Sustainability is a topic that cannot be ignored in both our private and business lives today. Environmental awareness starts with the smallest things. Separating waste, for example, or taking a shorter shower or paying attention to your energy consumption. But especially as a company you can make a major contribution to the switch to a more sustainable world in various ways. Hoogendoorn Growth Management is a company that also contributes in their own way to a more sustainable world.
At Hoogendoorn Growth Management sustainability is high on the agenda. Our solutions, for growers worldwide, are always set up in such a way that growers can use as few natural resources as possible. This is done, for example, by the precise settings of our process computer IIVO. With a minimal use of resources, we help our customers realise maximum crop yield while lowering energy costs and reducing CO2 emissions. Good for the growers wallet, but above all good for the environment. To grow more with less as we often say.
Freerk Visser, Sustainability Manager at Hoogendoorn, explains: “As a company we take responsibility for the impact of our business activities on people and on the environment. With Corporate Social Responsibility, we want to globally commit to a better society by contributing to sustainable local food production and improving and protecting the environment. This means that our sustainability strategy goes beyond our solutions for our customers alone. As a company, we also search for ways to improve on sustainability in our internal processes and other business activities.”
Hoogendoorn Growth Management has a strong commitment to sustainability by making a positive impact on the Sustainable Development Goals. The goals to which Hoogendoorn as a company gives extra attention are:
- Zero hunger
- Clean water and sanitation
- Affordable and clean energy
- Industry, innovation and infrastructure
- Sustainable cities and communities
- Responsible consumption and production
Freerk Visser explains how Hoogendoorn is now contributing to these goals: “As a company, we are already well on our way to becoming more and more sustainable. For example; We only buy exclusively certified green wind energy or CO2 compensated gas, our vehicle fleet will soon be fully electric and we also pay a lot of attention to informing our colleagues about sustainability and what they themselves can do to contribute to this. In the coming years we will continue to take steps in this area”.
Apart from our positive impact on SDG’s, Hoogendoorn uses the ESG Framework (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) to measure where we are on the path of sustainability, and to draw up and execute plans to minimise the CO2 footprint in our offices and our transportation. We combine this with the social goals like maximize employee safety, satisfaction and development, and to contribute to a safe (cybersecurity) and transparent way of doing business.
One example of our sustainability strategy is a partnership that Hoogendoorn has closed with their business travel agency, Uniglobe Alliance Travel. Uniglobe Alliance Travel offers an easy opportunity to actively offset CO2 emissions from business travel, in a climate project from the Climate Neutral Group: the Jacundá Project.
This project, located in the so called centre of ‘the lungs of the earth’ (Brazil) combats climate change by reducing deforestation and protecting biodiversity. This area is home to various threatened endemic species of flora, mammals and birds. Species of which the residents of the protected area depend upon to live. Of course Hoogendoorn will first minimize the number of flight movements by replacing physical with online meetings, non-emitted CO2 does not need compensating.
Freerk Visser is of course proud of this new step in Hoogendoorn’s sustainability strategy and the partnership with Uniglobe on this goal: “Creating a more sustainable world is a task that we must undertake together. As a company alone you can change fast, but together with other parties you can come further. A collaboration such as the one with Uniglobe is one of the many that we will enter into in the coming years. Making the world a little better together, that is what we are working for!”