The announcement that the UK government has well and truly trumped EU carbon emissions targets is great news for the ‘green’ sector. For consumers too. And the new targets are set to open up the alternative energy market and give it a badly needed boost.

Interestingly, because industry and commerce doesn’t operate in a vacuum, the government’s new targets are also set to inject fresh interest into environmentally responsible retail. Ethical shopping has enjoyed year on year, slow but steady growth for more than a decade now. It’s big news. The ongoing, relentless ‘greening’ of consumer attitudes has brought countless fantastic new products to market. And the confectionery industry is a case in point.

One of the biggest ethical success stories in recent years has been chocolate. Fair Trade chocolate led the revolution and was adopted early and keenly by the UK’s growing band of quality chocolate lovers. They took it up with gusto. Which in turn inspired more makers to bring their ethical chocolates to market.

Once upon a time Bourneville was your only dark chocolate choice. These days there’s hundreds of mouth-watering fair trade, fair pay, organic alternatives. And they’re flying off the shelves in supermarkets and mainstream outlets as well as health food shops and specialist stores.

Take Zotter chocolate. Think of founder Josef Zotter as a green Willy Wonka and you get the picture. Spotting an ethical retail opportunity early, he launched his beautifully wrapped bars to a market that was ripe for his products. And they’ve gone from strength to strength as the Zeitgesist continues along an ever-greener route.

These days Zotter produces sixteen different bars in a range of wonderfully unusual flavours, taste sensations that simply didn’t exist before environmental responsibility made an appearance on the cultural stage. Zotter chocolate products are natural, organic, fair trade and made sustainably. And, of course, you can recycle the packaging.

Compare the market ten years ago to todays and there’s simply no contest. But it’s about much more than ethical chocolate. Changing attitudes to carbon emissions have led to change across every industry sector you can think of. Sectors as diverse as clothing, food, vehicles, gadgets, home insulation, farming and garden design. You name it.

What does the future hold for Zotter chocolate and their like? Watch this space and, provided the government sticks to its guns, we should see our green consumer choices grow in line with the new, tougher emissions targets. Today, chocolates. Tomorrow, the world!