Costa Rica’s FIFCO recognized as new sustainability ‘champion’

Costa Rica’s largest food and beverage company, Florida Ice and Farm (FIFCO), was recognized this week by the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as one of the top 16 “green” businesses in developing countries.

In May 2010, the global growth branch of the World Economic Forum and BCG set out to find businesses in emerging markets that were both financially successful and environmentally sustainable. At the conclusion of the study, which included research and interviews with more than a 1000 CEOs, 16 organizations in 11 countries were deemed “new sustainability champions” for designing business plans considered lucrative and sustainably progressive.

In recent years, FIFCO has dramatically reduced the amount of water it uses in production and aims to be Costa Rica’s first “water neutral” company by 2012. In 2010, 300 FIFCO employees helped construct an aqueduct for the indigenous community of Gavilán Canta in Talamanca, in Costa Rica’s Caribbean province of Limón (TT, Oct. 8, 2010).

“As a beverage company, FIFCO’s environmental priority is water conservation,” the report stated.

The study also complimented FIFCO’s financial growth.

“FIFCO achieved a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent between 2006 and 2010…twice the industry average.”

FIFCO was also praised by researchers for its recycling program. The Heredia-based company claims that it recovers 40 percent of the bottles it puts into the market. National beers Pilsen, Imperial, Bavaria and Rock Ice, all produced by FIFCO, are often recycled and used several times (TT, Oct. 23, 2009).

For full text of the report, see http://www.bcg.com/documents/file85971.pdf