Austevoll Seafood

Lobbying
Austevoll Seafood discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Austevoll Seafood discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy.

Solid and air pollution
Austevoll Seafood discloses the proportion of hazardous waste treated to reduce pollution compared to total waste, the hazardous waste diverted from disposal and the waste directed to disposal. It also demonstrates commitment to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging.

Water
Austevoll Seafood reports quantitative reduction in water consumption across its operation in FY 2022 compared to FY 2021.

No leading practices were identified in the social inclusion and community impact area.

Act ethically
Austevoll Seafood has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. It also has a grievance mechanism for stakeholders to raise concerns and complaints regarding bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
Austevoll Seafood has a publicly available policy statement in which it commits to respecting the health and safety of workers in its operations and supply chain. Additionally, it discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. Also, it discloses the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category and has 50% women on the board.

Respect human rights
Austevoll Seafood discloses a policy statement committing to respecting human rights and the fundamental rights at work declared by the ILO in its operations and supply chain. It also indicates it has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders who may be adversely impacted by the company.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets and to report (potential) misalignments.

Stakeholder engagement
The company has an opportunity to disclose an overview of the issues raised by each stakeholder group during its stakeholder engagement activities and to describe its process for engaging with stakeholder groups, beyond its materiality assessment.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate. However, there is an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain and report consistently against all its targets. Furthermore, the company could link performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. Lastly, it has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation, or promote restoration. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

GHG emissions
The company should set time-bound targets to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and report progress against them. Crucially, it needs to reduce its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and its targets should align with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Impact and dependencies assessment
While the company acknowledges its impact on marine ecosystems and utilises a MOM system for monitoring environmental impact in fish farming, there is no disclosed evidence that this involves a comprehensive assessment of its broader impacts on nature. It also does not disclose assessments regarding its dependencies on marine ecosystems or nature in general, both within its operations and upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
The company has an opportunity to disclose locations within or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity, both in its own operations and its supplier locations. It could also disclose species populations existing in or adjacent to both its own and its suppliers’ locations, as well as the conservation status of species identified at its own sites according to national and international lists.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company does not disclose its inputs according to an international standard nor does it report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance.

Solid and air pollution
The company does not disclose relevant information related to pollution in its operations or supply chains.

Water
The company has an opportunity to further improve water withdrawal by setting a time-bound target, disclosing water withdrawals in water-stressed areas, and engaging with suppliers. It does not disclose relevant information on water pollution or rights to water in its operations or supply chains.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company has an opportunity to disclose its processes for identifying and addressing bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. It could also disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement beyond in a public policy document and state that it does not make political contributions and divulge its lobbying expenditures.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has an opportunity to provide evidence of how it monitors its suppliers’ performance on health and safety standards.

Additionally, the company states that it pays a legal wage sufficient to cover basic needs. However, it could specify if it is enough to maintain a decent standard of living for employees and their family. It also has an opportunity to disclose a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or state that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage. It could further describe how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates and how it works to support its suppliers in paying a living wage.

Furthermore, the company could commit to gender equality and women’s empowerment and disclose related targets and the ratio of the basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
The company has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for assessing and identifying human rights risks and impacts across all its activities and supply chain, and its salient human rights issues. It could specify what it considers to be salient human rights issues, how relevant factors are considered, and how it acts to prevent, mitigate or remediate its salient human rights issues through a global system.