We are a pioneering business in sustainable fish-farming, we take special care of the environment and our communities.
Our three pillars of sustainability are:
Safe and healthy seafood
Respecting our people
Ensuring traceability
Creating a sustainable future
We are delighted to present some important lessons in sustainability from the children of Stolt Sea Farm.
In honour of our mission to ensure that future generations continue to enjoy wonderful seafood, we asked our employees' kids in Spain, France, Portugal, Iceland and Norway what sustainability means to them. This is the video they helped us create.
We hope you enjoy it and that you will help us spread the word about building a better world for everyone
Our key pillars
We closely manage and monitor feeding, breeding and fish welfare, submitting our production processes to rigorous external and internal controls.
Several of our farms are located on natural marine reserves, demonstrating the rigorous attention we pay to ensuring our business operations have a positive environmental impact. We also have an ongoing investment programme for the development of innovative techniques to reduce the pressure on fishing areas at risk of over-exploitation.
Since 2022, Stolt Sea Farm has been working with the Marine Research Center at the University of Vigo, led by Professor Jesús Míguez, in applied research on animal welfare in various phases of sole and turbot cultivation. We also work with the Technological Center of Aquaculture of Galicia and the University of Vigo and Coruña on the development of techniques to asses animal welfare during harvesting.
These ongoing efforts are helping to ensure that Stolt Sea Farm’s products are both healthy and sustainable.
Sustainability Goals
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Provide a framework for governments, businesses and individuals to work to, creating a better future for both people and the planet.
At Stolt Sea Farms, we have identified five SDGs which we can contribute to and which are important to our stakeholders.
Sustainability is fundamental to all of our business decisions and these SDGs are reflected in the seven principal areas of focus in our five-year sustainability strategy.
Employee engagement and retention
Food safety and consumer health
Impact on local communities
Animal rights and welfare
Environmental impacts
Use of natural resources
Traceability and sustainability
of products
We are committed to achieving the following key objectives by 2030
Achieving 0% waste to landfill
Reducing marine ingredients in our fish feed by 65% for sole and 50% for turbot
Health and Safety
Our first priority is zero harm for people and the environment.
Our safety processes are robust, integrating incident management and measurement with training, and underpinned by sound governance.
Our ongoing safety awareness programmes are based around a broad, top-down safety awareness culture from executive level and throughout the organisation. We provide specialist training programmes to support our zero harm commitment and comply with statutory requirements wherever we operate.
- We meet or exceed the latest industry standards.
- We track and deliver our training as scheduled.
- We monitor and report our compliance with established procedures.
- The number of incidents and near misses are measured.
Each of our people plays an important role in maintaining a safe working environment. We aim for a safety culture that goes beyond compliance by focusing on these key areas
- Incident management
- Specialist training
- Increasing awareness
- Mitigating risk through process safety
- Health and safety performance
We believe that our continued commitment and focus will ensure we meet our long-term ambition of zero harm.
Quality Management and Certification
Stolt Sea Farm follows rigorous quality and environmental controls to ensure everything we do is environmentally sound.
Our GlobalGAP certification confirms that we have in place sound and responsible aquaculture practices. We were the first business in our sector to achieve ISO 9001 Quality Management certification for both production and commercialisation, as well as ISO 14001 certification for environmental management.
Maximising our positive environmental impact
Innovator and leader in the development of sustainable, environmentally friendly aquaculture
For more than 50 years, Stolt Sea Farms has been an innovator and leader in the development of sustainable, environmentally friendly aquaculture.
We are committed to continually evaluating the way we impact people and places to ensure that future generations continue to enjoy wonderful seafood.
Some examples of how we make a positive impact on the environment include
Consortium with WWF and the local Fishermen’s Association
In 2007, we formed a consortium with WWF and the local Fishermen’s Association to create a natural marine reserve around our Lira farm in Spain. This is now widely recognised as a marine area with rich biological diversity and we are proud that we have contributed to repopulating this area with both Turbot and Sole.
The importance of water quality
Quality water is also critical for our aquaculture business. Stolt Sea Farm selects locations for its farms to ensure the highest-quality water is available and invests significantly to improve this. Our farms are designed and managed so that water in the outflow is as clean as at intake
Energy efficiency is essential for Stolt Sea Farm
Electricity requirements are relatively high, driven by operations that rely on pumping water from the sea. We focus on maintaining pumps at an optimal level and improving efficiency through new technology to ensure that we can improve efficiency. We currently have a project underway at our farm in Cervo, Spain to install solar panels that will generate 5% of the farm’s total energy consumption.
Sustainability at Stolt-Nielsen
Stolt-Nielsen’s sustainability ambitions
Since our inception in 1972, Stolt Sea Farm’s sustainability ethos has mirrored that of the wider Stolt-Nielsen Group, which strives to operate in a manner that is safe for both people and the environment. Our business activities make a positive contribution to Stolt-Nielsen’s sustainability ambitions. Find out more about sustainability at Stolt-Nielsen by clicking here.
