Rethinking ESG and the Energy Behind Your Produce

• The fresh produce supply chain is complex, involving farms, distribution centers, temperature-controlled logistics, and retailer delivery.
• Rising energy costs pose a major challenge for cold chain logistics and controlled environment agriculture.
• Tackling Scope 3 emissions through energy reduction, onsite renewable energy production, and purchasing renewable energy is critical.
• Logistics improvements focus on route optimization and more efficient transportation modes to reduce carbon footprints.
• ESG reporting is criticized as a snapshot that can detract from actual sustainability progress.
• IFPA is working to streamline sustainability reporting between farmers and retailers to reduce duplication and improve efficiency.
• Sustainability is a continuous improvement journey, not a fixed ESG score or report.

‍

• ‍Complexity of the Fresh Produce Supply Chain: The fresh produce supply chain spans farming, inspection, packaging, and tightly controlled cold transport, each tailored to specific crops. Its complexity and heavy energy use make sustainability both difficult and crucial.
• Energy Costs as a Central Challenge: Rising energy prices heavily affect controlled environment agriculture and cold chain logistics. Companies are responding by producing their own renewable energy and sourcing renewables to cut costs and emissions.
• ‍Three-Pillar Strategy for Energy and Emissions Reduction: IFPA members focus on three areas: improving efficiency, generating onsite renewable energy, and purchasing renewable energy. This approach targets both direct and indirect emissions, including complex Scope 3 sources.
• Improving Logistics Efficiency to Lower Carbon Footprints: Companies are optimizing transport routes and shifting to electric or efficient trucks to cut emissions. However, they have far less control over ships and planes, making Scope 3 reductions more challenging.
• Critical View of ESG Reporting: Tamara argues ESG often becomes a static, burdensome reporting exercise that drains time from real sustainability work, challenging the corporate emphasis on metrics over meaningful progress.
• ‍Streamlining Sustainability Reporting Between Stakeholders: IFPA is helping align reporting standards through groups like the Consumer Goods Forum to reduce repetitive requirements for producers and retailers, freeing time for practical sustainability efforts.
• Sustainability as a Continuous Journey: The episode stresses that sustainability is ongoing progress, not a fixed ESG score, encouraging companies to prioritize long-term improvements over short-term reporting demands.