Dawn Meats, Flahavans and Coffee House Lane have been given Origin Green Gold Membership. The Waterford companies were selected at a ceremony held by Bord Bia and Origin Green, following extensive auditing across a range of sustainability initiatives.
What is Origin Green?
It's Ireland's food and drink sustainability programme. It unites government, the private sector and the full supply chain from farmers to food producers and retail.
Origin Green introduced Gold Membership in 2020. It's to recognise members who perform at a high level or excel at sustainability. The new scheme has driven Irish businesses to further increase their focus on sustainability issues.
What is the criteria for Gold Membership?
To attain Origin Green Gold Membership a company must demonstrate exceptional annual performance in a number of areas. These include raw material sourcing; water and energy efficiency; waste reduction; packaging; and social sustainability. This year’s Origin Green Gold Members excelled most in the areas of energy, packaging and community engagement.
Deirdre Ryan is Director of Origin Green and Sustainable Assurance with Bord Bia
It gives me great pleasure to announce that three businesses from county Waterford have achieved Gold Member status this year. This achievement reflects that hard work of all of their teams. As we look to address the urgency of climate change and the need for sustainable development, it is excellent to see companies like these, showing leadership.
At the event, Origin Green also highlighted its progress report. Key points include:
- Sustainable beef and lamb assurance scheme (SBLAS) members recorded a 6.3% average reduction in CO2 per unit of beef
- Sustainable dairy assurance scheme (SDAS) members recorded a 6% average reduction in CO2 per unit of milk
- A subset of 400 SDAS members have decreased their average carbon footprint over three consecutive cycles of audits by 18%
Speaking at the event, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said that sustainability is at the centre of Food Vision 2030.
The commitments in the strategy are substantial, and have the potential to be transformative. Food Vision 2030 charts a way forward for all of us in the agri-food sector to deliver on its key ambition - for Ireland to become a world leader in sustainable food systems”
The Origin Green Progress Update Report 2021 is available to view here
