Seafish Head of Responsible Sourcing, Stuart McLanaghan.
Photo: Seafish.
UK seafood trade body Seafish recently announced the release of its Seafood Carbon Emissions Profiling Tool, with the aim of helping seafood businesses identify and tackle carbon emissions "hotspots" in their supply chains, and thus help the entire sector meet their net-zero targets.
Through the newly-launched tool, seafood businesses can access an online platform where they can input their supply chain data, such as greenhouse gas emissions associated with processing operations.
The tool then calculates seafood product carbon footprints and also highlights risks in seafood supply chains, enabling businesses to take action.
“The Seafood Carbon Emissions Profiling Tool is an important part of our work to support the UK seafood sector transition to net-zero," said Seafish Head of Responsible Sourcing, Stuart McLanaghan, in a news announcement.
“It is aimed at the entire UK seafood supply chain, but we envisage that buyers within retail, food service and processing will be amongst the main users."
“The tool provides several benefits for industry but will first and foremost enable industry to identify carbon footprints for their seafood products and understand the hotspots or risks in their supply chains," McLanaghan continued.
“This is important as robust data and information are needed to help businesses plan and make informed investment decisions to drive transformation to accelerate the decarbonisation of shared seafood supply chains, including via pre-competitive collaboration,” McLanaghan added.
The tool has been available for industry beta-testing and use within the seafood industry since the end of 2023, while it continued to be tested and refined.
It includes a public facing area, where visitors can access resources including the background methodology, frequently asked questions and view indicative carbon footprints for seafood products typically retailed in the UK.
"The tool is easy to use, it’s really intuitive. You don’t need to have a lot of carbon knowledge or expertise to be able to access it," said Cassie Leask of UK-based seafood importer, processor and distributor, New England Seafood.
"The whole point of the tool is it’s something anyone in the business can use whether you’re working on sustainability, working specifically on carbon, if you’re a CEO or working in ops. For me it’s something that’s helpful to translate some quite detailed, technical information into something simple for anybody to access."
The development has been funded jointly by Seafish and the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS) in England, and developed by Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk, a leading international expert in food systems sustainability.
The Seafood Carbon Emissions Profiling Tool can be accessed here.
