Fewer emissions and more health for the climate! This is the motto of Be Climate, the first climate neutral brand for fresh fruit and vegetables developed by fruit importer Port International from Hamburg. On 22nd October of last year, Be Climate was launched to the industry during Fruit Attraction.
The Belgian retail chain Delhaize was the first food retailer to incorporate Be Climate bananas in their assortment at the beginning of this year. Since then, we have been able to sell more than 6.5 million kg of bananas together, which equals approximately 5.5 million kg of compensated CO2. The supermarket customers have accepted the climate neutral brand so well that Delhaize is now stocking their shelves with more Be Climate products, expanding their climate neutral assortment. And Belgium is no longer the only sales market – Be Climate is now available at selected stores in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, too.
Transparent and sustainable: On the website consumers can follow the amount of CO2 already compensated for each product. When it comes to calculating the products’ carbon footprints, Port International puts great emphasis on the fact that they use mainly primary data.
“This way, we cannot only show the customers and consumers an emission value for their product specifically, we can also present them with a method for reducing CO₂,” says Julia Röder, Sustainability Manager at Port. All in all, more than 9 million kg CO2 have been compensated in the meantime.
Even though compensation of unavoidable CO2 is important, the main focus lies on the reduction of CO2. To achieve this, Port International puts ideas into action and sees to it that their partners along the supply chain become more sensitive to the subject. “We make a targeted selection of our business partners according to their sustainability concept; we motivate them to shape business processes in a more climate-friendly way and to take measures for climate protection,” Managing Director Mike Port states. One of the measures that Port International initiated for their own company was a bike
challenge in August 2020. The employees were motivated to make their way to work as climate-friendly as possible by leaving the car at home and commuting by bike or public transport instead.
The colleagues cycled more than 6,000 km that month and commuted more than 5,000 km by train or bus. This reduction measure and eleven more that were implemented by Port’s partners will be available on the Be Climate blog from November 2020 on.
Sustainable consumption is the preeminent topic of our time. Be Climate offers consumers an uncomplicated opportunity to make an active contribution to climate protection. For 2021, Port International plans to offer their BE CLIMATE products in more European countries, increase the volumes in existing markets, add more products to the climate neutral portfolio and, above all, continue to reduce their carbon footprint.
For more information:
Lena Serrano
Port Internatinal
Email: lena@port-international.com
www.beclimate.com
www.port-international.de/en/