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"This is sustainable business at the highest level"

Jansen Paprika awarded with Milieukeur certificate

Jansen Paprika BV in Andijk was recently awarded with the Milieuekeur certificate. "Of course I'm proud of this achievement," says owner Theo Jansen. "Now at least we can show that we are working at the highest level when it comes to business sustainability." 

Jansen BV Paprika is a classic family business. Theo's father started the business 75 years ago in Westland. Theo took over the company in 1976. In 2007, Theo's sons Ron and Ivo became co-owners and moved the company into the North Holland town of Andijk. "Here we had the opportunity set up all greenhouses in one location, instead of over several municipalities," he says. "It is a lot more efficient." Jansen Paprika runs 15 hectares of greenhouses and has about 40 employees. 

Gained much ground 
Jansen has been focused for years on sustainable business. "You can do a lot for people, animals and the environment by making use of sustainable working methods. That's very important for us," he says. In the late nineties, the company already went through the certification process for Milieukeur. "Back then, we were still not ready to meet all the requirements, but that's different now! This label gives you an excellent market profile, and we naturally want it to help us stand out from the competition."


Theo and Ivo Jansen receive the Milieukeur certificate from Anton Kool, project manager agro/food at SMK.

New attempt 
The entrepreneurs did not give up. In recent years, the company went through several other certification programmes successfully, including Global G.A.P. and the British Retail Consortium (BRC). "Milieukeur is still the highest attainable certificate and we were now in the position to obtain it, because we were already so well on the way. The great value of Milieukeur is that you must meet virtually every requirement of other labels. You can use it to demonstrate that you undertake sustainable businesses at the highest level."

Inspiration 
New plans are also already in place. From 2016, Jansen expects to use geothermal energy in its greenhouses. The first drilling will be conducted in 2015. Jansen says that, "naturally, a sustainable business must constantly move forward, and to do this you need a good dose of inspiration, but this takes your business to even higher levels, and what entrepreneur would not want that?"

For more information:
Anton Kool
SMK
Project manager agro/food: 070 - 358 63 00
e-mail: [email protected].