2Sustain

Dole Food Company, Inc., the world’s largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables and the leading producer of organic bananas, announced that Bananito, a Dole farm located in Costa Rica, has received a ‘Plan A’ farming award from British retailer Marks & Spencer.

Earlier this year, Marks & Spencer announced plans to become the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015, and the company uses its Plan A farming award to recognize and promote farmers and growers who are taking steps to improve the sustainability of their business. This year, the application process was open for the first time to non-UK farmers.

Bananito is an 850-hectare Company-owned farm that has produced bananas since 1989, and it supplies Marks & Spencer as well as other customers. According to the Dole website, all of the 589 workers at Bananito receive at least the minimum wage, with the average being 92 percent above the minimum. Dole also provides workers with affordable housing, medical programs, education opportunities, training programs and other “social wellbeing” services. (more…)

Tyson Foods, Inc., has released its third sustainability report, titled “Rooted in Tradition. Growing Responsibly.” The report, which is only available online, highlights progress the company has made on a wide range of social, environmental and economic goals in its US operations for fiscal 2008 and 2009.

For instance, Tyson has: (more…)

Building on its agricultural roots and ongoing commitment to support the communities in which it operates, Del Monte Foods recently announced formalized environmental sustainability goals.

The company says it has heightened its focus on three specific areas: reducing waste, lowering water consumption and improving air quality.

For instance, Del Monte has committed to a 75 percent reduction in the amount of waste it sends to landfills (compared to a 2007 baseline), and the company wants to meet this goal by 2016. Both the Milk-Bone plant in Buffalo, New York, and the Del Monte Foods Distribution Center in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania are already zero-landfill facilities, meaning that 100 percent of their waste has been diverted from landfill. As a result of these and other efforts, Del Monte has reduced its waste to landfill by almost 70 percent, and so it appears the company is well on its way to achieving its goal.

In addition, Del Monte has committed to: (more…)

On Monday, ConAgra Foods, Inc., one of North America’s leading food makers, announced five aggressive sustainability goals to be achieved by 2015. Although ConAgra Foods has been involved with various sustainability initiatives since 1992, this is the first time it has set company-wide sustainability goals.

“Because our food is part of the lives of millions of consumers each day, ConAgra Foods has a critical responsibility to create positive environmental change. We can do that by making our food–such as Healthy Choice meals, Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn and Hunt’s tomatoes–in the most sustainable and efficient way possible,” says Gary Rodkin, ConAgra Foods CEO. “We’ve set these new transparent sustainability goals to ensure we are a leader in continuously improving the way we make food, and to continue to create more awareness for what others can do to improve as well.”

By  2015, ConAgra Foods plans to: (more…)

A new study by Keystone Distribution Europe found that foodservice operators and suppliers believe that the distribution industry is failing to take the sustainability agenda seriously.

According to results reported by logisticsmanager.com, 46 percent of suppliers and 36 percent of operators who participated in the study thought that many companies do not take the issue of sustainability seriously. Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of foodservice operators believe that the industry must take responsibility.

The study, “Chain Reactions,” also looked at barriers to implementing sustainability practices and found that: (more…)