Reprinted from May 13, 2021
Second of three parts
‘“We realized well before COVID that we needed to open up as a business, to bring the best of the outside in,’ said Pier Luigi Sigismondi, president of Dole Packaged Foods. The pandemic simply ramped up the process and made Sigismondi and his colleagues realize there was no returning to business as usual. They needed to change directions fast, which meant being a partner with innovative food-tech start-ups, academic researchers, and sustainability-minded investors.
‘“What we are aiming to do is to really build an entire ecosystem,’ Guerpillon said. Dole’s partners in this ecosystem so far include Solidaridad, an international organization focused on building fair and sustainable supply chains; Forum for the Future, which is a partner with businesses and governments to encourage sustainability; Rocana, a venture-capital firm invested in clean nutrition; and the Future Food Institute, which studies interconnected food systems and looks for ways to make healthy changes.
“Dole has set aside $2 million in its annual Sunshine For All TM Fund to spend on partners working toward its ambitious goals. ‘We are not giving away money to causes,’ Sigismondi said. ‘We are investing in impactful pilots and partnerships based on identified focus areas of our problem statement.’ Before investing in a project, Dole’s leadership team will evaluate it based on criteria related to the problem the project aims to solve, its scalability, and its potential impact.
A Holistic Approach
“Chiefly, these projects have to look at our food systems holistically, as Future Food Institute Founder Sara Roversi does. Future Food, she said, focuses on three main areas. There’s the knowledge side, which includes education and research initiatives; the community development side, so the wider public understands how to make the best food choices; and the innovation side, where new technologies developed at the Institute can come to life. Sigismondi witnessed students working on these innovations when he first met Roversi in Bologna several years ago. ‘It’s really crucial to work at every layer,’ Roversi said.”
Continued next week