May 15, 2019Produce Marketing Association’s Treacy to take sustainability leadership role
The Produce Marketing Association’s (PMA) Vice President, Supply Chain and Sustainability Ed Treacy will take on leadership for PMA’s sustainability work in 2019. PMA announced in 2018 that it would be focusing on sustainability as a focus area for their work supporting the industry to grow a healthier world.
According to PMA, the fresh produce and floral industry has need for a shared definition of sustainability, to help people understand trends, information, resources and best practices for their business. PMA said it will work with industry members to inspire them to continuously optimize processes and resources available to drive economic, social and environmental benefits for their companies and for the world. The industry can incorporate sustainable practices into their businesses by sharing and adopting sustainable business models, strategies, methods, and information across the supply chain.
In focusing on the successes of the industry, PMA seeks to showcase the floral and produce industry as a prime place of innovation in the area.
“We ultimately see sustainability as the responsibility for the entire supply chain,” said Bob Whitaker Ph.D., chief science and technology officer for PMA. “There’s no one who has a better grasp on all of the intricacies and opportunities within the floral and produce supply chains than Ed. He is a relentless advocate for our industry in a variety of important places, and I am thrilled that he will be leading PMA’s efforts as we become a resource for our industry around sustainability.”
RELATED: Q&A with Ed Treacy on Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI)
Ed Treacy has served as PMA’s expert in developing supply chain practices to lead the produce and floral industries forward for more than nine years. Among his responsibilities, Treacy monitors and forecast trends related to supply chain efficiencies, designs and maintains related products, services and educational events for PMA members. He also serves as staff lead and technical consultant to the industry-wide Produce Traceability Initiative and leads all data standardization initiatives for PMA.
Treacy will also lead a new committee formed by PMA which aims to bring together industry leaders around sustainability. The Sustainability Committee is charged with identifying sustainability trends, information, resources and best practices so industry members can apply them to their business both domestically and globally and is chaired by John Chamberlain.
John Chamberlain is Vice President of Global Marketing at Limoneira Company. With more than 25 years of marketing, brand development and communications experience with global multinationals (14 with Limoneira), Chamberlain has extensive skills in story-telling.
“John is not a sustainability guy, so to speak,” said Treacy. “His role is in marketing. It was so important that he was involved because his talent and instinct for telling the industry’s story through marketing is exactly what we need. There is already so much happening as it relates to sustainability in our industry. It’s our goal to uncover these stories and share them, within our industry and beyond it. We are first and foremost, stewards of the land and know better than anyone how to sustain it. It’s my goal to make sure that the world knows about the great work we do in our industry, and in doing so, inspire more great work.”
