CLIMATE NEUTRAL PRODUCTS Port International
Sustainable investment in the future The long-established Hamburg company is not only one of the pioneers of organically and according to fairtrade standards produced bananas in Germany and Europe, whose origins in the company go back more than two decades. Port International has been certified as a climate-neutral fruit supplier for more than four years now and has since been able to set decisive accents in this growing market segment. With the BE CLIMATE brand, which recently celebrated its first birthday, Port International has established a distinctive sign in the market. Bananas, strawberries, blueberries and leaf clementines as well as green asparagus are already part of the product range, which is to be expanded in the future. Fruchthandel Magazine spoke to Managing Director Mike Port about this. Michael Schotten
The amount of compensated CO2 emissions is quite impressive after just one year of BE CLIMATE. Mike Port has calculated it and illustrates it with examples: “Since the launch of the brand, no less than 10.2 million kg CO2 have been compensated. This is equivalent to almost 32 million kilometres travelled by car, 819,214 trees that bind CO2 or a 8
The Management of Port International: Mike Port with André Lüling (front left) and Philippe Peiró (front right)
good 11 million wash cycles at a temperature of 60 °C. This shows what can be achieved in a relatively short period of time,” the managing director explains. In the case of bananas alone, the company’s main product, more than 6 million kg CO2 have already been offset. After all, 750 g CO2 can be offset by buying just one kilogram of bananas. BE CLIMATE is currently supporting a forest protection project in Peru and a drinking water project in Cambodia. Port International works closely with the Munich-based company ClimatePartner to ensure that only climate protection projects worthy of support are selected and that complete transparency is guaranteed. The decision to support these projects was not difficult, tells Mike Port. For example, it is still the case that millions of Cambodians do not have access to clean drinking water. “The consequence is that the
Blueberries have been one of the key growth products in the global fresh produce business for years.
Photos: Port International
Climate protection projects
Photo: Kerstin Petermann
M
ike Port belongs to the kind of entrepreneurs who only really tackle “affairs” and make them their own if they are one hundred percent convinced of their correctness. In return, however, he puts one hundred percent commitment into his work. For Mike Port, who was already committed to social responsibility in the supply chain when the issue was barely anchored in the consciousness of politicians and the public, such an “affair” also includes climate-neutral trade and responsible use of nature and natural resources. “Climate protection is a trend that is guaranteed not to lose relevance any time soon. The issue is of fundamental importance and will occupy the whole world in the coming decades. One only has to look at the importance of climate protection within the EU’s Green Deal and the financial resources provided for in the budget. This is a political agenda that nobody can ignore. With our climate-neutral premium brand BE CLIMATE we want to do justice to this outstanding significance and offer trade and consumers a transparent and easy-to-use opportunity to actively contribute to climate protection.” Mike Port is convinced that it is crucial for the modern consumer to be able to determine quickly and easily what concrete contribution is made by buying a product. In his opinion, this is very easy with BE CLIMATE. “Via a QR code on the BE CLIMATE logos, consumers are directed to the website www.beclimate.com. Here they will find a wealth of information about our climate protection projects and other sustainability measures that we have been implementing for years. Above all, they can see in concrete terms what progress has already been made with the individual products they buy,” says Mike Port.
