Mowi

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
Mowi states that it has achieved its target of 100% sustainable salmon sourcing, as all of its salmon products receive a third-party certification recognised by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative. This makes the company a leader in the supply of sustainable seafood. Mowi also reports that its sourcing of marine ingredients for feed production was in full compliance with its sourcing policy. This means that all marine ingredients are either certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or MarinTrust or are part of fishery improvement projects (FIPs). The company, however, could be more transparent and disclose the proportion of its marine ingredients that are certified and the proportion that are in FIPs. Mowi also sells other seafood products. The company reports this concerns less than 1% of its volume but discloses no sustainability information and could, therefore, step up its transparency for this part of its portfolio.

Animal welfare
Mowi discloses a Salmon Welfare Policy which outlines its approach to upholding animal welfare standards. The policy addressing multiple animal welfare issues, including handling and transport, humane stunning and slaughter methods and feeding practices. Moreover, Mowi outlines the third-party certifications and audits it uses to implement these policies, including Global G.A.P., ASC and BAP. Going forward, the company could further improve by taking the approach it has with stocking densities and survival rates, i.e. disclosing time-bound targets and reporting progress against it, towards other animal welfare issues it has identified.

Food safety
Mowi reported that, in 2020, all its processing plants and 81% of its seafood suppliers were certified against a standard recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). The company’s target is that all its seafood suppliers obtain a GFSI-recognised certification.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
Mowi discloses a corporate strategy, named Leading the Blue Revolution, that integrates sustainable development objectives and targets relevant to the three dimensions (environment, nutrition, social inclusion). While many of these targets are time-bound, the company lacks clear targets in the social inclusion dimension.

Governance and accountability
Mowi reports that accountability for and oversight of its sustainability strategy lies with the highest governance body, the board of directors, and is implemented by the chief sustainability officer. In addition, the company reports that reducing fish escapes is linked to bonus remuneration in the senior management team. Mowi has an opportunity to link other sustainability issues to remuneration as well.

Stakeholder engagement
While the company has conducted stakeholder engagement activities and discloses an overview of the issues raised via these activities, it has an opportunity also to disclose how it identifies its most relevant stakeholders, along with information on how the outcomes of the process are integrated into its sustainable development strategy.

Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions
Mowi has set science-based scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions reduction targets aligned with a 2-degree pathway (35% by 2030 and 72% by 2050, relative to 2016). However, reporting on progress is not clear, and the company has an opportunity to further increase its ambitions by adopting targets aligned with a 1.5-degree pathway.

Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions
Mowi has set a scope 3 target for GHG emissions (35% by 2030 compared to 2018) and reports the progress against this target. The company’s reporting shows that there has been a decrease in it absolute scope 3 emissions since 2018. However, there remains an opportunity for the company to upgrade its target to align with 1.5 degree pathway.

Food loss and waste
The company reports that 49 000 tons of its by-products are upcycled in aquaculture and pet feed. As such, it provides quantitative evidence of reducing food loss and waste across its own operations. However, there is an opportunity for Mowi to set a time-bound target to reduce food loss and waste across its own operations, and to report progress against it.

Plastic use and packaging waste
Mowi discloses three time-bound targets to reduce its plastic use. The company aims to have 100% of its plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable as well as at least 25% of its plastic packaging come from recycled plastic content by 2025. It further states its objective to have 100% of its farming plastic equipment reused or recycled by 2023. However, there is an opportunity for Mowi to show leadership by reporting against these targets.

Availability of healthy foods
Mowi does not demonstrate sufficient examples of making its food products healthier. While it reports that it actively monitors the content of healthy omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins, it only actively reduces polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations by cleaning its supply of fish oils. The company could further improve by working to decrease salt, for example, and increasing healthy nutrients.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
While Mowi recognises food security as a major issue, the company does not demonstrate efforts to make healthy produces more accessible and affordable to vulnerable groups.

Farmer productivity and resilience
Although Mowi discloses commitments and evidence of activities to support the communities in which it operates in its Blue Revolution Plan, it has an opportunity to demonstrate it is supporting the productivity and resilience of fishers and small-scale producers.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
The company does not specifically recognise the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers.

Forced labour
Mowi prohibits forced labour in its operations and requires its suppliers to adhere to the same standard. However, no evidence was found that the company prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents.

Mowi has a human rights policy that commits it to respecting human rights, including those of its workforce and suppliers. The company also provides grievance mechanisms for both workers and third parties, as stated in its whistle-blower policy. While demonstrating it includes social issues in its materiality assessments, Mowi does not disclose its process for identifying, assessing and integrating salient human rights risks in its operations and supply chain.

Mowi is committed to the health and safety of workers and places health and safety expectations on and monitors the performance of its suppliers. Related to workforce diversity, Mowi discloses gender data for its total workforce and management. However, the company has an opportunity to disclose data on gender for its total direct workforce by employee category, as well as to disclose data on other markers of diversity such as age and ethnicity. The company does not disclose commitments towards paying a living wage and can strengthen its policies regarding working hours in its own operations and supply chain by specifying that a regular work week should not exceed 48 hours or 60 hours including overtime.

Mowi is committed to prohibiting bribery and corruption and discloses how it identifies related risks. It also commits to protecting personal data but does not disclose the types of third parties user information is shared with. The company discloses corporate income tax paid per jurisdiction but does not share a public global policy tax policy. Nor does it share an approach to responsible lobbying and political engagement.