All aboard! Your passport to a sustainable food journey
Why do we need an affordable and sustainable food system? It’s possibly the food and beverage industry’s biggest challenge in the face of concerns around farmers’ needs, energy and water efficiency, climate change, and more. Most importantly, delivering healthy, delicious, nutritious, and—above all—affordable food is critical to ensuring a sustainable future for all.
That’s why sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at SVZ. What’s more, our 150-year heritage across the supply chain has taught us that truly sustainable food production must go far beyond the farm. In fact, we’re making strides across three core areas: agriculture, operations, and people. To clearly demonstrate our longstanding commitment to sustainability, we also wanted to make each of our current sustainable initiatives easily accessible to all.
Introducing the SVZ Sustainability Passport: a comprehensive document that highlights our sustainability accomplishments and challenges over the past three years in a single, handy guide. This resource reflects our ongoing sustainability journey across all our sites, providing a clear overview of our initiatives and progress.
Curious about how we harness our agronomy expertise to protect vital ecosystems? Or our strategies and practices to providing traceable, reliable, and ethically produced products for your consumers to enjoy? Read on to get inspired with new ways and partnerships to empower your sustainability journey in the SVZ Sustainability Passport.
Agronomy for all
First, we dive into the ways we serve farmers and shape future-ready food systems through sustainable agriculture practices across our partner farms and processing facilities in Europe. To source high-quality fruit and vegetables while supporting our growers, our in-house team of expert agronomists work in the fields across our partner farms in Poland and Spain to provide year-round essential advice and support.
We also strive to increase the share of sustainably grown fruit and vegetables supplied to us by supporting our Polish growers during their annual SAI FSA Sustainable Agriculture Certification. You can also ‘meet’ the people who cultivate fruit and vegetables that nourish both body and soul —through stories of Poland-based Ukrainian female farmer Nadija and experienced, life-long farmer Piotr. Plus, discover how we’re working to boost biodiversity, test alternative mulching materials, promote soil disinfection and health programs, and provide support for growers.
Better, greener and more efficient ways of working
From washing and sorting to freezing and packaging, many of our operations are inherently energy- and water- intensive. To show the food industry a path forward to a more sustainable, waste-free future, we think outside the box for innovative solutions while applying a continuous improvement approach to run our processing plants around Europe.
For example, find out how we upcycle fruits and vegetables that aren’t ‘pretty’ enough for supermarket aisles but make perfectly delicious concentrates and purees, or even help fuel biogas plants. Explore our approaches to step up our efficiency ambitions with a renewed focus on energy conservation in 2022, and cut energy consumption, lower emissions, reuse water, and more.
People: The heart and soul of our business
Most importantly, we believe that building a better, more responsible food industry for the future involves honouring our responsibility to the natural world, along with people and their needs. That’s why we work hard to ensure that every person—from grower and picker to driver and distributor—is treated with respect, compassion, and equality.
For example, our ethical sourcing practices are designed to support the well-being of temporary or seasonal farm workers, who play a pivotal role during peak farming periods. You can also learn about our diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and advancements toward safe, discrimination-free workplaces. Think training initiatives in Spain to nurture mindsets, motivation, and skills to flourish, or production optimization in Belgium and Poland to deliver zero breakdowns, zero defects, and zero accidents.
A better tomorrow for everyone
Laying this foundation for positive sector-wide change is just the beginning. We’re committed to leverage our strategic positioning right at the heart of the supply chain to make a real difference. Are you ready to check in for your journey to the future of sustainable food systems too? Download the SVZ Sustainability Passport here today.
