Addressing climate change

According to the United Nations, climate change is a defining issue of our time. As the planet's population, economies and standards of living grow, so does the cumulative level of greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. The most abundant greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO₂). The concentration of the GHGs in the Earth's atmosphere is directly linked to the average global temperature on Earth. Because CO₂ lingers in the atmosphere for centuries or even longer, the sooner we curb emissions, the better our chances of limiting the temperature rise.

Science-based targets

Skretting, as part of Nutreco, has joined the global ranks of 850 other leading companies by signing a letter of commitment with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI), indicating that we will work to set a science-based carbon emission reduction target. A global collaboration between CDP, the World Resources Institute, World Wide Fund for Nature and the United Nations Global Compact, the SBTI champions science-based target setting to boost companies’ competitive advantage in the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Our operations and KPI's

We monitor, record and report on five environmental and social manufacturing KPIs on a quarterly basis. We started doing this in 2016, and now all production sites report through our financial reporting systems. Our footprint is always evolving, with new production facilities under construction and closures or plant extensions underway in most regions. We continue to strive for improvement and share best-practice among our different operations. For instance, all of Skretting’s manufacturing facilities must have a waste handling plan, whichmust facilitate that waste is recycled and not put to landfill whenever possible.

Deforestation

At Skretting, we want to ensure we only purchase vegetable ingredients that have been cultivated by farmers who have not contributed to deforestation, protecting sensitive ecosystems and endangered species. In practical terms, this requires our procurement teams to have clear sourcing guidelines, including criteria on how the plants are cultivated.

Our footprint

Feed plays an essential role in ensuring the health and wellbeing of farmed fish and shrimp and can greatly improve the efficiency of the aquaculture process. While gains are made in optimising feed efficiency, feed also contributes one of the biggest environmental impacts.

With ingredients contributing a large proportion of our footprint, our procurement team is focused on minimising the impact wherever possible.

Responsible sourcing

Circularity

The circular economy offers many potential solutions to meet climate mitigation targets. One of our most fundamental long-term visions is to use ingredients that wouldn't otherwise be consumed by society. As a result of decades of R&D, Skretting can be increasingly flexible with raw material inclusions, enabling the available responsibly sourced finite raw materials like fish meal to go much further than in the past, thereby increasing the sustainability credentials of aquaculture production globally.

Our current global feed ingredient usage is comprised of 20% by-products. These can include ingredients made from by-products from the human food processing chain that would otherwise be wasted if not used in the feed industry. In addition, we are using increasing volumes of ingredients that do not compete with human consumption, such as insect meals, protein from single cell organisms and cultured algal products. The use of these ingredients represents an efficient use of natural resources and supports the development of a circular economy.

Our sustainability strategy