Goal 1:
No Poverty

Annual Chocolate Scorecard cracks open corporate sustainability practices

The sixth annual Chocolate Scorecard initiative returned for Easter 2025, holding global confectionery giants to account on a wide range of sustainability policies and practices.

Produced by Be Slavery Free, in collaboration with a team including UOW's Associate Professor Stephanie Perkiss alongside consultants and sustainability interest groups, the initiative evaluates and ranks chocolate traders, manufacturers, brands and retailers.

Sixty companies from around the world were invited to participate and were evaluated on key issues including traceability, child labour, deforestation and living income. Collectively, these companies purchase more than 90% of the world’s cocoa.

In 2025, Tony's Chocolonely won the Good Egg award in the large company category, representing the most sustainable chocolate company across 6 key markers. Multinational chocolate manufacturer Mondelēz, producer of Cadbury, was given the Bad Egg award for refusing to participate.

Australian retailer Coles was also absent from this year's scorecard, raising questions of transparency and public accountability. However, transparency increased across the board with 82% of companies now fully disclosing child labour data, and instances of child labour reducing across the sector.

With many cocoa farmers living in extreme poverty and facing the impacts of climate change, the project aims to encourage corporate transparency and improved social and environmental practices. Chocolate manufacturers have previously reported that the scorecard influences their strategic direction, demonstrating how academic research can drive change in global supply chains. 

This initiative is supporting:

• Goal 4: Quality Education
• Goal 5: Gender Equity
• Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
• Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities
• Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
• Goal 13: Climate Action
• Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals

A path from poverty

After achieving multiple international engineering qualifications, including a PhD in Engineering from UOW, Dr Navaratnarajah returned to the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka as a senior lecturer and researcher. He was able to secure a 40-million-rupee World Bank-funded AHEAD grant and embarked on a three-year research collaboration to improve the performance of higher-speed rail and utilise waste materials to reduce maintenance costs.

The project has already produced more than 40 publications, and Dr Navaratnarajah has received numerous awards including the prestigious Sri Lankan President’s Award for Scientific Research and an Institution of Civil Engineers (United Kingdom) award for best paper published by overseas researchers. 

Dr Navaratnarajah has also actively helped children in his community escape the cycle of poverty and, in doing so, advance his nation’s potential through education. He ensured students had access to teaching materials when internet and phone services weren’t available during the pandemic.  

With the support of international NGOs and colleagues, he has helped distribute 60 smart classrooms for digital and online learning, built a library for the community and has also provided scholarships to more than 70 disadvantaged students. In recognition of his work, Dr Navaratnarajah was a finalist in the Social Impact category of the 2023 UOW Alumni Awards.

This initiative is supporting:

• Goal 1: No Poverty
• Goal 4: Quality Education
• Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Bringing safety, hygiene and hope to Tanzania

As part of an educational immersion project, UOW staff and students from various disciplines including social work, psychology, primary education, PDHPE, international studies and electrical engineering, travelled to Tanzania to help renovate a girls’ dormitory. They worked with local staff at So They Can, an Australian NGO, and the Manyara Primary School community.

Approximately 120 girls were sharing a space that had capacity for 50 beds where up to four girls would share one bed – some of them not equipped with a mattress. Also, less than a third of the beds had access to mosquito net coverage despite malaria in the area.

After eight days on the project, the team helped repair the roofing structure, removed and replaced old ceiling sheeting, added new guttering and connected this to a water tank for the first time. Three new water tanks were installed, including a solar powered pump, and a new fence was installed around the dormitory protecting the girls from dangerous wildlife previously roaming the school grounds.

Additional works included repairs to broken windows, laying an outdoor concrete foundation, procurement of mattresses and mosquito nets and the relocation of a shipping container to provide onsite storage and a future study area.

This subject is working towards:

• Goal 1: No Poverty
• Goal 2: Zero Hunger
• Goal 4: Quality Education
• Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities
• Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities