Sustainability in Everything We Do
Awareness, eye for detail and following standard procedures while always considering how we continuously improve
SalMar’s fundamental principle is to have a minimal footprint in the areas we operate. Although food production in general accounts for a large proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, the farming of salmon is one of the most environment-friendly ways of producing food.
It is SalMar’s intention to be at the forefront of the development of a more sustainable aquaculture industry. This means protecting the seas, ensuring biodiversity management, reducing energy consumption and minimising greenhouse gas emissions from our operations. By using new technologies and innovations, we are constantly striving to minimise our biological footprint, in a way that allows us to produce as much salmon as possible on the salmon’s terms.
SalMar are engaged in increasing awareness around salmon farming, especially from an environmental point of view. Salmon farming has a small carbon footprint, low water consumption, and a low feed factor (high resource efficiency) compared to other protein producers, but the industry also faces challenges of sea lice and effluence, among others. SalMar works in close cooperation with the governing bodies to ensure sustainable operations and takes an active role in consulting with stakeholders on their thoughts on our way forward.
The Head of Sustainability together with relevant senior managers is responsible for implementing an effective environmental management system for monitoring, measuring and following-up the company’s environmental performance.
SalMar has a clear vision and ambitious goals for its environmental performance. The company is committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and aligned with the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement. SalMar's commitments cover absolute emissions for both Scope 1 + 2 (own operations) and Scope 3 (value chain), ensuring a comprehensive focus on reducing emissions across its entire business. These targets have been verified by the SBTi.
To reach the Scope 1 and 2 target, fuel switching on barges and boats, and transitioning from diesel-fueled vessels to renewable energy will be key. Ensuring that low-carbon energy solutions like electricity or hydrogen originate from renewable sources will also be important.
For the Scope 3 target, it will be vital to work towards sustainable sourcing of feed ingredients. This may include both improved sourcing practices towards existing feed compositions and developing new feed compositions that better align with the company’s commitments toward climate change mitigation.
SalMar has a strong focus on local processing of salmon to maximize local value creation, optimal utilization of the salmon, and minimize transport of non-food parts of the salmon to the market. This removes multiple trucks from the road every day, which is beneficial from a socio-economic stance, but also a very effective practice for reducing our carbon footprint.
SalMar also has performance targets on site environment, where SalMar’s ambition is that all sites have a MOM-B score of below 2. All SalMar sites are certified by Global Gap, and in addition, SalMar has a goal that 100% of its sites are certified according to the ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council) or Debio standards, which are the strictest certifications in the industry.
SalMar aims to have a net positive impact on plastic pollution, actively contributing to coastal clean-up efforts in all areas where the company operates. In its internal policies, SalMar commits to participating in coastal clean-ups at each site at least once annually, while also encouraging employees to engage in these activities more frequently if desired. SalMar supports coastal clean-ups through participation, but also through funding and through offering boats to contribute to the operations.
New knowledge is the key to protecting natural resources for future generations, while still producing enough food for a growing global population. SalMar is working systematically to drive this development forward.
All actions and considerations made on behalf of SalMar with regards to environmental practices are rooted in SalMar’s strategic processes towards becoming the world’s best salmon farmer. This strategy and processes hereunder are approved by the senior management or the Board of Directors. Environmental performance, achievements and challenges are publicly reported in SalMar’s annual sustainability report.