Seeking an answer to the question, "If the fish disappear, we all lose" - Report from the 3rd Fisheries Future Summit
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The sustainable seafood movement began around 15 years ago, mainly in Europe and the United States.
Among them, Walmart, the largest retailer in North America, is said to have taken the lead in the retail industry. Walmart was one of the first to start procuring sustainable seafood, which then led to other retailers following suit. However, according to Trevia Lester, the company's seafood merchandise director, "When we first started our efforts, there were still few examples around, and we knew it would be impossible to immediately switch all of our products to certified sustainable products. What we could do was to research information such as the country of origin*1."
So how has Walmart actually implemented this initiative?
Walmart is the world's largest company with sales exceeding 60 trillion yen, surpassing Amazon*2. In order to use its enormous influence to solve environmental problems, it set three sustainability goals in 2005. As part of "selling products that are considerate of people and the environment"*3, Walmart announced that it would require all overseas shrimp suppliers to obtain BAP certification, and in addition to formulating a procurement program in collaboration with Conservation International (CI), an international environmental NGO, it also strengthened the conservation of coastal wetlands in accordance with the BAP certification standards*3.
In 2006, Walmart announced that it aimed to replace all domestic wild fishery fresh and frozen fish with MSC certification within 3-5 years, and that it would begin by labeling products that were certified but did not have the label by the end of the same year.*5 To achieve this goal, Walmart also worked with CI and the World Wildlife Fund.
In 2009, the Sustainable Product Index (nowThe Sustainability Insight System (THESIS) IndexThe company announced its Sustainability Assessment Program (SAAP)*6, a three-phase initiative to create a single source of data for evaluating the sustainability of products.
A 10-question questionnaire was sent to 4 suppliers worldwide to investigate traceability regarding their efforts in four areas: "Energy and Climate Change," "Raw Material Efficiency," "Natural Resources," and "People and Community."
Supporting the formation of a university consortium that brings together suppliers, retailers, NGOs and governments to build a database of product lifecycles from raw materials to disposal around the world
- Transforming product sustainability information into a form that consumers can easily understand
Currently, we are working to achieve the following two targets for seafood sold at Walmart, Sam's Club, and ASDA in North America, Canada, Brazil, etc. in 2016:Seafood Policy)*7.
1. By 2025, fresh and frozen seafood products will be switched to seafood that meets one of the following criteria:
・MSC, ASC, and BAP certified
・The product is certified by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI), an international organization that operates a benchmark program for seafood eco-label certification, and is certified to meet FAO guidelines*8.
- or produced by fisheries or aquaculture enterprises that are seeking certification or have implemented a Fisheries and Aquaculture Improvement Project (FIP, AIP) to make production methods sustainable
2. Canned tuna
In addition to the above three items, by 3, all tuna will be switched to tuna caught in a way that meets the standards set by the International Sustainable Seafood Foundation (ISSF), an organization made up of tuna researchers, companies, and environmental NGOs from around the world.
In 2017, the US NGO Sustainable Fisheries Partnership launched a project calledOcean Disclosure Project*9 We are a participant of the project and publish the sources of our seafood products on the project's website.
Walmart has been setting goals and working on them for the past 15 years, but as of July 2006, it has not yet achieved its goal set in 3 of replacing all domestically wild fished fresh and frozen fish with MSC certification within 5-2021 years (if certified or FIP seafood is added, as of July 7, 2021%*7 at Walmart US). In addition, while initially only MSC-certified seafood was set as the seafood to be switched to, FIP and AIP were added in 98. However, even if Walmart has not achieved 10% of its goals, it has regularly published progress through reports, etc.
In Japan too, an increasing number of companies are setting specific procurement targets and working towards them.
For example, Aeon announced in 2017,Sustainable Procurement Policy 2020 GoalsAs part of this initiative, the company aims to have 100% of its consolidated general merchandise and supermarket companies obtain MSC and ASC distribution and processing certification (CoC), and as of October 2020*10, 11% of them have achieved this.
In addition, the Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union (JCCU) set a goal in the "Co-op SDGs Action Declaration" adopted in 2017 to "make MSC/ASC or other certified products 2020% or more of the value of JCCU's seafood products supplied by FY20." However, since the MSC certification for Atlantic mackerel, which JCCU handled as a product, was suspended in 2019, the JCCU changed its goal to "achieve 2025% as early as possible by 20"*12.
As Atlantic mackerel is one of the most common species of fish that have been MSC certified, many companies were forced to respond to the suspension of their certification. However, with other certifications relaxing their inspection standards in response to demand, this once again highlighted how reliable the MSC is in ensuring environmental sustainability.
This approach of developing measures that continue to focus on strict MSC certification, rather than making up for shortfalls in targets with other certifications, shows how serious the company is about fulfilling its responsibilities for the future not only of consumers, but also of the many producers and processors and distributors along the supply chain.
There are three points to keep in mind when creating a solid policy:
Set procurement targets
Analyzing consumer preferences and trends is essential for the development and advancement of products and services, but at its core is the vision of "the future we want to create as a company." Once this vision is clear, you can ultimately take short-term, concrete action, such as what to do to achieve that future and what products to sell to achieve it.
Map out the path to achievement
The road to achieving the goal is to partner with multiple trusted NGOs and specialized institutions like Walmart, and to effectively combine and utilize tools such as fishery eco-label certification and fisheries and aquaculture improvement projects. In recent years, the establishment of non-competitive collaboration platforms where companies in the same industry who share the same issues can work together to solve them has also become more active in Europe and the United States.
If it appears difficult to achieve the initial goal, announce that you are correcting course.
Some companies are hesitant to set and publicly announce specific numerical targets, as they see the risk of not being able to reach their targets. However, as the Walmart example shows, when it is difficult to achieve a target, by carefully examining the causes and countermeasures and publicizing them, it can be used as an opportunity to gain new momentum.
The deadline for achieving the SDGs that many companies are currently trying to achieve is 2030.
One of the targets within Goal 12, "Responsible Consumption and Production," is "12.6 Encourage business enterprises, especially large and multinational enterprises, to adopt sustainable practices and include sustainability information in their regular reporting."
In preparation for a future where uncertainties will likely increase, we will need to make some course corrections, but we will need to grow our business with a medium- to long-term perspective for the sake of our company, our customers, our stakeholders, and the sustainability of society.
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Key terms and concepts to understand seafood sustainability.
