Zeus Kiwi 1st to have EPD on kiwi

The importance of environmental management has been realized since the early days of operation of Zeus Kiwi who pioneered environmental certification in Greece. First, local environmental effects of kiwi culture were given priority as they were more easily appreciated by kiwi growers and the local community. Monitoring and continuous improvement of environmental performance with regard to local effects drove Zeus Kiwi to establish a low input type of kiwi farming.

Next step has been to examine the effects of this farming to environmental issues of more global concern, especially those related to global warming, acidification ozone depletion etc., in a ‘cradle to gate’ sense. Later, Zeus Kiwi undertook an in-depth analysis of the whole life cycle including the consumption of kiwis in the markets of its present and future interests. The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) of the International EPD System was chosen as the vehicle for communication of the results of this ‘cradle to grave’ Life Cycle Assessment to the market. The importance of EPD in the view of Zeus Kiwi is that it gives a platform to assess a broad battery of environmental impact categories, from the widely appreciated Carbon Footprint, to effects mostly important for the local environment such as water use and eutrophication. So, it is suitable to serve both, the external communication with markets of universal interests and a means to further motivate kiwi growers to do more about their attractive local landscape, which includes marvelous beaches and the famous mountain resorts of Mt Olympus.

Also, as a quantitative product metric, it enhances the efforts to further improvement of environmental performance of kiwis. This ‘new’ effort hectically started by Zeus Kiwi management team, right after the registration of its EPD on January 3rd 2012 in www.environdec.com.

The results of using EPD, are that among the energy used for the production of kiwi, 41% of CO2 emissions derives from the use of electric energy. At this point, it is meaningful to mention that fuel mixture in Greece is produced by a high percentage of lignite (46.01%). This means that in the case of lower lignite inputs, Zeus' CO2 emissions would be significantly reduced.

It is clearly understood that the energy depending on Zeus' practices ( cultivar practices, harvesting, etc.) are retained as low as possible.

For more information:
Christina Manossis
Zeus Kiwi
Greece
Tel. +30 2351 053559
Dir. Line +30 2351 045395
Fax. +30 2351 053901
Skype Christina.manossis
[email protected]
www.zeuskiwi.gr