A new digital platform designed to help seafood businesses measure and reduce their carbon footprint is gaining traction across international supply chains.
The Seafood Carbon Emissions Profiling Tool (SCEPT) is a free, online platform developed by Seafish in collaboration with the UK Seafood Federation and other industry partners.
Launched in 2024, it allows companies involved in both wild capture fisheries and aquaculture to calculate greenhouse gas emissions across different stages of seafood production and distribution.
“By working together, Seafish, UKSF and our partners have turned data into action, creating a scalable model to accelerate decarbonisation across seafood supply chains,” said Stuart McLanaghan, head of responsible sourcing at Seafish.
The tool provides businesses with a standardised method of carbon reporting, enabling them to collect and analyse emissions data from multiple points in the supply chain, including fishing, farming, processing, transport and packaging.
While a number of general carbon accounting platforms exist for corporate reporting, few are designed specifically for seafood supply chains. SCEPT has been developed with datasets tailored to the sector and allows multiple partners within the same supply chain to input data into a shared framework.
This enables businesses to compare results using consistent methodologies and identify emissions ‘hotspots’ across fisheries, aquaculture operations and processing facilities.
More than 145 seafood businesses across seven countries have signed up to use the platform. Among them are processors representing around 70% of the UK’s chilled and frozen seafood production volume, including Young’s Seafood, New England Seafood International, Hilton Foods Group and Labeyrie Fine Foods.
The tool has also been adopted across the supply chains of major UK retailers, including Tesco and Waitrose, which together account for roughly 30% of seafood retail sales on the UK high street.
SCEPT was named Best Carbon Initiative in the Waitrose Supplier Award and was a finalist in the North Atlantic Seafood Forum’s inaugural Sustainability Award.
