SVZ triumphs in inaugural EcoVadis Sustainability Awards

Premium fruit and vegetable ingredients supplier, SVZ, has been crowned ‘best CSR performer’ in the food and beverage category at the first EcoVadis Sustainability Leaders Awards. Celebrating excellence in sustainability practices across the world, the awards ranked SVZ as the strongest performing company in the category.

SVZ won the accolade for its efforts in four areas: environment, labour practices, fair business practices and sustainable procurement. The company scored highly for its sustainability standards across diverse criteria, such as energy consumption, working conditions and sustainable agricultural practices across its supply chains, among others. The award win follows SVZ’s coveted EcoVadis Gold rating for excellence in sustainability in 2016, meaning it ranks in the top two percent of all businesses evaluated.

Jobien Laurijssen, sustainability manager at SVZ, comments, “We’re delighted to have been recognised by EcoVadis in the Sustainability Leaders Awards. Sustainability is absolutely integral to our business, and our initiatives to date have proved very successful, including our farmer training programme – helping to implement best practice and maximise sustainability. Maintaining an efficient supply chain means that every member of SVZ and its network of growers is continually looking to improve environmental performance while working to the highest quality and safety standards.

“From processing at source to reducing pesticide use and supporting water management programmes, we will continue this positive work for many more years to come, to not only benefit our employees and local communities, but further afield, too.”

Constantly working to improve its sustainable agricultural principles, SVZ joined farmed-owned co-operative Royal Cosun in 1986 and is committed to a wide range of successful CSR initiatives to maximise positive value creation in its supply chains. In 2010, the company set a target to reduce energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2020 across all its operations. SVZ also outlined its new structured CSR programme in 2014, built around the core pillars of sustainable agriculture, efficient operations and valuing people.