01 July 2025
Jelle Posthuma, Environmental Specialist at Harvest House, works with the FreshProduce‑PEFCR dashboard on a daily basis.
'We make the real impact of sustainable choices visible'
“Every year, our salad growers provide us with an extensive set of data, for example on energy consumption, fertilisers and cultivation techniques. Based on this data, we calculate a score expressed as environmental impact per kilo of product. We can do this per grower, but we can also zoom in on a specific growing location or zoom out to a growing group or segment. This provides a tremendous amount of insight.”
How are these insights used?
“All of this data comes together in our FreshProduce‑PEFCR dashboard. This enables us to compare sustainability performance within our organisation and to share best practices. Growers can see very transparently in the dashboard how a colleague ‘scores’ — not to lecture anyone, but to learn from one another. Why does something work well for one grower and not for another?
We also use the FreshProduce‑PEFCR to predict the impact of specific sustainable investments, such as the use of residual heat or increased use of green electricity.”
What else do you use the dashboard for?
“We use it to closely monitor our reduction plans. This way, we know exactly whether we are on track to meet our CO₂ targets. We also measure the impact of investments and can immediately see what changes in energy profiles mean for the trend line. The dashboard gives us the flexibility to analyse data in different ways: per kilo of product, per square metre of cultivation, or at an aggregated level. We compare consumption data with impact data and analyse in detail where the environmental impact originates. For example, we can see how a biomass installation affects particulate emissions. This helps us better understand which sustainable choices truly make a difference.”
This interview previously appeared in the 2024 Sustainability Report.
