TrA.Announcement
Many of the products used by the company affect the environment throughout their entire life-cycle. This is the reason why ForSea focuses so much on sustainable consumption. What we mean by sustainable consumption is taking into account the environmental impact of the product at the point of purchase, use, recycling and waste management.
All of our suppliers are ranked according to how well they perform in terms of sustainability. As part of the procurement process, we take into account both the environmental performance of the product and the effort made by the supplier in providing the most sustainable alternative. Purchases in excess of 50,000 Swedish kronor need to be approved by the head of sustainability here at ForSea who will carry out an analysis from a life-cycle perspective.
At the end of 2018, we held a workshop run by an external consultant. Its aim was to give us a better understanding of the effect on the environment our operations in shops, restaurants and cafés has. Based on the results of the analysis, we focused on sustainability work in five different areas: food waste, certified food, climate change associated with food, sustainable fishing and packaging/single-use materials.
Measurements of the emissions associated with food/perishables provide information on the carbon footprint of our restaurant operations. Initial measurements were carried out in 2018 with the aim of better understanding the impact food has on the environment and to attempt to discover what can be done in order to mitigate this impact. The results helped with planning and might, for example, lead to the percentage of locally sourced raw goods and vegetarian meals increasing.
Improved planning at all stages from the creation of menus to purchasing, preparation and serving should reduce food waste. The possibility of converting food and other biowaste to biogas has also been considered. A test scheme was started on board the Aurora to sort this type of waste in December.
The percentage of single use articles being used will be reduced and possibly replaced by bioplastics and other material that is less damaging to the environment. Crews and other employees stopped using this type of product in 2018.
More fish and seafood certified by the ecolabels MSC and ASC should be included on the menu. Fish on the IUCN Red List will not be served in our restaurants.
The aim is to increase the percentage of certified and eco-labelled foods. The possibility of certifying ForSea’s restaurants in accordance with MSC and KRAV standards is currently being investigated.
One of the objectives for 2018 was to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the chemical products used by the company. This work continues with a view to minimising the number of chemical products used, changing over to less dangerous products or banning the use of certain products where necessary. Long-term, all our cleaning products should carry the Nordic Ecolabel (Nordic swan), Bra Miljöval (“Sound environmental choice”) label or a similar ecolabel. This work was carried out in 2018 by ForSea’s Chemical council which implemented a new chemicals policy and new procurement procedures and also held training sessions on chemicals in order to raise awareness in the company. Additional training courses will be held throughout 2019.
ForSea has a comprehensive waste management system. Waste is separated into 23 different streams and increasing the degree of sorting is an important target for us. Waste separation was extended in our terminals and offices in 2018. Hazardous waste is managed in a separate system and disposed of by certified suppliers.
The company produced a total of 649 tonnes of waste. Of this volume, over 51% was separated at source, corresponding to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 176.5 tonnes. In 2019, our goal is to increase the share of waste separated at source to 54%.
The number of different chemicals we used has fallen a little more than 30%, and so is now just over 230 products. Our aim is to reduce the number of products which are dangerous to the environment or cause allergies by a further 5%. The total amount of chemical products we use should have also dropped 5% by the start of 2020.
