Red Chamber Group

Sustainability strategy

Red Chamber’s subsidiary Aqua Star has developed a four-pillar sustainability program ‘Seafood Forever’ which focuses on sustainability, social responsibility, traceability, and food safety. The company recognizes its responsibilities to sustainability and addresses important stakeholder issues. Similarly, subsidiary Tampa Bay Fisheries focuses on sourcing practices and freshwater use in its sustainability strategy. Beyond these specific examples, the company does not disclose any information on the strategies of other relevant parts of the group. Red Chamber could devise and implement a group-wide sustainability strategy with time-bound objectives and clear targets to improve accountability, performance, and alignment across the whole group’s operations.

Sourcing

Subsidiaries Tampa Bay Fisheries and Aqua Star state that they both source raw material that is Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certified, but do not provide supporting quantitative data. These companies are also involved with the Global Aquaculture Alliance to strengthen the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) reporting requirements for suppliers. To improve accountability and provide similar information as leading peers, Red Chamber could disclose the geographic location, species and certified status of marine ingredients sourced across all of its operations as well as establish a group-wide sourcing policy.

Environmental footprint

Red Chamber provides little to no information about the group’s environmental footprint. Tampa Bay Fisheries is the group’s only subsidiary to disclose that a waste treatment facility upgrade resulted in 40 percent less water extraction. Red Chamber could devise strategies, targets and accountability mechanisms to track the group’s performance across important sustainability issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, food loss and waste, and plastic use.

Ecosystem impact

Red Chamber provides no evidence that it is actively seeking to reduce its impact on the ecosystem. Aqua Star discloses some information on how it seeks to mitigate adverse ecosystem impact through certifications. Red Chamber could implement and disclose measures regarding, for example, how it mitigates bycatch or how it addresses illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing risks in its supply chains.

Implementation of human and labour rights policies

Red Chamber does not disclose any group-level approaches for respecting human and labour rights policies. Subsidiary Aqua Star, on the other hand, shows a clear commitment to respecting human rights as well as states that it complies with all applicable labour laws. Moreover, Aqua Star’s supplier code of conduct requires its suppliers to undergo regular third-party social audits to help ensure fair wages, safe working conditions, and ethical practices are in place across its supply chain. Red Chamber could formulate group-wide commitments and approaches to identify, assess and mitigate any potential adverse human rights activities resulting from its operations.

Support for local communities

Red Chamber does not disclose any information on its activities to support local communities. The group could better demonstrate how it takes local communities into account and how its operations benefit the livelihoods of people living in surrounding areas.