Fresh Del Monte Produce Announced Its Partnership With SBTi

The American producer and distributor of fresh and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, Fresh Del Monte Produce Incorporated has announced that it has joined the SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative).

SBT Added a Major Partner to Their Initiative

The SBTi aims to realize ambitious climate change action in the private sector by helping companies set up science-based emissions reduction targets. Fresh Del Monte Produce became the first major marketer of fruits and vegetables to commit to working with the initiative in an effort to lower its carbon footprint.

This partnership only confirms the company’s dedication to implementing sound, science-based practices that will enable it to run its global operations sustainably. Furthermore, it reaffirms Fresh Del Monte’s status as one of the leading enterprises in the produce industry.

Fresh Del Monte Has Been Advocating for Climate Action for Years

Fresh Del Monte Produce will work with the Science Based Targets initiative to develop a strategy that will allow it to effectively reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. While this partnership is new, it isn’t the company’s first commitment to running a more environmentally-friendly operation. In fact, setting ambitious climate goals has been part of Fresh Del Monte’s philosophy for quite a while.

In 2015, the CSC Globe Services certified its banana-growing operation as Carbon Neutral. Since then, the company has continued to expand its program. Today, all bananas, as well as 74% of all pineapples, grown by Fresh Del Monte in Costa Rica are sourced from Carbon Neutral Farms.

As climate action is a major ongoing part of the company’s ethos, Fresh Del Monte released a 2018-2019 Corporate Sustainability Report. The document contained important data about their effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It also presented their project of developing and launching an Environmental Action Tool and database to track the company’s harmful emissions.

More recently, Fresh Del Monte Produce acquired six fuel-efficient vessels, two of which were put in exploitation in 2020 and are expected to result in a 10% reduction in Scope 1 CO2e emissions.

SBTi can only hope that their partnership with Fresh Del Monte will prompt other major enterprises to join their mission of creating a better future.