Views
7 years ago

The Partnership no. 9

  • Text
  • Enza
  • Partnership
  • Zaden
  • Varieties
  • Consumers
  • Herbs
  • Breeding
  • Cultivation
  • Organic
  • Crops

CSR CSR in North America

CSR CSR in North America “Our employees are proud to be part of a team that cares about the environment and the community” The Enza Zaden North America office has received the 2015 Curbee Award from the City of Salinas. From left to right: John Barrientos, Warehouse Technician, Annajane Lowe, Financial Manager, Ton van der Velden, Regional Sales Director. The time of widespread resource usage without any accountability has gone. Socially responsible companies choose increasingly more to invest in green technologies and to develop alternative resources. In this era companies around the world are expected to take responsibility on how they influence the environment. “What we’d like to achieve is that our influence on the environment is as positive as possible,” says Leoniek Verhage, CSR Officer at Enza Zaden in Enkhuizen. “While doing business we take people and our planet into account. This ambition has been translated into our corporate CSR targets focusing on improving the health and well-being of people by providing the world with healthy vegetables, reducing the environmental impact, and improving the living standards of people.” CSR North America The CSR trend is also very visible in North America, where companies form strategic and tactical teams to execute their plans. A few years ago, CSR started really small at the North American office, comprising of Canada, USA and Mexico. The efforts then consisted mainly of a few small initiatives, such as waste reduction and school volunteer projects in Salinas (California) and Culiacan (Mexico). However, Ton van der Velden, CEO of Enza Zaden North America has seen the importance of and the attention for CSR grown tremendously over the last two years. This office too has established a strategic CSR team and a number of tactical teams that implement the goals like waste audits, recycling and building projects. Van der Velden: “CSR is gaining importance within our company. We see that, as Enza Zaden is becoming bigger and bigger, we have a responsibility to our community to be a good citizen. Moreover, our employees are extremely proud to be part of a team that cares about the environment, the climate and our neighbors.” The broad focus of this company has resulted in numerous projects, such as supporting community schools with gardens and lectures and organizations that promote education to students. By doing so, kids at schools are taught how to grow vegetables for instance. Van der Velden: “We feel that these projects are related to the agricultural or seed industry, and we feel that there is an immediate impact on the environment and on people.” Reducing environmental impact The last few years, special attention has been given to reduce the environmental impact. In fact, the North American office is leading in its region when it comes to limiting carbon footprint. Energy efficient new buildings in San Juan Bautista (California), Myakka (Florida) and Salinas (California) have been built recently. The buildings in California and Florida have even received the certification for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), a green building certification programme that recognizes best building strategies and practices. The buildings have been built with environmentally friendly materials, they are energy efficient, contain all the run-off water and they produce as little greenhouse gasses as possible. “This is also what is required to get the certification. It has been quite challenging to meet the expenses and comply to the rules and regulations that LEED certification brings with it. We have solved these issues by getting good advice before the construction started, by installing good solar panels, and by making good plans that shows a decent Return on Investment. This has made the decision to go for LEED also a financially sound decision.” Waste management Diminish waste; separating it for recycling and reusing it wherever possible is an important goal in reducing our environmental impact. After all, recycled valuable material becomes available again and no new materials have to be used. Waste management may not be unique in North America, but it certainly is not common practice yet either. Van der Velden is proud that his office is ahead of the curve and recently received a reward from the city of Salinas for its efforts. “In 2014, a waste management task force was created to spearhead policies and practices to reduce our waste production and bring awareness within our organization. Our head office in Salinas was the first location to have a formal waste management assessment by BFI, the local waste company, to develop a baseline of our practices and as a measurable from which to improve. BFI identified that we had the opportunity to reduce our waste by sixty percent through enhanced recycling and composting efforts as well as alternative packaging. This year, we have also assessed our other locations in North America, and we are exploring opportunities for biological waste management and composting our food and seed waste.” Organic What is to be expected for the near future? According to Van der Velden there is still enough to be achieved. His company is the regional leader in organic seed sales. “Fifteen percent of our total sales now exist of sales of organic seeds. We are certified in all our locations to handle organically produced seeds and are in the process of certifying a parcel of land at all three of our research stations. We promote sustainable agricultural systems, through the attendance and support of symposiums and of course by providing organic seeds of superior genetics. The next steps will be to demonstrate novel technologies and optimizing practices for sustainable and organic agriculture.” Future The future holds some more serious CSR plans for the North American subsidiary. They range from promoting volunteer activities to food donations, and from stepping up the waste reduction and recycling efforts to providing basic health check-ups to contract labour employees in Mexico. “And we have a great initiative at Enza Zaden Mexico underway: Corredores con causa, a running event to support cancer research. I expect Corporate Social Responsibility to become a way of life with more and more activity and involvement from employees. Another good reason to be proud to be working for Enza Zaden.” The Partnership | 23

Enza Zaden Brochures