On December 2023, 12, Nissui Co., Ltd. will be the first seafood company toTNFD(Task Force on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures) Report"Nissui Group TNFD Report 2023"The TNFD Final Recommendations v1.0 (hereinafter referred to as the Final Recommendations) was released on September 9th of the same year. What was the reason for being able to publish the first TNFD report just two and a half months later? We spoke to Nishi Akihiko, General Manager of the Sustainability Promotion Department, who was in charge of the TNFD report, about the behind-the-scenes production.
Akihiko Nishi
Joined Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (now Nissui Co., Ltd.) in 1993. Since joining the company, he has mainly worked in the frozen food business in the food division. In 2020, he was transferred to the CSR Department (now the Sustainability Promotion Department) and was involved in formulating the company's mission and rebranding. In 2023, he published the "Nissui Group TNFD Report 2023." He is currently in charge of TNFD and human rights, and oversees Nissui's sustainability in general.
-First of all, please tell us how you came to work on TNFD after joining Nissui.
I did not originally graduate from a fisheries faculty, and after joining the company I spent a long time in the food division working in the frozen food business, so my involvement with fisheries was limited.
At first glance, frozen foods and sustainability seem like two completely different fields, but ever since I was in charge of product planning in the food department, I have been focusing on environmentally friendly product design, such as reducing the use of plastic. In addition, a product that I planned to rebrand was nominated as Japan's representative at the Paris International Food Fair in 2012, and was highly praised around the world for its energy-saving cooking. I was on an overseas business trip for the fair, and was shocked to see that the European market was already focusing on health and sustainability. I was convinced that such an era would soon come in Japan as well. So, looking back, I was doing something like a pioneer of sustainability even in my work at that time.
I was transferred to the current Sustainability Promotion Department (called the CSR Department at the time) in the spring of 2020. Two years later, in the spring of 2022, the company redefined its mission, clarified its long-term vision of "where we want to be in 2030," and announced its medium-term management plan. Sustainability was at the center of that long-term vision and medium-term management plan.
What prompted me to start working on TNFD was an article on biodiversity by Kaori Fujita in Nikkei ESG.dive site in Miyakojima * 1This was in the spring of 2021. The last sentence was from CDP, an international non-profit organization that evaluates companies' environmental initiatives.*2However, there was indication that the scope of the questions might be expanded to include the oceans in the future, and as a fishing company we realized that we could not escape this. At the same time, we thought that if we were going to do it, we might as well get started first.
After that, I studied hard and gradually started preparing for disclosure, but I had major concerns about the consistency of disclosure with the TNFD recommendations when there was no front row. At that time, the push I got was the idea of the TSSS (Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit, now the Sustainable Seafood Summit) in October 2023.Day 2 Program* 3The event started with a keynote speech by Mr. Hideshima of the Norinchukin Bank, followed by two sessions on the theme of fisheries blue finance in the afternoon. Hearing comments from several speakers such as "It's not that we don't understand something and don't try, but rather it's important to take the first step by doing what we can," I decided to go ahead and disclose the TNFD report.
--The TNFD report was published just two and a half months after the TNFD's final recommendations were made public.
In 2016, we established the Sustainability Committee (formerly the CSR Committee) and have been working on activities related to marine conservation and the sustainability of marine resources in its Fisheries Resources Sustainability Subcommittee, Marine Environment Subcommittee, Sustainable Procurement Subcommittee, etc. In addition, we have set "Mainstreaming Marine Biodiversity" as one of our materiality (important issues) and are working to strengthen sustainable resource access andMSCTherefore, rather than using the TNFD as an opportunity to conduct a new survey, we can say that we simply reconstructed the information that we already had by applying it to the TNFD framework.
However, it was not easy to publish the report two and a half months later. In fact, the English version was published the following month, in January 2024. The members of the department worked quickly and that was a great help, and I am truly grateful.
In preparing the report, I read through the draft before the TNFD's final recommendations were announced, organized my thoughts, and repeatedly considered the matter. Since there was no precedent, I was unsure of the "right answer," and I was anxious, but looking back now, I think it was good that we were able to prepare the report without being influenced by previous cases.
--What do you think is noteworthy about the TNFD report?
This is the evaluation part of "Risks and Opportunities". First,LEAP* 4To understand the dependence and impact of the fishing industry (fishing and aquaculture) on nature and to evaluate risks and opportunities, we have disclosed the items recommended in the final recommendations based on the four pillars of "governance," "strategy," "management of risks and impacts," and "metrics and targets."
In particular, we believe that we have been able to comprehensively organize the assessment of "risks and opportunities."TCFD extension* 5Taking into account the issues we had considered in the previous report, we identified our company's business operations from scratch, including the risks and opportunities in fishing and aquaculture. All items are listed on the website and in the TNFD report, so we believe it will be useful for anyone in the fishing industry who is considering disclosing their TNFD in the future.
-What discoveries did you make while producing the TNFD report?
The good thing about working on the TNFD is that it has helped us realize how dependent our company is on nature. Until now, we had been more conscious of our "impact" on nature. For example, leftover feed and waste from aquaculture pollutes the ocean water.
"Dependence" means something that cannot exist without it. For example, humans depend on air, and cannot live without it. Nissui's business cannot exist without the ocean, and without fish in the ocean. I think that if any company could properly recognize that their business depends on nature, they would make efforts to prevent nature from disappearing.
Through TNFD, I started to think about what I personally depend on. There is no end to the things I think about, but it was a good experience.
Nishi Akihiko, General Manager of the Sustainability Promotion Department at Nissui Co., Ltd., who was in charge of publishing the "Nissui Group TNFD Report 2023."
In Part 2, he will talk about the difficulties he faced as a pioneer, the reaction from stakeholders, the challenges he faces toward sustainability, and his outlook for the future..
Written by: Ryoko Nakagawa
After working as a practical and research assistant for environmental education courses for citizens at a university, she became a freelancer in 2023. She is a staff member at Sakanayamarukama, a cooperative fish sales outlet that connects the local community. She is also a member of the Science Readings Research Association newsletter editorial department. She writes while being involved in science education and environmental education.
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