FDBusiness.com

The UK’s leading supplier of fresh vegetables, Produce World, has won two awards at this year’s Waitrose Way Awards. Produce World struck gold for its entry into the Treading Lightly – Water category, and a highly commended award for its entry into the Championing British category.

To clinch the award win Produce World detailed its pioneering use of drip irrigation in the UK, which has resulted in a 40-50% reduction in water used. The highly commended award recognised the innovative work that Produce World is doing through its Soil-for-life project.

The Waitrose Way Awards celebrate suppliers’ outstanding initiatives to enhance the sustainability of their businesses and, ultimately, the food that ends up on consumers’ plates. This is the second year that these awards have taken place and winners were selected from over 150 entries.

Suppliers were invited to enter the awards under the categories of Treading lightly, Championing British, Living well and Treating people fairly – which are the four core principles of the supermarket’s CSR policy, ‘The Waitrose way’. This year, four awards for building and development suppliers were also introduced – Treading lightly for carbon, waste and water and also for an award for Responsible Development Innovation.

A panel of distinguished judges; Lord Curry of Kirkharle CBE, Dr Mark Ratnaragh, David Logan, Steve Isaia, Emma Tustain, Susan Nisbet and Paul King worked alongside senior Waitrose buyers and the retailer’s Corporate Social Responsibility team, to choose 15 winners who have gone the extra mile to demonstrate best practice.