currently source from in Ghana. 

In 2019 we set a goal to have ‘100% sustainable packaging for all of our products by 2025’.

Since 2019, we have conducted over 140 alternative packaging trials including compostable bioplastics, aluminium foil, reduced plastic and paper-based options in our factory.

As well as the challenge of getting new materials to run on our lines, we’ve faced wider systemic challenges that we have limited influence over, such as a lack of the right infrastructure available in New Zealand to deal with different packaging options at the end of their useful life.

The main thing we’ve learned is that changing single-use packaging systems is not straightforward and is not something any single manufacturer is going to be able to do alone. So, in line with our commitment to Good Honest Chocolate-making, we’re providing a summary of our packaging journey so far here (bumps and all) in the hope that our learnings help everyone move forward.

Where to from here?

While our ambition to achieve packaging that better protects the planet for future generations hasn’t changed, the reality is, it’s taking longer than we expected and we aren’t going to get there by 2025. To put this in perspective though, as at 2024, our packaging is 82.51% recyclable by weight.

At our one factory in Porirua we are working with multiple local suppliers to innovate in new materials, coatings and wrapping styles.

The truth is, no packaging is 100% perfect. With every material improvement, reuse opportunity, or waste reduction, we get better. But to do this properly means we will never ‘arrive’– we must stay committed to our restless spirit to find a better way. Therefore, we are restating our ambition to aim for circular packaging, as soon as possible. Circular packaging is a focus on products and materials being used over and over in a continuous loop, rather than discarded, to reduce waste.

There are three ways we're working towards circular packaging: