Companies are touting sustainability efforts every which way — berry-focused companies included.
After all, consumers are opting for companies that share these values.
Driscoll’s, Watsonville, Calif., joined The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment to prioritize packaging solutions that protect fresh berries while minimizing environmental impact.
This commitment is led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with the United Nation’s Environment Program, uniting more than 500 signatories, according to a news release.
The shared vision is of a circular economy for plastic, in which plastics stay in the economy and out of the environment.
“We have the opportunity to collaborate with many of the world’s leading brands throughout the journey to sustainable packaging in order to achieve scalable and economically viable solutions,” J. Miles Reiter, Driscoll’s chairman and CEO, said in the release.
As a signatory, Driscoll’s by 2025 will take action to:
- Eliminate problematic or unnecessary packaging;
- Move from single-use toward reuse models where relevant;
- Achieve 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable; and
- Set an ambitious 2025 recycled content target across all plastic packaging used.
Watsonville-based California Giant Berry Farms’ sustainability standards include agriculture practices that cover environmental, social, economic and business transparency.
“As stewards of the land, we are extremely proud of the hard work our growers have put into their sustainable efforts. In fact, our strategic grower-partner, Satsuma Farms, who grows on California Giant-owned land, became the first Sustainably Grown Certified strawberry operation in the world last year, and now we have two additional farms well on their way to achieving this same certification by the fall,” Eric Valenzuela, director of food safety and sustainability, said in a news release.
Many of the company’s blueberry fields are Bee Better Certified, which acknowledges a commitment to keep pollinator habitats safe while encouraging healthy populations.
The company has also set a goal to make its headquarters zero-waste certified.
“Doing so meant that the building had to achieve a minimum 90% diversion rate for solid, non-hazardous waste away from landfill. Our TRUE Gold for Zero Waste certificate validates our efforts and will keep us all accountable as we set our sights on Platinum,” he said in the release.
California Giant is also investigating how to modify its packaging without compromising the berries, like using lower-weight corrugate and resin, and converting from paper to BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene) for improved recyclability of the clamshell.
The company is a member of How2Recycle and will soon be including the program’s communication on the clamshell’s label.
