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Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development

We respect the land and those who work it, for you today – and for your children tomorrow.

At Priméale, we didn’t wait for sustainable development to be fashionable to get involved. Several years ago we set ourselves a set of ambitious but realistic objectives. Each day we ensure our commitments are honoured to maintain the right balance between protecting the environment, social justice and economic performance

ECONOMIC ASPECTS
- Guaranteeing a range of vegetables to meet our customers’ expectations.
- Assisting our partners with their growth and long-term viability.
- Controlling risks.

- Managing growth.
- Fostering innovation.

SOCIAL ASPECTS
- Ensuring fair working conditions.
- Ensuring the fulfilment of employees.
- Providing appropriate training.

ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS
- Reducing the impact of our activities and those of our suppliers on the environment.
- Involving and working with vegetable suppliers to control production.

For more information, download our “sustainable development” report..

Démarches qualité

Protecting the Biodiversity:
practical initiatives
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Different processes are used to re-establish areas of biodiversity according to our different terroirs.

In the Manche, 12 growers have committed themselves to Agri-Environmental Measures (AEM) for Biodiversity. This applies to 600 hectares including 40 hectares defined as an Ecological Protection Zone (EPZ), established to maintain biodiversity close to the plots of land. In the Landes, floral fallow land has been set aside to encourage the long term viability of endangered bee populations, particularly so in the Aquitaine due to the presence of the Asian hornet.

On our new packaging site in Feillens, we have chosen to use the available lawn areas to plant a fruit biodiversity conservatory. 12 varieties have already been planted, with the goal of having a collection of some twenty varieties by the end of 2010, featuring 2 trees per variety. Once there are 40 or 50 varieties in the collection, the aim is to make an application to the CCVS (French Conservatory of Specialised Plant Collections).
Saving energy
What we do
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In the Landes, the hydrocooling water from the Legum’Land packing station is connected to an ultrasound system (SONOXIDE). This enabled water consumption for hydrocooling to be reduced by 58% between May and December 2009.

In Champagne, at the Méry-sur-Seine station, the potatoes are prewashed and washed using 90% recycled water. Only rinsing is carried out using water from a borehole.

On our new site in Feillens, 750 sqm of solar panels have been in operation since July 2009. The electricity produced has resulted in a CO2 emissions saving of 13.430 tonnes.

In the Val de Saône, electricity consumption for the Manziat site is managed by an economiser.
In Provence, investments have been made in low-energy lighting and sun breaks in the offices to limit the use of air conditioning.
Optimising waste management
Simple things to do
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Reducing the quantity of direct and indirect emissions is a priority.
In Provence, we have replaced the 3-flap complex (made of Kraft and polypropylene with an adhesive strip, weighing 26 g) with the Priméale cover (a polyethylene cover weighing 20 g). This amounted to packaging savings of 6.2 tonnes in 2009.
In Champagne, broken pallets are recovered to be shredded for boiler fuel; unused raw materials are composted.
Developing environmentally responsible packaging
Making our packaging from recycled plastic
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Using less: the new Priméale environmentally-friendly punnet made from recycled plastic (RPET).
This packaging, made from at least 50% recycled plastic, makes it possible to maintain the freshness and qualities of our vegetables perfectly at all times – and helps to protect the environment at the same time!

The recycled plastic used comes from consumers’ sorted refuse, currently implemented in France only for plastic bottles. In this way, we save on energy, water and non-renewable raw materials, helping to protect our planet’s natural resources (for instance, each tonne of recycled plastic (RPET) bottles enables 0.61 tonnes of crude oil to be saved – source: Valorplast).

This packaging also helps us to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon footprint of RPET is 66% lower than that of new plastic. The material accounts for 89% of the carbon footprint of a PET thermoformed package. This means that by using 50% RPET, the carbon footprint is reduced by 55%.
Our goal is to use an increasingly large proportion of recycled plastic in our punnets, and to aim for the goal of 100% as soon as suppliers make this feasible.
Pending the extension of sorting directives for plastic packaging, this punnet should be disposed of with your household refuse. Test areas are due to begin at the end of 2010.