Sustainable Agriculture
Agriculture is the base and the future of our business. A Sustainable Agricultural supply chain is critical and a great challenge for us in ASPIS.
Sustainable Agriculture allows us to produce and enjoy healthy foods without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. We manage today's resources so that they can also be available in the future. The key is finding the right balance between the need of food production and the preservation of environmental ecosystems. Sustainable agriculture also promotes economic stability for farmers and helps them to improve their quality of life.
Sustainable Agriculture intergates three main goals:
Environmental Health - Economic Profitability - Social Equity
Our aim is to help farmers to work and meet their goals towards Sustainable Agriculture, with the most notable benefits to be the reduce of their reliance on nonrenewable energy, reduce chemical use, save scarce resources and keep the land healthy.
The implementation of sustainable farm practises will Protect, Preserve and Improve the quality of Water, Air and Soil and the abundance of biodiversity and the landscapes. For this reason, at the beginning of 2019, the company proceeded to design, develop and implement a certification program for fruit producer groups / associates in both regions of activity, with internationally recognized standards, such as GLOBAL GAP. GRASP, FSA, AGRO, etc.
All our fruit suppliers are required to meet our Sustainable Agriculture Guiding Principles, where we communicate our values and expectations from our fruit suppliers and provide the framework and quidance on the implementation and the verification of the Sustainable Agricilture Practises.
BEe Project
ASPIS S.A., in collaboration with producer groups, cooperatives, scientific bodies, beekeepers and agricultural consultants, implements the program titled “BEe project 2018”.
The programme concerns the investigation, description and implementation of actions aimed at protecting, preserving and enhancing the health of bees in the Imathia region.
The cooperation programme “ΒEe project 2018” started in October 2018, following the initiative of ASPIS S.A., in the framework of the implementation of the Corporate Social Responsibility program of the company and in particular the Sustainable Development and Supply of Raw Materials.
As part of the activities, the electronic information portal www.beeproject.gr has been created and in February 2019, the 1st seminar of the programme was successfully implemented.
Sustainable Procurement
Sustainability is embedded across every function, including procurement. We recognize that improving our procurement performance is an ongoing process and that our suppliers, both large and small, are important partners in our journey to become more sustainable.
We do not simply buy products and services from suppliers. We respect their corporate culture, their growth and their employees. We support their development through a process that includes constructive dialog and joint effort.
The majority of our purchases are made with local suppliers who have been working with us for at least 10 years and in some cases for several decades.
As we have a deep concern for sustainability issues, we want our suppliers to share the same values and expect them to meet the same standards for ethics, labor rights, health and safety, and environment that we set for ourselves.
Sustainability is one of the main criteria we use to assess our suppliers. In order to ensure that the our suppliers are supportive of our approach, we request their confirmation to ASPIS Supplier Guiding Principles.