Capacitación de Evaluadores de Producción de Banano Orgánico

Ciento nueve trabajadores-operarios de la Agropecuaria San Gabriel de la finca Don Pedro, en el corregimiento de Matitas, del Municipio de Riohacha y cinco evaluadores en Producción de banano orgánico recibieron sus respectivos certificados de competencia laboral.
En la sede la plantación se desarrolló el acto donde los aprendices, trabajadores de la Finca Don Pedro, cumplieron con las diferentes etapas de formación en un ambiente colaborativo, donde el SENA contó con el irrestricto apoyo de las directivas de la compañía.
Cabe destacar que esta certificación fue entregada a un representativo grupo de mujeres de la zona, que laboran en la bananera y que mostraron su interés por recibir la certificación buscando siempre realizar un trabajo responsable para contribuir con el presupuesto familiar.
Por primera vez en el departamento de La Guajira se entrega certificación por competencia laboral en este renglón de la economía, constituyéndose los aprendices en alternativas para nuevos proyectos de banano orgánico que se tienen previstos para la región. A la fecha, con la llegada de la bananera se ha reactivado la económica de la zona y centenares de residentes en poblaciones como Matitas, Choles, Anaime y Tigreras cuentan hoy con un empleo, que además les ha dado la oportunidad de formarse en el SENA y mejorar sus competencias y calidad de vida.
Para José Ferreira, Gerente Administrador de la Finca Don Pedro, este es un logro que se obtuvo gracias al Sena, pues hace tres años cuando la empresa llegó no contaban con mano de obra residente en estas poblaciones, calificada para este oficio. “Hoy, dijo Ferreira, los nativos de la región pueden mostrar su competitividad y motivar a otros a que mejoren cada día sus competencias, porque la proyección es que los 230 trabajadores de la bananera San Pedro estén certificados por el Sena el próximo año”.

Link: http://el-informador.com/detgua.php?id=42349

Time to plant trees!

Dole Organic Program is encouraging the communities to join the Company effort to become Carbon Neutral by reducing the CO2 emissions and compensate them by planting trees.

After a very successful tree planting campaign on June 5th, Environment Day, where more than 10.000 trees were planted at DOLE Organic Farms in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras and Costa Rica; people is still excited with this initiative and willing to be part of it.

Last week, at ECOPIÑAS del ARENAL, S.A., an Organic Certified Pineapple Farm owned by DOLE in Bella Vista de Cutris, 200 Kms north of San José in Costa Rica, we received the visit of Red Cross Volunteers from Ciudad Quesada (main city in northern Costa Rica).

These Red Cross Volunteers participated in an “on farm” training course about Organic Agriculture, Soil Conservation, Environmental Protection and Carbon Compensation as well as in a planting more than 500 trees in our organic certified farm.

We want to thank these brave teens for joining us in our effort to reduce our Environmental Footprint.

Dole Food Company, Inc. Named to “World’s Most Ethical Companies” List by Ethisphere Magazine

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dole Food Company, Inc. was named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for a second year in a row by Ethisphere Magazine, a national publication. Ethisphere is a think-tank dedicated to the research and promotion of profitable best practices in global governance, business ethics, compliance and corporate responsibility. The award was revealed at the Ethisphere and Forbes joint-conference, “Driving Profit through Ethical Leadership,” held on June 3rd.
“It is an honor to once again receive this designation from Ethisphere Magazine,” said David DeLorenzo, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dole Food Company. He added, “Dole’s core values are based on corporate ethics and social responsibility. Our employees and business associates are our company and their own ethics empowers the cultural environment and spirit in which we operate.”
Researchers and analysts reviewed several thousand companies in order to determine the finalists, which included a rigorous, multi-step evaluation process. The 2008 World’s Most Ethical Companies methodology committee is comprised of leading attorneys and government officials, professors and leaders who care about ethical and honest business practices.
The extensive research process included reviewing over 10,000 of the world’s leading companies on six continents. Ethisphere analysts reviewed codes of ethics, litigation and regulatory infraction histories; evaluated investment in innovation and sustainable business practices; looked at companies’ activities to improve corporate citizenship; studied nominations from senior executives, industry peers, suppliers and customers; and worked with consumer action groups for feedback and rating.
About Dole Food Company, Inc.
Dole Food Company, Inc., with 2007 revenues of $6.9 billion, is the world's largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and fresh-cut flowers. Dole markets a growing line of packaged foods and frozen fruit and is a produce industry leader in nutrition education and research. For more information on the company’s CSR efforts, go to dole.com.
About the Ethisphere Council
The Ethisphere Council was created in 2006 by Corpedia, a leader in risk assessment and eLearning for ethics and compliance, the Practising Law Institute, a non-profit organization committed to enhancing the professionalism of attorneys and others and LexisNexis, a leading provider of comprehensive information and business solutions; and Formed with support from such leading corporations as Deutsche Telekom, Time Warner, Dresser Industries, Avaya and Kraft, the council is dedicated to the research, creation, and sharing of best practices in ethics, compliance, and corporate governance among its membership companies. It also focuses on the development and advancement of its members through increased efficiency, innovation, tools, mentoring, advice, and unique career opportunities. More information on membership can be found at http://www.ethisphere.com/.

Ranking
Ethical leadership can and should be profitable. through recognizing companies that pursue an ethical leadership model, the Ethisphere Institute both rewards such behavior and motivates winners and other companies to strive for future recognition.

2007 World's Most Ethical Companies

Dole has been elected as one of the 2007 World's Most Ethical Companies

Ethisphere Magazine recognizes and rewards ethical leadership and business practices worldwide.

The winners of the World’s Most Ethical Companies are the standouts. Each forces other companies to follow its leadership or fall behind. Each uses ethical leadership as a profit driver.
Ethics are absolute. Business ethics are relational. And ethical leadership requires a position of influence.
What does that mean? Certainly there are absolutes to business ethics, such as respecting employees and stakeholders, competing fairly and within the law, and being a responsible corporate citizen.
Companies routinely compete for recognition for their “corporate citizenship” or “best place to work” award. And predictably, a select few pharmaceutical companies, a handful of consulting and high-tech firms, and a couple of retailers appear near the top of the list.
The absolutes are the necessary grounding for a company to have strong core values to build upon. The context is the environment in which a company operates, both geographically as well as industrially.
The best lens through which to view a company’s ethical leadership behavior is to examine a company compared to other companies in the same industry. Are they leading, are they following, or are they ignoring? And to be a leader, the company needs to have or build a competitive edge, such as size or technology, which allows it to be influential.
In assembling the 2007 rankings of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, the researchers and editors of Ethisphere examined more than 5,000 companies across 30 separate industries looking for true ethical leadership.
We looked for absolutes. We examined companies in relational context of their industries. And we looked for influential leadership that moved others to change or follow.
Companies were measured in a rigorous eight-step process and then scored against nine distinct ethical leadership criteria.

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Dole was the only one Fresh Fruit, Vegetables and Flowers company ranked by Ethisphere Magazine.
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As part of the 2007 Word’s Most Ethical Companies analysis, Ethisphere Council researchers interviewed dozens and dozens of companies in great depth about their compliance and ethics activities. This included talking to “both” CEOs (the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Ethics Officer) in most cases. Following are some excerpts and reports from selected companies that we found particularly worth highlighting.

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The winners of the World’s Most Ethical Companies are the standouts. Each of these companies has materially higher scores versus competitors in their industries. Each forces other companies to follow its leadership or fall behind. Each uses ethical leadership as a profit driver. And each of these companies embodies the true spirit of Ethisphere’s credo: Good. Smart. Business. Profit.

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View the complete article at: http://www.ethisphere.com/Ethisphere_Magazine_0207/WME-2007-Q2

Dole Organic Website: building the link between the farm and the organic consumer

In February 2007, Dole Organic Program launched its website doleorganic.com with the objective to approach the organic consumer to the origin of the product.
Three months later, this initiative has been accepted as a great idea and as something that should be replicated.
Dole Organic Program will launch its BETA version of doleorganic.com very soon. The new version will include many of the suggestions received including the feedbacks and comments left on the contact e-mail and those published on blogs and websites.

Dole Organic Program is committed with the transparency and the building of a new relationship with Dole consumers.

This is just the beggining.

Regards,
Dole Organic.

Here they are some comments about the website: doleorganic.com

Chews Wise by Samuel Fromartz: The Transparent Banana?
" Dole revealed a shape of things to come in the food market - Transparency! - by allowing customers to see where their bananas come from."

Groovy Green by Steve Balogh: The Transparent Banana? "... transparency is beginning to show up in the grocery store. What a great concept."

Digital Media Wire by Rohit Bhargava: Dole´s Organic Bananas and the Importance of Backstories "...the effort represents a great example of new thinking that product marketers are using to capitalize on the global trend towards ethical consumerism..."

American Feast´s Sustainable Food Blog by Tim Tango: Look up your Food Online "... This is an ingenious use of the Internet and one that should be replicated..."

Typepad by Amelia Torode: Talking Green Bananas "...it's a really smart piece of creative thinking... educated consumers are still looking for "the story behind..."

"I am fascinated by the Dole Organics story - on their site they are picking up on blog posts and consumer comments about this initiative. I think that this is a great case study of who to use the web to a smart, positive effect."

chroma by Dino Demopoulos: Transmedia Bananas "...it's pretty smart. And it gives you an excuse to use the phrase "transmedia bananas".

Treehugger by Kara DiCamillo: Do you know where your banana has been? "We find this a very interesting concept that seems extremely beneficial for consumers."