• Situation

In 2020, Dole Sunshine Company made five purposeful commitments towards creating a better world. The most ambitious one: achieving zero fruit loss from operations by 2025.

No easy task, but it’s especially hard for Dole’s pineapple business, because for every ton of pineapple packaged packaged, three tons of leaves are left to rot in landfills, producing methane emissions 20x more harmful than CO2.

• Brief

Find a simple and scalable solution to help Dole work towards achieving zero fruit loss by 2025.

• Objectives

Create a sustainable solution for rotting pineapple leaves

Do right by the planet and its people

Partner with like-minded companies equally committed to the environment

In 2020, Dole Sunshine Company boldly re-centered their business operations by making five purposeful and public commitments towards creating a better world.

The most ambitious one: achieving zero fruit loss from operations by 2025.

Through a partnership with Ananas Anam, Piñatex is a vegan, cruelty free, sustainable leather alternative made of pineapple leaves that would otherwise go to waste.

Once the commitment was made, Dole started from scratch, looking solutions to help them keep the promise. A partnership with Ananas Anam was formed.

Research showed that for every ton of pineapples harvested, three tons of leaves are wasted. The partnership addresses the problem of fruit loss, while giving farmers a new revenue stream and ensuring Ananas Anam has tons and tons of raw material to work with.

The manufacturing of Piñatex doesn’t use any water, any land or any fertilizers. Unlike other vegan leathers, Piñatex contains no plastic whatsoever and has no residual waste. Excess fibers are put back into the machine for use.

by 2023 Piñatex has grown into a game-changing solution that's now used by 1000 brands worldwide including Nike, H&M and Hugo Boss. The impact & scale of Piñatex not inly is represented in the fashion industry, but also the automotive and architecture industry.

Piñatex is a transformational innovation Ananas Anam, Dole and the fashion industry at large.

By giving Ananas Anam access to much larger quantities of pineapple leaves, Dole helped Piñatex scale at lightning speed, helping them meet the sudden and increasing demands of brands worldwide.

Piñatex generates a new revenue stream for farmers.

With Piñatex, fashion brands now have a sustainable, cruelty-free leather alternative to work with.

Today, 1000 brands worldwide are using Piñatex, including Nike.

In 2022, The United Nations also chose Piñatex as a world class example of sustainable development through brand actions, an immense feat for a brand.