IFCO makes senior appointment

IFCO, a leading provider of Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) for fresh food packaging, has appointed Iñigo Canalejo as Vice President, ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) as of 1st August 2021.

IFCO is strongly committed to its ESG strategy and to making the world’s fresh grocery supply chain sustainable. IFCO´s business model is built on the principles of the circular economy with a strong focus on sustainability and has recently had its European line of Lift Lock RPCs awarded Cradle to Cradle Certified at the Silver level.

By leveraging the environmental benefits of its business model, where RPCs are being re-used up to 120 times, washed, sanitised and then at the end of their life cycle, granulated in order to produce new crates, IFCO enables significant CO2, water and energy savings as well as reductions in solid and food waste when compared to single-use packaging.

Through a third-party Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) IFCO is able to scientifically quantify these savings and share them with its European and North American customers to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability.

“Over the past years we have achieved great progress in delivering against our sustainability agenda with one highlight being Cradle to Cradle Certified at the Silver level,” says Michael Pooley, CEO at IFCO. “This reinforces our leading role in the industry, successfully applying the model of the circular economy for many years.

“I am delighted to welcome Iñigo Canalejo in our team. He brings many years of experience in successfully leading ESG programmes in the industry and will help us to position IFCO at the forefront of supply chain sustainability.”

In his former role, Canalejo led the sustainability function in the EMEA region at Brambles, a global supply chain solutions company, whilst also contributing to the design of the Global Sustainability Strategy and its implementation. He also led Brambles’ strategy for negotiating the commercial and operational changes caused by Brexit and has extensive experience in managing government relations.

Canalejo will directly report to IFCO CEO Michael Pooley, reflecting the importance of the role. Achieving IFCO’s challenging ESG goals and making the fresh food supply chain sustainable requires focus and execution speed. He will also chair the IFCO ESG Committee, which includes members of IFCO’s advisory board, the CEO and CFO. This committee will oversee all ESG strategy and activities for the company.

“I am very much looking forward to joining IFCO, working together with my new team on the company’s growing ESG commitment and focus,” added Canalejo. “We have a very busy agenda ahead of us to reach our ambitious sustainable goals and make every step of our customers’ supply chains more sustainable.”