Sanford has maintained ISO 14001 environmental certification across its New Zealand operations since 2000. This system ensures that our environmental management processes and resources are effectively and efficiently deployed to protect and preserve the natural environment.

We respect the environment through our activities and influence, by:

• Supporting sustainable use of marine resources
• Minimising any adverse impacts of our activities on the environment (including biotechnologies, resource efficiency and waste production)
• Reducing the likelihood of accidental discharges of pollutants and having contingency plans in place to deal with these should they occur
• Working proactively with our suppliers to increase supplier participation and commitment to sustainable development principles

We believe in transparency and data driven evaluation of environmental performance. Our environmental aspiration and responsibility extends to all aspects of our business, this is demonstrated through our integrated approach to environmental and sustainability strategy as well as its reporting. We document and disclose our environmental performance every year via our Annual Integrated Report which follows international best practice standards and is subjected to an independent assurance process.

Climate Change Impacts
The impacts of climate change have the potential to dramatically affect our industry, particularly in relation to marine species and the changes resulting from ocean acidification. Our seafood products and their low emissions footprints are well placed to establish themselves as a climate-friendly source of nutrition for New Zealand and the world. Despite their already low-emissions footprint relative to other protein sources our business and its fishers, farmers, processors and sellers still have a part to do in further reducing our emissions footprint and ensuring the food production system we contribute to is climate resilient.

We’ve developed a decarbonisation pathway and are deploying projects to reduce our emissions footprint, we are collaborating with others within the sector to ensure our operations and activity are adapt to the changing climate and its impacts. Each year we monitor our emissions footprint following standardised tools and methods. Our climate footprint, targets, risks, opportunities, and responses are disclosed annually in our Climate Related Disclosure.

Ocean Acidification

Ocean water becomes more acidic when it absorbs carbon dioxide. This creates a risk to the marine environment and the sustainability of our business. Although we are geographically isolated and yet to see the full impact of ocean acidification, good baseline data and ongoing monitoring programmes are highly important to us.

We participate in international programmes to collect data and find solutions to this challenge.

We measure and manage our energy use at land-based processing and vessels. Projects and outcomes are reported annually. Please see our Annual Report for more details.

Fleet Management
Fleet Management monitors the effectiveness and efficiency of our vessels. Many of our vessels have sophisticated data acquisition systems to measure energy distribution and use. That data is used to review energy usage within the vessels and also over time to identify projects and initiatives to improve operational fuel and energy efficiency. We’re deploying many significant upgrades across out fleet to optimise their fuel efficiency including boiler upgrades, auxiliary generator upgrades, enhanced propellor designs and hull coatings, as well as electrical system upgrades. Our aquaculture fleet is receiving the same attention with higher specification engines used during replacements, and the anticipated delivery of our first hybrid aquaculture feed barge for our Salmon Farm expected during 2024.

Water is an important resource that is used in all of our operations. We continually ensure that it is being used as efficiently as possible, whether for making ice or cleaning, cooling compressors or cooling opened mussels.

Our teams keep a close eye on the products we use in our operations and the waste generated from them. We set ourselves ambitious targets for both waste volume reductions as well as improved diversion rates for waste – away from landfill and towards recycling or re-purposing. Our teams, partners, and suppliers have arrived at many novel solutions to reduce our wastes including the re-processing of end-of-life fishing nets into building panels, waste mussel shell being re-used as aggregate material for land-based farmers, and PVC gumboots being returned to supplier, granulated and then re-made into new gumboots!