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'We make the real impact of sustainable choices visible'

01 July 2025

Jelle Posthuma, Environmental Specialist at Harvest House, works with the FreshProduce-PEFCR dashboard on a daily basis: "Every year, our growers supply us with an extensive set of data, for example on energy consumption, fertilisers and cultivation techniques. With that data, we calculate a score, expressed in environmental impact per kilo of product. We can do that per grower, but we can also zoom in on a specific growing location or zoom out to a growing group or segment. That gives an awful lot of insight."

How are those insights used?

"All that data comes together in our FreshProducePEFCR dashboard. This allows us to compare sustainability performance among ourselves and share best practices. Growers see in the dashboard very transparently how a colleague 'scores'. Not to lecture anyone, but to learn from each other. Why does something work for one and not the other? We can also use the FreshProducePEFCR to predict the effect of certain sustainable investments. Think of using residual heat or more green electricity.

What else do you guys use the dashboard for?

"We use it to closely monitor our reduction plans. That way we know exactly whether we are on track to meet our CO₂ targets. We also measure the effect of investments and see immediately what changing energy profiles do in the trend line. The dashboard gives us the flexibility to look at the data in different ways: per kilo of product, per square metre of cultivation, or just at total level. We compare consumption figures with impact figures and analyse in detail exactly where the environmental impact comes from. For example, we see how a biomass plant affects particulate emissions. That helps us better understand which sustainable choices really make a difference."

This interview previously appeared in the 2024 Sustainability Report.

More on Sustainability at Harvest House