The companies that make and distribute the things we use every day can choose to retool their operations to be more earth-friendly – even in ways we may not see in the products themselves. Greenbiz.com, one of my favorite sources of news on industry and the environment, recently ran an article on Danone, the European dairy company that also sells its products in this country.

I must admit that dairy is not earth-friendly or even animal-friendly, since the milk comes from cows whose calves have been taken away. But I also believe that incremental change is better than no change, so with an acknowledgement of that moral dilemma, here goes:

Danone developed a way to compare the environmental impacts of its own products – even if they are almost identical, with only a few differing ingredients. “Now you can understand the embedded carbon in strawberry yogurt versus banana yogurt versus strawberry-banana yogurt,” said Scott Bolick, vice president of sustainability solutions at analytical services company SAP.

Danone is incentivizing its program by linking global managers’ bonuses to their success in reducing their carbon footprints – by doing things like devising more efficient delivery routs or changing packaging.

Almost every blog post I write contains a discovery. I’d never heard of SAP before, but it is a 40-year-old global software company that helps companies “operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably.” It must be doing something right — the Environmental Protection Agency just last month gave SAP a Climate Leadership Award.

Here’s an earth-friendly thing you can do — enjoy yogurt made from soy milk!

The concept of sustainability, to some people, includes fair wages and treatment of people who work to produce our food, whether they are in this country or not. Sad to say, chocolate is among the foods produced by exploiting workers – even enslaving them. If this isn’t horrendous enough, some of those enslaved are children, especially in the West African nations of Ivory Coast and Ghana. This issue has been getting a lot of media coverage lately. Over ten years ago, American legislators crafted the Harkin-Engel Protocol, which was supposed to guarantee the wellbeing of chocolate growers, especially children. In fact, little has been done. So it’s up to us, the consumers.

You can help by buying fair trade chocolate. Greenamerica.org lists these Bay Area locations as sources of fairly traded chocolate. In San Francisco, Alter Eco and Global Exchange Fair Trade Store. In Pacifica,   Coco-Zen,   and in Petaluma  Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates.   You can also buy various sustainable and/or fair trade chocolates at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Look for brands like Divine, Theo, and Equal Exchange. Greenamerica has a handy chart grading 15 makers, with Hershey’s at the bottom.

The good news: Fair trade certifiers and producers are growing their market share. According to Greenamerica.org,  “Over 50,000 cocoa growers in eleven countries are members of Fair Trade cooperatives. Fair Trade cocoa is grown in Belize, Bolivia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Haiti, Cote D’Ivoire, Nicaragua, and Peru.”