Anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

If you’ve ever doubted this, look no further than Cadbury chocolate.

Last month we reported that Cadbury decided to add palm oil to its chocolate in Australia and New Zealand. The company insisted it was doing so not to save money but to “improve” its chocolate as the palm oil produced a “softer” product than chocolate made with real cocoa butter.

The reaction of the Australian and Kiwi public to such obvious spin was scathing. Furious chocolate lovers organised anti-Cadbury campaigns on Facebook and Twitter and the issue hit the national news on both sides of the Tasman Sea.

Every foodie knows that palm oil is a cheap and inferior substitute for cocoa butter, but the real concern for environmentalists was the fact that palm oil production is linked to deforestation and habitat destruction in South-East Asia and Africa. Cadbury insisted it would buy only sustainably-produced palm oil but this claim was dubious at best, something our original post explains in far more detail.

Thankfully, Cadbury has bowed to public pressure and the Australian press is reporting that the company has decided to remove palm oil from the chocolate recipe. A victory for people power!

What does Cadbury have to say about this? Both the main Cadbury Australia and New Zealand sites are curiously silent but have deleted the sections on why palm oil is so wonderful from the frequently asked questions.

However, Cadbury has responded to the criticism on its Choclovers.com website – not to be confused with the Choclovers.org protest site. The Choclovers.com site carries a press release quoting Cadbury New Zealand managing director Matthew Oldham, said the decision to go back to using only cocoa butter in Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate was in direct response to consumer feedback.

“At the time, we genuinely believed we were making the right decision, for the right reasons. But we got it wrong. Now we’re putting things right as soon as we possibly can, and hope Kiwis will forgive us. Cadbury Dairy Milk’s quality is what’s made it one of New Zealand’s most trusted brands for many years. Changing the recipe put that trust at risk and I am really sorry.”

Cadbury cited “passionate comments via social media environments” and confirmed the decision covered Australia as well. There is no sign that Cadbury intends to reverse its decision to downsize from 250g to 200g – but the company maintains that it has decreased its wholesale price accordingly.

It is probably no coincidence that the company has also joined Twitter since the furor broke – tweeting as @cadbury_aunz since August 13. Via the Twitter account, the company has acknowledged it was “wrong” and had gone back to its original recipe after strong feedback from consumers. The company also mentioned the UK business was Fair Trade-certified and other businesses would follow.

Social media gives consumers more power than ever, making it easier for that “small group of thoughtful people” to change the world. Cadbury has learned this the hard way – but good on them for doing the right thing in the end.

Image: Vlad the Impala

Global demand for palm oil, used as the main ingredient in processed foods, soaps and cosmetics, has resulted in the clearing of many ancient rainforests to make way for palm oil plantations. As a result, indigenous people are being displaced, the native orangutan population is heading for extinction and the area’s fragile ecosystem is being jeopardized.

While some companies such as Cadbury are paying no attention and are actually increasing their use of palm oil, others such as LUSH Cosmetics are very concerned and plan on finding ways to stop using this destructive ingredient altogether.

This week, LUSH cosmetics launched an innovative campaign to make the public aware of what the increased demand for palm oil is doing to rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia.

It’s a multifaceted campaign:

First, LUSH Cosmetics announced plans to become a palm oil-free company, selling a newly-formulated soap made with groundbreaking palm-free soap base. This palm oil-free soap, three years in the making, will result in LUSH being able to reduce the amount of palm oil they use by 133,000 pounds or 60.5 tons per year – the equivalent of saving 36.3 acres of primary rainforest from destruction.

Secondly, LUSH is writing to the top 300 known palm oil user companies (such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Nestle) and asking them to follow LUSH’s lead and reformulate their products so that they, too, are palm oil-free. As an incentive, LUSH is offering to supply each company who does this with a year’s supply of soap.

Thirdly, LUSH has launched an interactive window display at 48 shops across the United States during August. At each display, which features a giant palm tree, orangutans and the slogan “Wash Your Hands of Palm,” people are invited to dip their hands in green paint and add their palm prints into leaves on the palm tree. The paint is then washed off with LUSH’s new palm-oil free soap. Plus, they will be given a free sample soap to take home with them.

LUSH is also selling a limited-edition tree shaped soap called Jungle with 100 percent of proceeds from its sales donated to the Rainforest Foundation, a nonprofit that works with indigenous people to protect their forest homes from expanding palm oil plantations.

Images: arabin, Greenpeace, LUSH

As the recession cuts deeper into the profits of big food companies, many brands are downsizing their portions in a bid to cut costs. In some cases, they are also downgrading their ingredients. But as chocolate giant Cadbury is discovering – you mess with your iconic brands at your peril.

Cadbury’s current advertising campaign involves eyebrow gymnastics from two children. Meanwhile, it has made some eyebrow-raising changes to the formulation of its popular Dairy Milk block in Australia and New Zealand. The new chocolate block is smaller, contains fewer cocoa solids (you know, the part that actually makes it chocolate) and it contains environmentally destructive palm oil. It now finds itself at the centre of a PR storm, having incurred the wrath of shoppers, foodies and environmentalists alike. Whittakers, a rival chocolate brand in New Zealand, is taking advantage of the furore with this comparative shopping ad.

The first change is simple – the 250g block now weighs just 200g. The packaging has been redesigned and the squares of chocolate shrunken so the block actually appears to be the same size. Chocolate lovers are furious at the resizing and the fact that the price has not dropped accordingly and have formed a protest site, at choclovers.org, and have been spreading the message via Twitter and a Facebook protest group. Cadbury says in the FAQ on its website (Australia and New Zealand) that it has actually reduced the wholesale price but it’s up to retailers whether to pass it on.

Product resizing is annoying for consumers but nothing new – and given that people eat more when the serving sizes are bigger, it might not be such a bad thing for the public health. It’s the second change that is more concerning from an environmentalist’s point of view.

Cadbury has reduced the amount of cocoa solids from 26% to 21% and added nasty vegetable fats – specifically palm oil – to compensate. The company claims that it’s done this, not to save costs as you might think, but to improve the customer experience.

We have done this for a number of reasons. Primarily it is because our consumers have been telling us that we could improve their enjoyment of our chocolate by making it slightly softer to bite. Vegetable fat helps deliver this softness whilst at the same time maintaining our chocolate’s great taste.

As a chocolate lover myself, I’m not so credulous that I believe that Cadbury has done this for my benefit. I know a bit about food and chocolate and there is no doubt that palm oil is a poor substitute for the real thing. I am pretty sure most chocolate fans would feel the same way – despite what Cadbury’s “independent research” might show. I’m probably not their market, though – I tend to go for more quality brands such as Green & Black’s, the organic brand now owned by Cadbury, and Lindt.

However, there are millions of people who do buy Cadbury chocolate so the formulation of their products is part of a bigger problem. The forests of southeast Asia have been ravaged by deforestation, spelling disaster for wildlife such as orangutans and tigers and for the climate. Palm oil production is one of the leading causes of this – both historically and currently.

The main customers of palm oil are food manufacturers looking for cheap fats – though demand is also rising because of its utility as a biofuel. The rainforest of the Congo could be next, with China set to establish a giant palm oil plantation in the African country. It is ironic that Cadbury’s last big advertising campaign involved a gorilla.

Cadbury claims:

We are Board members of the RSPO [Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil] and purchase Green Palm certificates that independently certify the fact that the palm oil we purchase has come from sustainable sources.

The RSPO has a set of standards, its Principles & Criteria, that define practices for sustainable palm oil production. These include the use of appropriate best practices by growers and millers, the responsible development of new plantings and environmental responsibility and the conservation of natural resources and biodiversity.

All well and good, except that the RSPO is widely regarded as greenwash – members have to do little more than pay a membership fee. Even the bible for big business, the Wall Street Journal reports that it’s a problem. The Green Palm Certificates, meanwhile, allow backers to invest in sustainable production without necessarily using the product. Even if Cadbury could be certain that it is buying palm oil from sustainable sources, which is dubious, it is still creating new demand for palm oil. Replacing existing palm oil for a ’sustainable’ alternative is one thing, but it does not help matters if it is additional consumption.

No one seems convinced – and the backlash is huge. In most recent news, the Auckland Zoo has stopped stocking Cadbury, in the name of the orangutans.

Image via Treehugger

First up, hate throwing away pill bottles? I do – and ditto the capsules that 35mm film came in before we went digital. Put them all to good reuse instead.

Why are we doing all this? Why go green? Why talk it up to anyone who will listen? According to The Good Human, these are the wrong questions – because there are zero reasons not to want to go green.

At last, the practical yet painfully unhip personal shopping trolley gets a make-over. Out go the plastic, tartan-painted horrors (iconic if you’re a Brit) and in come the ethical Turtle Trolleys. Form an orderly queue.

For those of you living in climates with more sunlight than rain, one fun way to take the load off your AC bill is to line the windows with a film that blocks most of the heat and all of the UV rays. We spotted this variety via Modern Eco Homes, although that’s not a recommendation, since we haven’t tried it and the reviews are rather conflicted. Nice idea, nonetheless.

Feeling like the tide of human kindness is at a low ebb? Maybe the story of a tiny cardboard robot can convince you otherwise – and show a little of what binds people together in the big cities even when they think they’re alone.

Here’s a peek at some of the blogs we read.

For a head-scratching example of how environmental pollution gets even more messy when it hits the courts, read the mystery of the $42 Million Pesticide Dump at Treehugger. Shared blame means no blame, apparently.

Congratulations to Viva Terra – they’ve made it onto TIME’s Green Design 100.

On April 25th, Ford set their new hybrid on a journey to promote its astonishing fuel economy. Ford claimed it could manage 1,000 miles on a single tank of gas. Ford was wrong – it managed a jaw-dropping 1,445 miles. Is this the perfect PR stunt?

Watering plants is all about fine judgment. When you’re growing plants as an agricultural business, it could also be the difference between dehydrating your plants to death or killing your profits with over-watering. But modern technology has the answer – a tiny sensor that monitors if individual plants are getting just the right amount of water. Sounds like science fiction, but it’s right here at IEEE Spectrum.

Take a look at the photos in this post at designklub. Without looking at the text – how big would you say they are? You’re probably way off, because it’s the fascinating work of Christien Meindertsma, who is channeling the 16th Century Dutch cordage industry with his practical, tactile creations.

Have you heard of the Energy-Water Nexus? If not, be prepared – it’s a worry.

The latest casualty of global warming is…an Internet domain name? Like the Maldives, the islands of Tuvalu are starting to disappear into the sea, and they own the .tv domain. If they go, do their websites? No so – and frankly, I think the inhabitants are probably worrying about other things right now. Gawker via Hippyshopper.

A splash of color for you. The Boys in Blue are going green, as seen at Red Green and Blue. Got that?

Proving that modern table design is far from dormant, these three sustainably-produced tables have just graced the Modern Design Function Exhibition in San Francisco, and they’re all the work of local table guru Dylan Gold.

Why won’t the world simplify itself? Why do we fight entropy so much with our clutter and complication? I admit, I’m actually speaking about myself here – but if you struggle to simplify as well, try some of these spring-cleaning, simplifying techniques at Apartment Therapy.

Goats are eating machines. That’s why they’re proving a good green alternative to lawnmowers, with the added value of being family-friendly and almost unbearably cute. Ever-greening Google was quick to spot this – and MG Siegler from Techcrunch dropped in to see how a hired army of goats had fared with Mountain View’s variety of 4-foot brush.

We already know that dung is a deeply stylish substance – in the right context, that is. But would you believe that cattle dung will soon power L’Oreal? It’s fast becoming clear that poop – er, “biomass”- will be a superfuel of the 21st century.

We’ve talked about the problem of palm oil before. The Independent has undertaken a two-month investigation, and concludes that even more palm oil is being use than originally thought – finding it in 43 of 100 of Britain’s top grocery brands, no less.

When it comes to eco-friendly lighting, it’s nice to see America take the LEED. (You’re fired – Ed.). The latest glowing engineering feat? The Henry Miller theater in New York – the city’s first to be LEED-certified.

Josyln at Simple Lovely just drew her line in the sand. This Earth Day, she used her final paper towel. What would you – or what did you – give up this year? (We’ve given up the bottle.)

It could have become yet another Los Angeles housing development – but today, the Baldwin Hills scenic overlook offers a glimpse of the city before it was the city. One worry – it’s near what is estimated to be the largest urban oil field in the United States. See the full story at Dwell.

And lastly, if you’ve wondered what Larkyn has been up to, she’s been growing her own blog, Little Willow. A sample post: she’s helping spread the word about shoes resurrected from the basement of a Swedish clog factory.

Image: Szymon Blasczczyk