Moves toward zero-waste goal as repurposed pineapple leaves find a way to global lifestyle brands
The Dole Sunshine Company has partnered with Ananas Anam, the London-based company behind Piñatex. Piñatex is an innovative, vegan and natural alternative to leather, made from sustainably sourced pineapple leaf fibres.
Dole, which launched its six-prong Promise in June 2020, is committed to making an immediate and lasting impact when it comes to food waste, eliminating processed sugar and plastics, and improving nutrition access globally. In addition to its partnership with Ananas Anam, Dole is working towards a more circular economy and finding new packaging solutions for its products to reduce not only food waste but plastics overall.
“At Dole, we believe purpose – and therefore our Promise – must permeate everything we do to address these global challenges head-on. Addressing food waste is important to us, as it is connected to our business and our lives in so many ways,” said Pier-Luigi Sigismondi, Global President, Dole Sunshine Company. “I believe to create tangible solutions and real systemic change to address this issue, we need to converge our purpose with creativity, innovation, and technology. Our partnership with Ananas Anam coupled with global lifestyle brands’ use of this innovation truly bring this convergence to life in a new way.”
Through this partnership, Ananas Anam’s Piñatex is made of fibre extracted from Dole’s harvested pineapple plant leaves, which when dried and processed create a non-woven mesh to form the base of the sustainable material. The use of the pineapple leaf fibre also presents the opportunity to build a scalable commercial industry for developing farming communities and livelihood improvement for small scale cooperatives/growers.
“At Ananas Anam, we aim at meeting the challenges of our times by developing innovative products in which commercial success is integrated, and promotes social, ecological and cultural development. By connecting on a deep level with the people we work with, we build eco-systems that are bound together, symbiotically grow together to bring about positive changes into the world”, said Dr Carmen Hijosa, Founder and Chief Creative & Innovation Officer, Ananas Anam.
“Through our partnership with Dole, our entity in the Philippines will access a much larger volume of pineapple leaf fibres, to meet the ever-increasing demand for Piñatex not only in fashion but also in the upholstery and automotive sectors. Working closely with Dole’s teams on the ground will help us to create a wider positive social impact among farming communities and to continuously reduce our environmental footprint by valorising waste at scale”, said Melanie Broye-Engelkes, CEO, Ananas Anam.
