Del Monte Fresh Produce Gains Carbon Neutrality Certification
CORAL GABLES, FL - Del Monte Fresh Produce has announced its Costa Rica banana operations (33 farms and 41 packing houses, totaling 10.653 hectares/26,324 acres) have achieved Carbon Neutrality certification by SCS earlier this year. The company also reported it will continue working with Reforestation/Conservation Programs in all its farming operations worldwide.
Hans Sauter, Vice President Corporate Research & Development and Agricultural Services of Del Monte said, "We are very excited that our banana operations in Costa Rica achieved Carbon Neutrality status and were certified under these very stringent standards. With these satisfying results, we are now looking into replicating this experience in other operations."
The Carbon Neutrality certification obtained covers the entire custody chain from Del Monte banana farms up to the loading port in Costa Rica. Greenhouse Gas emission audits were conducted by SCS Global Services and were based on the following four, widely accepted, standards:
- World Resources Institute’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Revised Edition)
- Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard: Supplement to the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
- Draft Costa Rican Standard 2013 “Metodología para la Cuantificación y Verificación de Remociones Forestales – Borrador”
- SCS’ Carbon Neutrality Requirements (a proprietary standard by SCS Global Services), June 2014
"This certification validates the effectiveness of our environmental sustainability efforts and it comes on the heels of our recent Sustainably Grown certification by SCS of our banana and pineapple operations both in Costa Rica and Guatemala," continued Sauter.
Del Monte Fresh Produce is also continuing to invest resources in maintaining nature reserves as well as planting trees in its operations worldwide. It is estimated that by the end of 2015, a total of 7,578 hectares (18,725 acres or 75.8 Million m²) will be under protected status or reforested. According to a press release, this is in addition to the thousands of trees, many of them local species, which are donated every year to the schools and employees in communities where the company operates.
