Case studies – Improvements (including landscape and jurisdictional approaches)
Global
Case studies on improvements including landscape and jurisdictional improvements
- High-risk countries are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Any list of sub-national areas deemed low-risk (for example from a Brazilian municipality) should be agreed upon with a Sainsbury’s technical manager.
- Low-risk countries are Canada, China, European countries, India, Ukraine, the United States, and other identified countries.
- Unknown countries of origin are classified as high-risk.
Under the section “Implement”, the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions – Guidance for Companies on Environmentally and Socially Responsible Seafood provides anonymous real-world examples of how a range of seafood supply chain stakeholders (large food service and retailers, importers, and processors) are tackling and reducing the environmental and social risk of seafood in their supply chains.
Although focused on seafood, these can be applied, adapted, or provide inspiration in addressing the climate change and environmental impacts of aquaculture feed and the ingredients it contains.
Skretting’s sourcing policy for soy and palm oil is focused on deforestation and land-use change to ensure compliance with the Nutreco Sustainability Road Map 2025 on the issues of Climate & Circularity and Biodiversity & Ecosystems.
By the end of 2025, their ambition is to source soy and oil palm ingredients that are legal and illegal deforestation-free. To achieve this they classify sources of these ingredients from Class A to Class D. Only Class A meets their 2025 target and is defined by being from either 1) a country or region with a low risk of deforestation – with a list of high-risk countries for both commodities provided; or, 2) If the source is from a high-risk country or region it must be certified to one of the following listed schemes and physically segregated from current Class B, C, & D sources. These certification schemes are
For soy – Belgian Feed Association (BFA); Certified Responsible Soya (CRS); Donau Soja; Europe Soya; ISCC Plus (segregated); ProTerra (segregated); RTRS (segregated); Sustainable Farming Assurance Programme (SFAP) – Non-conversion; Cerrado Conservation Mechanism Payment for Environmental Services (not yet available). For oil palm – RSPO (IP / segregated).
A decision tree outlining this process and associated buying decisions is also provided in their sourcing policy.
Skretting’s marine sourcing policy focuses on ensuring their marine feed ingredients come from sustainable sources in the short and long term. Once again ingredients are classified from A which is subdivided into (A+, A, and A-) to C where Class C products cannot be purchased after December 2022 and Class B cannot be purchased after December 2025.
A decision tree is provided outlining the classification process and associated buying decisions.
Under this Class A+ marine raw materials used from aquaculture by-products must come from an ASC or BAP-certified farm. Marine raw materials used from fishery by-products must originate from a fishery holding MSC or GSSI-recognized certification (i.e., MSC, RFM, Iceland Responsible Fisheries, and Marine Eco-Label Japan) as should raw marine materials from whole wild-caught fish.
Classifications A and A – cover other certification schemes and improver programs such as those provided by MarinTrust, FIPs (see SFP and others), and aquaculture improvements provided by the ASC and BAP.
Skretting is also committed to improvements to multi-species fisheries such as those being piloted by MarinTrust, that are not entirely reduction fisheries for fishmeal and oil but do contribute towards fishmeal production and which make up the dominant type of fishery worldwide.
While Class C marine ingredients (until Jan 1st, 2023) were being sourced there was also a risk of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices making their way into sourcing. Therefore, Skretting used the IUU Fishing Index to assess the risk. Nutreco (and Skretting) is an active member of SeaBOS, whose Task Force 1 addresses IUU fishing, endangered species, and forced labor.
Skretting’s latest impact report outlines its involvement in several multi-stakeholder improvement initiatives focussed on marine and terrestrial feed ingredients and aquaculture improvements.
These are:
Aquaculture Stewardship Council, European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation, Global Seafood Alliance, GlobalGAP, The Global Roundtable on Marine Ingredients, Global Salmon Initiative, IDH – the Sustainable Trade Initiative, MarinTrust, The North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group, ProTerra Foundation, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, Roundtable on Responsible Soy, Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS), Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, and Sustainable Shrimp Partnership.
Using SeaBOS as an example, Skretting continues to be a key contributor to this initiative representing nine of the world’s largest seafood producers, all of whom have made ten commitments to transformative change in seafood production.
These commitments guide the work of its five task forces. One of these, Advancing protection of endangered species is led by Skretting
In 2018, Cargill, Musim Mas, GAR, Pepsico, Danone, Unilever, and Neste teamed up with Proforest and Daemeter (CORE) to fight deforestation through a new landscape initiative. The initiative focussed on Siak and Pelalawan districts in Indonesia’s Riau province as these were areas producing a lot of palm oil production, but also subject to deforestation, fires, worker safety issues, land disputes, and problems for small farmers.
The group intended to find solutions to these problems and aimed to help local groups, improve farmers’ lives, and turn these districts into landscapes where agriculture is sustainable and forests are protected.
You can learn more here
Sainsbury’s approach to assessing whether their suppliers match their commitment to achieving DCF soy supply chains by 2025 (with a cut-off date of 2020) is outlined in their requirements for soy feed. This includes soy used in feed for animals where meat is an ingredient in a sold product.
Soy can be classified as low-risk via either 1) its origin, 2) via an effective monitoring system (procurement control), or 3) between now and 2025, the use of certification.
Origin – soy should be sourced from countries or areas considered at low risk of deforestation or conversion, which may include areas with regional monitoring systems.
Procurement control – soy from supply chains with matching commitments on deforestation and conversion and independent monitoring demonstrating compliant producer landscapes.
Soy from high-risk countries may be verified as DCF through monitoring systems. These must use satellite/geospatial monitoring to identify that soy has not been grown on land that has been deforested or converted since December 2020. The monitoring provider should provide evidence of independent assessments.
Certification – Between 2022 and December 2024 suppliers may also use certified soy (mass balance or segregated) as a transition to the above. Specifically, it must be a standard benchmarked by the European Feed Industry (FEFAC).
Feed
Sainsbury’s is a member of the Reduced Emission Aquaculture & Chicken Trial For Integrated, Responsible and Sustainable Transformation of CO2 into animal feed project ( REACT-FIRST) funded under the UK Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Future Food Production Systems call.
This aims to develop animal feeds with 65-75% smaller carbon footprints than existing feeds, with no requirements for arable land and minimal water usage. The project aims to provide the UK’s first sustainable and scalable protein production facility creating bacterial protein directly from CO2 produced as an output from bio-energy generation.
Climate Change, deforestation and soy
Sainsbury’s is working to reduce deforestation in their supply chain and their scope 3 carbon emissions through the WWF Basket initiative.
Sainsbury’s has partnered with food suppliers and retailers under the Soy Transparency Coalition (STC) to assess the sustainability performance of soy importers and traders.
They invest in protecting and conserving local biodiversity in Brazil through landscape approaches under the Responsible Commodities Facility.
They are also a member of the Consumer Goods Forum’s (CGF) Forest Positive Coalition of Action to drive efforts to eliminate soy-driven deforestation as well as through the WWF Basket initiative.
They collaborate with other retailers under the Retail Soy Group to determine minimum requirements for industry standards and is a member of The UK Roundtable on Sustainable Soya which brings together stakeholders within the UK soya market to work together pre-competitively to achieve a secure, resilient, sustainable supply of soya.