Chat - Jeff Dlott

Chatting with Jeff Dlott, chief executive officer at SureHarvest, Soquel, Calif. From March 23:

3:02 p.m. Tom Karst: Thanks for taking part in another Fresh Talk chat. First of all, where did you go to university and when did your career first connect with agriculture?
3:05 p.m. Jeff Dlott: I graduated with an undergraduate degree in biological sciences and a Ph.D. in entomology from UC Berkeley. As an undergraduate at Cal, I got "hooked" into agricultural science through course work in soil sciences, plant pathology, agricultural ecology, pest management and related fields. This was back in 1984. At that point, I decided I wanted to pursue a career in agriculture.
3:07 p.m. Tom: Interesting. Your career took you down the road and you eventually founded SureHarvest in 1999. Why did you start the company and has the evolution of the issue of sustainability in agriculture followed your expectations since then?
3:12 p.m. Jeff: Prior to founding SureHarvest I held positions in academia, the non-profit and the government sectors working on research, extension, and policy issues. These were all gratifying but I felt frustrated by the pace of change toward the development and adoption of more sustainable agricultural systems. I came to the realization that the private sector better fit my goals to drive change through technology and business process improvement.
3:13 p.m. Tom: Why is sustainability important? Can investments in sustainability provide a return on investment, and how does your company assist in that plan?
3:19 p.m. Jeff: Sustainability is important because the fundamental framework recognizing the need to address economic, environmental and social principles. Sustainability begins with profitability and provides a lens to look how businesses and other organizations can reduce costs, improve product quality, basically improve business performance by improving their social and environmental footprint. The reduction of energy use, water use, greenhouse gases along with improving employee productivity are good for the bottom line and for broader sustainability goals. Our company provides services to uncover and optimize efficiency opportunities and provides software systems to measure and manage performance.
3:24 p.m. Tom: That makes sense. You are doing a great job of putting things in a brief yet complete way. In that spirit, describe your involvement in the development of the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops. Do you feel that work on that index will position it as the principal measuring stick for sustainability in the produce industry? Will the Leonardo Academy's work on this issue be a help or hindrance?
3:27 p.m. Jeff: The Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops has the approach and ingredients to become the principal system to measure sustainability performance in specialty crops including an open and transparent process, a very strong set of stakeholders that cover the supply chain from the ground to retailers and foodservice companies, and leading non-profit organizations that can ask as trust agents for the larger society concerns. The devil is in the detail of reaching agreement on metrics that are meaningful and doable. I'm confident that this project is focusing on the right questions to get to the simplicity of meaningful and doable metrics, and I'm hopeful we will all be efficient in working through the incredible complexity to get to this simplicity. In terms of measuring and managing for sustainability performance, I think it is now a matter of time rather than a matter of if. My take on the Leonardo Academy's work is that it did not begin with the right approach and it was not asking the right questions to start. It may evolve in approach and direction, if not; I anticipate it will not be able to attain enough buy-in to be useful.
3:35 p.m. Tom: Thanks for the insight on the process. I’ve kept you about 30 minutes, but I wanted to ask one last question about the recent sustainability conference you presented at. What was the name of the event and what were the "take-aways" for you and others who attended?
3:38 p.m. Jeff: The name of the conference was "Growing a 21st Century Agricultural Revolution". The participants mix is similar to the Stewardship Index and other multi-stakeholder agrifood sustainability efforts including major retailers, foodservice operators, consumer packaged goods companies, trade associations, nonprofits, universities and government representatives. As part of the conference I put together a survey asking participants what they see as the major sustainability trends, what are organizations tracking now in terms of sustainability measures, and what are the major benefits from pursuing sustainability initiatives. The survey results and then the conference itself were similar in that there is emerging a general consensus on the big issues ahead and what to do about it. The issues of water use, energy use greenhouse gases, and water quality, and the bigger issue of ecosystem services consistently rose to the top. There was also general agreement that by working on these issues in a pre-competitive way through partnerships can advance progress faster. For the previous question, I forgot to mention that my role in the Stewardship Index is as a co-founder and now member of the Steering Committee which is the group that is providing day-to-day management of the project. I'm often tasked with being one of the science guys to make sure we are approaching the metrics using the best available science.
3:48 p.m. Tom: That is well noted. Thanks for all your time and energy this afternoon. Is there a Web site for the Stewardship Index for our readers to go to? Again, thanks for your time today Jeff.
3:50 p.m. Jeff: Yes, www.stewardshipindex.org, anyone can sign up to serve on developing specific metrics and to stay informed. Thank you Tom!