Our Goals
Reliable raw material suppliers from all over the world are an essential prerequisite for optimum product quality. Therefore, we work exclusively with certified suppliers, most of whom have been working with us for many years. All of our suppliers are members of the SGF, a control system established for the fruit-juice industry which conducts annual audits. We have also defined the following goals regarding sustainability as it pertains to raw materials:
- To maintain transparency with respect to efforts to promote sustainability undertaken by all relevant suppliers and our most important logistics partners
- To cooperate with our suppliers in the process of ensuring sustainable development
What we've achieved already
We set high standards for sustainability – not only for our organization and its employees, but for our suppliers and other business partners as well. All relevant suppliers (of which there are more than 100) are audited with respect to aspects of sustainability by the independent EcoVadis Institute. The experts considered a total of 21 criteria relating to the aspects of environmental and social policies, ethics and the value chain. For the purposes of analysis and evaluation, EcoVadis relies on documents provided by the organizations themselves as well as information from other reliable sources, including NGOs and trade unions. On the basis of the results obtained, Eckes-Granini conducts systematic discussions with suppliers for the purpose of initiating further improvements. This approach has proven effective in the past, and many processes have been progressively optimized.
We also undergo these demanding evaluations on a regular basis. The Eckes-Granini Group earned an outstanding rating in the last audit, and now ranks among the top 5 percent of audited enterprises.
Eckes-Granini supports the industry-wide sustainability initiatives of the European Fruit Juice Association (AIJN), which are focused on orange cultivation in Brazil. The task group responsible for the matter of orange cultivation in Brazil is devoted to bringing about improvements for small farmers, in particular.
We also joined the Sustainable Juice Covenant, a global initiative coordinated by the Sustainable Trade Initiative IDH, in February 2019. As members, Eckes-Granini and other international firms are dedicated to the goal of continuously increasing the relative share of sustainable juices and smoothies to 100% by the year 2030.
Follow the way from the tree to the bottle: » read more
What we're working on
- Continuation of the regular evaluations of our suppliers and logistics partners and discussions with customers focused on potential improvements in the area of sustainability
- Elimination of firms that earn poor performance ratings and show no evidence of improvement from our supplier portfolio
- Ongoing involvement in the activities of the AIJN CSR Task Group
- Increasing the relative share of sustainable juices and smoothies
