Commitment steady but focus shifts for environmental efforts

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Environmentally focused sustainability efforts continue to evolve for produce operators, as reduction in plastics and recyclability in packaging have grown in importance over the past five years.

More than that, the urgency to counteract climate change also has increased, some operators said.

Asked the question, “Compared with five years ago, how have your company’s sustainability efforts focused on the environment have changed?” respondents to The Packer’s survey on sustainability and the environment said their commitment to and work for the environment hasn’t changed, but the focus has shifted for some of their efforts.

“We have been growing in an environmentally sustainable method from the start; it is more recently that various audiences seem to be more ‘ripe’ for the story and our messaging,” said Helen Aquino, director of brand marketing for Village Farms, Delta, British Columbia.

Alex Teague, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Santa Paula, Calif.-based Limoneira, said growing with an environmental focus hasn’t changed in decades for the company. “It has been a focus for over 100 years.”

Today, there is a greater focus on reduction and elimination of plastic, said David Bell, chief marketing officer for greenhouse marketer Houweling’s, Camarillo, Calif.

That was seconded by Chris Ford, business development and marketing manager for Viva Tierra, Sedro-Wooley, Wash.

Sustainable packaging, including the recyclability of packaging, is a hotter topic today than compared with five years ago, said Brianna Shales, director of marketing for Stemilt Growers, Wenatchee, Wash. 
“Consumers want to understand the recyclability of the plastic packaging they purchase produce in,” she said. 

In addition, Shales said pollinator protection has also become a stronger focus for Stemilt, as the company recently became Bee Friendly Farming certified through the Pollinator Partnership. 

“To do this, we expanded the footprint of our existing pollinator habitats and certified many activities (like integrated pest management) that were already part of our farming strategy,” she said.

In Hawaii, the increasing use of solar and wind energy is notable in the past five years, said Abel Konan, economist with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

The completion of some sustainability goals has led to work on others, said Jennifer Doan, director of marketing for San Francisco-based Veritable Vegetable.

“Five years ago, we focused on improving sustainability efforts across our entire operation, such as energy reduction in our facilities, increasing the use of reusable packaging, waste management, switching our hybrid trucks to run on renewable diesel and more,” she said. 

“Now that those measures are all in place, we’re focused on making our fleet of trucks even more sustainable with all-electric technology. We also recently installed eight new electric charging stations on-site at our office for staff use.”

Urgency to act

The need for world-wide action and attention to climate change issues has amplified, said Carlos Lopez Flores, president of Chiquita Brands.

“For years, Chiquita has been working to address climate change quietly on its farms, ensuring that the best and most sustainable bananas go to global markets every day,” he said. Since 2012, he said Chiquita reduced overall farm to retail emissions by 29% through a combination of supply chain efficiency, excellence in agriculture and investing in greener technology.

“Whilst we are the first global fruit company to be validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) for our 30BY30 carbon reduction strategy, we hope others in the industry will follow our lead in the fight against climate change,” he said. 

“Our efforts continue to evolve considerably. In late 2020, two devasting hurricanes struck Honduras and Guatemala within three weeks of each other — catalyzing our operations. On the issue of climate change, we find that we cannot stay quiet any longer. To sustain our farms and ensure a future for our valued communities, we must add our voice to the demand for greater attention and action globally to limit the impact of climate change.”

Compared with five years ago, the corrugated industry is experiencing supply chain shifts with the growth of e-commerce, said Rachel Kenyon, senior vice president for the Fibre Box Association.

“As more products are delivered to consumers’ homes, the FBA is focused on efforts to encourage recycling at the residential level in order to maintain corrugated’s high (>90%) recovery rate,” she said.

For Salinas, Calif.-based Taylor Farms, there is a continued focus on renewable and alternative energy, increased pursuit of zero waste facilities and on-farm sustainability programs, said Nicole Flewell, director of sustainability for Taylor Farms.

Recycling and waste management practices have nearly cut in half Sinclair International’s municipal waste over five years, said Scott Howarth, director of research and development at the company.
Amada, Ariz.-based Wholesum is still focusing on “on-the-ground” solutions such as reforestation, erosion prevention, pollinator habitats and other initiatives. An additional focus now, she said, is measuring and analyzing for predictive analytics, decision making and goal setting.

Over the past five years, The Oppenheimer Group has made progress in its sustainability efforts with eco-friendly packaging and reducing food waste through work with Apeel Sciences, Hazel Technologies and other produce-life extension solutions, said Steve Roosdahl, vice president of operations for Vancouver, Canada-based Oppy. In addition, he said Oppy said increased its socially conscious programs by growing its sales of Fair Trade certified produce. 
Though greenhouse grower Local Bounti was founded in 2018, company-wide education on sustainability issues has increased dramatically over the past few years, said Gary Hilberg, chief sustainability officer for the Hamilton, Mont.-based company.

Solution providers

Companies who help produce operators on sustainability issues also report some changes in focus over the past five years.

“Our company was founded four years ago and since then we have found that enabling food and ag companies to operate more efficiently and improve their revenue/profits is the best way show value,” said Himanshu Gupta, CEO and co-founder of ClimateAi. 

“From there, tracking sustainability information, benchmarking sustainability performance, and ultimately helping companies achieve sustainability targets is a fairly simple, low-friction, and natural next step.”

Ryan Barton, owner of Fusionware, said the firm’s clients have enlisted Fusionware’s technology to trace their sustainability efforts, gaining insights into their impacts.

“Our efforts have become a lot more detailed and far more accurate,” said Michael Agostini, owner of Miago Produce Industry Services. 

“We started using average, sometimes dated, research for a particular crop and growing area. We’ve since migrated to using actual data point inputs from each grower to accurately calculate their true status across various environmental impacts. We moved from roughing in what a commodity looked like to getting down to specific growers and specific segments of each one’s operations within that commodity.”

Measuring carbon footprint becoming more common


 

 

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