Rosalie Salez is group sustainability officer at Greenyard, a global food group active in fresh, frozen and prepared fruit and vegetables headquartered in Belgium.
Working with The Biodiversity Shift, an It’s Now for Nature Accelerator program led by The Shift in partnership with WWF Belgium, Salez explains how Greenyard is committed to the idea that resilient nature means a resilient business.
Protecting what our business relies on
The decline in biodiversity is being felt across a wide range of business sectors, none more so than in agriculture and food production. Greenyard believes that the future of food lies in a shift to pure-plant, close-to-crop produce. While fruits and vegetables already represent the most sustainable food category on the planet, we know we aren’t exempt from having an environmental impact. That’s why we’re working to protect the very nature we rely on.
Growing fruit and vegetables is a critical, yet fragile activity. The farmers we work with are on the frontline of the nature crisis. They are only too aware of what is happening from a decline in pollinators, to droughts, wildfires and devastating floods brought on by extreme weather conditions, relentless heatwaves and climate change.
Supporting farmers on the frontline
Farmers want to know how they can become more resilient, and we have a role to play in helping them with regenerative agriculture and sustainable farming. The food industry needs to be part of the solution. We work closely with growers to test precision farming techniques and measure key indicators such as soil quality, organic matter and biodiversity, helping build more resilient farming systems. At Greenyard Frozen, AI-powered drones enable highly targeted weed control, while through our Bakker division we are involved in the Better for Nature & Farmer and Green Farming, supporting farmers in their transition to lower-carbon, biodiversity-friendly practices.
If we don’t protect nature, there will be food shortages and price hikes. Finding ways to manage this significant risk is a key part of our commitment to developing a nature strategy.
Hardwiring nature into our business strategy
We signed up to the It’s Now for Nature Accelerator to get a better idea of how we can define and influence our impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities around nature. It also gave us important insights into what was involved with frameworks such as the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), helping us decide the best path forward.
It started to give structure to our nature strategy and it helped us to find some answers and make progress around how best to integrate nature and biodiversity into our business model.
We are already very conscious of our impacts around climate change, pollution and water use, and have a number of KPIs and targets around these. For instance, we track how much of our sourcing volume comes from growers in water-stressed regions that are certified for sustainable water management. We also monitor growers’ water use and crop performance to better understand risks and support more resilient agricultural practices.
Last year we met out target to source 100% of our products from land that hasn’t been deforested; our goal now is to maintain this.
We also launched our Sustainability Roadmap 2025 that sets out how we are supporting the transition to healthier lifestyles and more sustainable food supply chains. It’s our way of contributing to feeding a growing world population while respecting the natural boundaries of our planet. Our support for the growing shift towards plant-based diets is part of this. Fruit and vegetables are among the most resource-efficient food categories, requiring less land and natural resources than many other foods, making them a key part of feeding a growing global population within the limits of our planet.
Collaborating to scale impact
Nature is a huge topic, not just in our sector but other industries too. Signing up to the Accelerator gave us a voice in this conversation and an opportunity to learn from other companies.
It was fascinating to hear a range of different perspectives and find out how other businesses are focusing on nature and the challenges they’re facing.
Biodiversity is complex and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially when thinking about how you are going to pull relevant data together from a huge, complex supply chain. But I found the program inspirational and I left every session energized and enthusiastic for the task ahead.
Although we source the majority of our products from Belgium and the Netherlands, our supply chain also reaches other European countries, especially Spain, as well as the US and South America; it’s not easy to track things.
So the way we are developing a nature strategy is to focus on our own operations first, pulling together the data that’s the most easily accessible, before moving on to our supply chain.
Spending time with like-minded people has really helped me get to grips with the topic, and realize that I just needed to get going, whether I had all the data or not. Without doubt the best way is to kick start your own nature strategy is to just go for it, and then keep on learning.
To find out more about the current series of Accelerators and sign-up now.