Summary
The German food retailer EDEKA has partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to achieve its environmental goals, including applying the AWS Standard to drive good water stewardship practices. As part of this commitment, the partners decided to work with Dole Food Company, a key supplier to EDEKA, to implement the AWS Standard on privately owned banana farms in Colombia managed by CI Técnicas Baltime de Colombia S.A (Tecbaco). The farms are located in an area where high water demand from agriculture is causing pressure on water resources in the region. Due to the size of the operations, each farm is the source of hundreds of local jobs. The farms are under the same management (Tecbaco) and worked together to achieve AWS Group Certification. It is the first AWS Group Certification in the world, making it a particularly exciting achievement for all involved. The farms are also the first sites in Colombia to achieve AWS certification, making them leaders in water stewardship.