Dole Food Company, Inc. Celebrates Earth Day by Announcing Its Partnership with the Water Footprint Network

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dole Food Company, Inc. announced today (Earth Day) that it has joined the Water Footprint Network.

The Water Footprint Network (WFN) is a global partner network bringing together knowledge institutions, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and representatives from the private sector. Its mission is to promote the sustainable, fair and efficient use of fresh water resources worldwide.

“For several years already, Dole has been studying, developing and implementing tools and practices to control and reduce its water consumption throughout its value chain. For example, many of Dole's farms and packing houses have already implemented drip irrigation and water recycling systems, which contribute to a significant reduction in the consumption of water,” said Sylvain Cuperlier, Vice President, Director of Worldwide Corporate Social Responsibility at Dole.

The Water Footprint of a company is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the company's goods.

Roberto Vega, Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility at Dole and leader of the company’s Carbon Footprint project added, “The access to and use of freshwater is already a challenge in many countries. The impact of Global Warming may make this challenge even more difficult to take up in a near future. Dole is already actively involved in addressing the issue of Carbon Footprint. Our partnership with the Water Footprint Network will allow us to work a step forward in order to better measure and reduce our overall environmental footprint.”

Dole Food Company, Inc., with 2008 revenues of $7.6 billion, is the world's largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Dole also markets a growing line of packaged and frozen foods, and is a produce industry leader in nutrition education and research. For more information on the company's CSR efforts, please visit www.dolecsr.com.

For more information on the Water Footprint Network please visit www.waterfootprint.org.