Purpose
Throughout ECOM's long history as a merchant, innovation and permanence have been key to our success by working in constant collaboration with partners, research institutions, governments, NGOs and our in-house subject experts
Our aim is to foster collaboration and innovation by providing a platform that encourages the exchange of ideas and best practices. By centralising these resources, we hope to equip clients, partners and colleagues with tools to navigate sustainability challenges effectively. While the journey towards a sustainable future is complex, we believe that access to shared knowledge can help drive incremental progress. As the challenges we face continue to evolve, our knowledge hub aims to stay dynamic and relevant, offering fresh insights and new publications to support this ever-changing journey. We highly encourage viewers to look into the research that has been shared here and into the organizations that have driven and published it.
Explore our Featured Resources
Featured Resources
Explore Resources by Theme
Themes
ECOM's Green Meter
ECOM's Green Meter
We are pleased to announce the official rollout of our internal carbon calculator, Green Meter, which has been third-party reviewed by SustainCERT.
Learn more
Climate-Smart Agriculture and Agroforestry in Cocoa
Climate-Smart Agriculture and Agroforestry in Cocoa
This guidance document was published by SWISSCO and focuses on approaches, financing needs and opportunities as well as providing high level guidance for stakeholders in the cocoa sector seeking to establish a broad range of actions that take the complexity of crop- and site-specific impacts of climate change and the realities of smallholder cocoa farmers into account.
Read the full report
The Voluntary Carbon Market
This report by VCM Primer provides an overview of the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM), from what it is to the roles of carbon standards, governments, and Indigenous Peoples in the VCM.
Read more
Principles for Regenerative Landscapes
Principles for Regenerative Landscapes
The Circular Bioeconomy Alliance published this report that advocates for a transition to a circular bioeconomy supporting biodiversity and human well-being through 10 key principles.
Read the full report here
Google Earth Engine, an innovative technology for forest conservation
This report explores how Google Earth Engine (GEE) can and has been used as a land monitoring tool to help enforce forest protection laws, co-authored by ECOM's SMS Manager Coffee, Thuan Sarzynski.
Read the full report
Cocoa Barometer 2022 - Executive summary
The Cocoa Barometer is a publication with the aim of creating an up-to-date, fair, and clear overview of the state of sustainability of the cocoa sector. The Barometer looks at the sector as a whole, but also couples aggregated and disaggregated company and country data with clear visualizations and fair contextualization of challenges, commitments, and accomplishments. It is published by a consortium of civil society actors from across the globe, and hosted by the VOICE network.
Read more here
Recruiting and retaining female field agents
The International Cocoa Initiative's (ICI) report summarises practical action to improve the gender balance of staff in sustainability programmes, drawing on learnings from the field in cocoa communities in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.
Read the reports here
Child and Forced Labor risk maps guidance
This document explains the method used to create the Rainforest Alliance's risk maps on child labor and forced labor and provides an overview of how the indices per country and sector were calculated.
Read the document here
Protective Community Index
The Protective Community Index is a simple tool, developed by ICI, to rapidly assess access to services that help protect children in cocoa-growing communities. It captures factors related to children’s fundamental rights, such as quality education and safe water, as well as other community characteristics that are associated with lower levels of child labour.
Read more here
Gender dimensions in the role of CLMRS agents
Gender dimensions in the role of CLMRS agents
This report by the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) presents the results from qualitative research on the motivation, perceptions, and experiences of female child labour monitoring agents in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.
Read more here
The Cocoa Price - A Key Factor for a Living Income for Farmers
The Cocoa Price - A Key Factor for a Living Income for Farmers
SWISSCO has published a brief regarding perspectives and solutions regarding the price of cocoa and how it is relevant for a living income for farmers.
Read the full brief here
Farmer Income & Cost of Production Indicator and Methods Guidance
Shared through LICOP, the Farmer Income & Costs of Production Working Group has released a paper to establish standardised metrics and protocols for measuring farm and household income. The paper highlights key metrics related to household income, focusing on the profitability and productivity of specific crops to assess farm economic viability.
Read the guidance here
Income study of cocoa producing households in Ghana
This publication was prepared by Ghana COCOBOD, the Swiss Platform for Sustainble Cocoa (SWISSCO), and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL). It is an evaluation of household income, living income gaps, and the contribution of sustainability interventions on cocoa farming households income situation.
Read the full report here