Tony’s Take on avos with Tony Bradley Aongatete Avocados Ltd

June: it’s six months into the year – half way through – and it’s a time of the year where there’s not a lot happening on orchard.

It’s a time for us to review, plan and look forward before we a start our new growing season.

June is also when there is time to consider stepping outside our normal operating practices and see how we are can improve our impact on the environment.

Looking out for Mother Earth (sidehead)

There are a range of tools to help our environmental impact – including alternatives to fossil fuels like electric hand tools and electric cars, pest management system AvoGreen and carbon reducing products, just to name a few.

At AAL we’re consciously making our operational practises more environmentally friendly – but it’s tough. Our biggest challenge is actually making some meaningful steps forward. It’s about small progress rather than giant steps.

We’ve decided to take small steps. We are spending and investing in environmentally friendly equipment. We want to push electric tools and vehicles; they’re big-ticket items and progress is slow, but we hope to have some break-throughs soon. Watch this space.

Looking ahead (sidehead)

Importantly, we’re using June to review, plan and see where across our businesses we can make a positive green impact.

This will come at a cost to our business, however it will provide us with a roadmap that puts the environment at the forefront of what we do.

I support the argument that moving fast can be a risk, as not all actions result in net environmental gain. However, I also believe that doing nothing is not good enough.

For instance, growing organically may not actually help our environment because to do so requires more trips with fossil-fuelled tractors spraying nutrients’ and organic pest control products.

I do however support the concept of having a plan and building the plan to embrace your whole business – and I optimistically recommend we all take the time this month to do so.