The Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) has highlighted its approach and progress towards the sustainability of the salmon farming industry with its first report ‘Building the Foundation for a Sustainable Future’.
The report provides an overview of the initiative’s current activities and highlights its progress in improving biosecurity, sourcing sustainable feed, achieving the ASC standard, building partnerships and enhancing transparency in reporting and communications.
“We want those in our industry and beyond to understand the importance and impact GSI’s efforts are having on improving the sustainability of salmon farming. The ability to create a prosperous future for our industry depends on our success in continuing to cultivate change and improve the way things have been done,” said Jon Hindar, GSI co-chair and CEO of Cermaq.
“Over the past year, GSI has proven that we can come together and do just that, but despite significant progress we still have a way to go,” he added.
In addition to the growth of its membership, and expansion into three new farming regions, key 2013-14 highlights reflected in the report include ASC standard certification, which has been achieved by 13 GSI salmon farms. It also reveals GSI member companies working to raise industry standards and plan for future certification, new biosecurity protocols, sustainable feed and the development of a reporting dashboard that will track progress towards key environmental and social indicators.
The release of the report comes just over a year since GSI was formally launched in August 2013 and the say before GSI member CEOs will speak at the AquaSur 2014 Pathway to Sustainability seminar in Puerto Montt, Chile.
GSI, now comprising 18 salmon producers across nine countries, has already released a short film to accompany the report, which shares the story behind the creation of GSI, the importance of its mandate and its key achievements to date.
