Menu
Menu
ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
Necton has considered the adoption of management practices aimed at improving the environmental performance of the company and its products as a very important strategic factor. In line with this philosophy, in 2008 the project “ECOSALT – Ecological Labeling of Traditional Sea Salt and Fleur de Sal” was approved under the incentive scheme for the qualification and internationalization of SMEs in the National Strategic Framework (Contract No. 2008/2038).
Through environmental accounting, Necton aimed to identify, intervene, improve or minimize the positive/negative environmental impacts resulting from its production activity. The results of the ECOSALT project are summarized here. For more information, visit the official website – ECOSALT.
ECOSALT AND THE DETERMINATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
The ECOSALT project developed ecolabels for the food products “traditional sea salt” (SMT) and “flor de sal” (FS), using two different methods to determine the environmental impact, life cycle assessment (LCA) and ecological footprint (EF). Several conclusions were drawn as a result of using the two methods:
Both the SMT and the FS were found to be "environmentally friendly" because their footprints are relatively small compared to their conventional counterparts;
From the application of the LCA method, it is found that: i) the environmental impact of SMT is lower than that of FS for more than 20 issues and indicators ; ii) within each production process, packaging accounts for the largest share of the final environmental impact, 76% for SMT production and 68% for FS production. In addition, the packaging material is responsible for about half of the environmental impact of the packaging process; iii) the transportation of the products has an extraordinary impact of about 90% of the total environmental impact, much more than the production process itself;
Promoting and protecting the health and safety of our employees by adopting measures to minimize the risks that may arise from the performance of all their activities and ensuring the availability of adequate resources for their implementation.
The environmental impact of SMT production was also compared to the impact of the production of sea salt, which is produced by the forced evaporation of seawater through the combustion of natural gas and has a lower environmental impact;
By applying the EF method, it was shown that the environmental footprint in this case is equal to the carbon footprint, since the impact of carbon emissions has much more weight than the impact of land use;
The environmental claims included in the eco-label are:
THE COMMUNICATION UNDERLYING THE ECO-LABEL
Communicating the environmental impacts of an “eco-friendly” product is an essential factor in the decision to purchase. If the consumer is informed that the price includes a contribution to the preservation of ecologically sustainable practices, many will be available for purchase.
Environmental communication was a key point throughout the ECOSALT project, as it allowed, and will allow, to increase the company’s notoriety and the credibility of the products, constituting an internal driving force for improving the energy efficiency of the activity.
