Skretting’s Annual Sustainability Report shows the company’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint

The actions that international company Skretting is taking to reduce the carbon footprint of its food solutions have been recorded in its recently published Annual Sustainability Report 2021. The document also defines the company’s key challenges and provides specific examples for each stage of its products’ life cycle: production and transportation of ingredients, along with manufacturing, packaging, delivery and use of its foods through to the end of their shelf life.

“Our sustainability report is a very important document that allows us to publicly share the progress we make each year. We are proud of what we have achieved, but at the same time, we accept that not everything we do is perfect or that we have solved all the challenges we face as a company and as an industry,” said Therese Log Bergjord, CEO of Skretting.

“Instead, we have taken this opportunity to be open and frank about how we intend to address dilemmas, the opportunities we intend to take advantage of and where we have identified room for improvement. This report also allows us to be accountable for those actions,” the board added.

A multidimensional issue

In the report, Skretting recognizes that sustainability is multidimensional and, as such, the various ingredient and food trade-offs must be assessed so that environmental and social impacts are also taken into account, and not just the carbon footprint, which is predominant today when assessing these aspects. With this deeper understanding, the new report examines these elements much more closely, openly sharing the different challenges presented by each stage of the life cycle.

As the report illustrates, evaluation in this way is far from straightforward and sometimes difficult decisions have to be made based on value choices.

“An example of this is whether it is better to accept a larger water footprint or a greater impact on biodiversity loss, in exchange for a significantly lower carbon footprint, and if so, to what extent.”

Furthermore, the report recognizes that these value choices cannot be made by a single entity and describes how Skretting is actively working at a pre-competitive level with its suppliers, customers, competitors and other stakeholders to overcome any challenges.

The power of collaboration

Jorge Diaz, Sustainability Manager at Skretting, explains that “just as importantly, we are underlining the power of collaboration and emphasizing that, to drive transformational change across our industry, we must work more closely with our customers, suppliers, NGOs, certification bodies and all the other relevant stakeholders with whom we interact.”

In that vein, the Sustainability Manager detailed that Skretting’s sustainability journey cannot be written from the company’s perspective alone, so the report invited a group of key industry representatives to share their views on a wide range of highly relevant 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,” Diaz commented.

Other highlights included in this latest Skretting report are the advances in the different objectives established within the Sustainability Roadmap 2025 and its three pillars: Health and Wellness, Climate and Circularity and Good Citizenship.

From Skretting they detail that food emissions represent up to 80% of aquaculture greenhouse gas emissions, so it is essential that companies in the sector and the aquaculture value chain in general prioritize their reduction.

Global leader

Skretting is the global leader in providing innovative and sustainable nutritional solutions and services for the aquaculture industry. Skretting has production facilities in 18 countries on five continents, and manufactures and delivers high quality feeds from hatching to harvest for more than 60 species.

The total annual production volume of feed is more than 2 million tonnes. Skretting is the aquaculture business line of Nutreco, a world leader in animal nutrition. Skretting’s central operations are based in Stavanger, Norway.