With feed emissions representing up to 80% of aquaculture’s greenhouse gas emissions, global aquafeed company Skretting says it’s critical that feed companies and the wider aquaculture value chain prioritise the reduction of these impacts.
Its new Sustainability Report 2021 not only identifies the actions the company is taking to reduce the carbon footprints of its feed solutions, it also defines the main challenges and provides specific examples for each stage of the life-cycle of its products. These include ingredient production and transportation, alongside the manufacture, packaging, delivery and use of its feeds through to end-of-life.
Launching the report, Skretting said that because sustainability is multi-dimensional, the different trade-offs of ingredients and feeds need to be evaluated so that environmental and social impacts are also factored in. Therefore, its new report scrutinises these elements and shares the different challenges presented by each life-cycle stage.
It advises that evaluating in such a manner is “far from straightforward and sometimes difficult decisions need to be carefully made based on value choices”, giving the example of whether it’s better to accept a higher water footprint or a higher impact on biodiversity loss in exchange for a significantly lower carbon footprint, and if so, to what extent?
Furthermore, and stating that these value choices cannot be made by any single entity, the report describes how Skretting is working on pre-competitive levels with its suppliers, customers, competitors and other stakeholders.
Skretting CEO Therese Log Bergjord said the company’s sustainability report is a “hugely important document” that allows it to publicly-share the progress that it makes every year.
“We’re proud of what we’ve achieved, but at the same time, we accept that not everything we do is perfect or that we have solved all the challenges that we face as a company and as an industry. Instead, we have seized this opportunity to be open and frank about how we aim to address dilemmas, the opportunities that we intend to embrace and where we have identified room for improvement. This report also allows us to be accountable for those actions,” she said.
Jorge Díaz, Skretting’s Sustainability Manager, said the new report also underscores the power of collaboration and emphasises that to drive transformational changes across the aquaculture industry, the company must work closer with its customers, suppliers, NGOs, certification bodies, and all the other relevant stakeholders that it interacts with.
As such, a group of key industry representatives to share their views in the report on a wide range of key topics, including transparency, marine ingredients and soy sourcing, certification, and environmental, social and governance risks.
“These external contributions are extremely insightful, and we are very grateful for them,” Díaz said.
The report also highlights Skretting’s progress on the different targets set within its Sustainability Roadmap 2025.
