Ben Cooper speaks to Dr Darian McBain, global director of corporate affairs and sustainability at Thai Union, about attempts to put sustainability at the heart of the business.
Next year is a milestone for the Paris climate change treaty, marking five years since the historic agreement was reached.
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Many companies will also have marked out 2020 as a significant year to reset sustainability targets and one major food company doing just that is Thailand-based seafood major Thai Union Group, the world’s largest supplier of tuna and the owner of the John West canned fish brand.
The targets set out in Thai Union’s SeaChange sustainability strategy reach full term at the end of 2020. Dr Darian McBain, global director of corporate affairs and sustainability at Thai Union, who was brought into the company five years ago to develop a comprehensive sustainability strategy, says a second iteration will reflect the renewed urgency around climate change and the need for progress on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be stepped up.
“As we look to our 2025 strategy, and 2030 and beyond, climate change is definitely going to play a much stronger role in our SeaChange strategy than it has previously, because it’s so absolutely vital,” McBain tells just-food. “This is the must-win battle.”
In fact, Thai Union’s 2020 GHG emissions goal was comparatively modest, with the company aiming for a 30% reduction in GHG emissions per ton of production against a 2016 baseline. Crucially, it only covered Scope 1 and 2 direct emissions, but McBain says Thai Union will be moving to a science-based target, which would be certified as aligned with the Paris Agreement goals and would extend to Scope 3 indirect emissions from elsewhere in the value chain.
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By GlobalDataA recent report from the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP), an initiative bringing together 14 heads of government to develop solutions for ocean health in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, sets out five principal ocean-based climate actions which combined would provide 21% of the GHG emissions reduction needed by 2050 to keep global warming below 1.5°C.
One of the five action areas groups together “fisheries, aquaculture and dietary shifts”. It summarises the contribution that a seafood protein specialist can make by reducing emissions intensity from wild catch and aquaculture, whilst at the same time adapting product ranges to shift diets towards low-carbon marine sources such as sustainably harvested fish, seaweed and kelp.
“We have actually had products in the market that are alternative proteins for a few years now,” McBain points out. “We’re certainly looking at alternative tuna proteins, substances that look like tuna and behave like tuna, possibly aiming at the flexitarian market, maybe vegetarians or vegans, but definitely people who would otherwise be consuming tuna.”
The other ocean-based actions the HLP report identifies are ocean-based renewable energy, coastal and marine ecosystems, carbon storage in the seabed and ocean-based transport. McBain says the areas the report identifies provide “an interesting perspective for a seafood company as to where our priorities need to lie”, and adds: “I think there’s scope to drive down carbon emissions in aquaculture. I think there’s greater opportunities for aquaculture in general. In wild capture, marine transport and logistics play a larger part of that footprint.”
Making its aquaculture production more sustainable is already a key priority for Thai Union. The company recently began trials replacing fishmeal in the feed for its commercially farmed shrimp with FeedKind, a sustainable alternative protein produced by biotech ingredients firm Calysta.
The company is also looking at algae as an alternative protein source for fish feed. “So, the algal proteins and algal oils are certainly very interesting and we’re working with some of the major producers of those,” McBain says: “I think for the aquaculture industry – that’s definitely a ‘watch this space’.”
Thai Union also announced in October it had founded a venture capital fund “as part of its continuous investment in innovation”, initially committing US$30m for investments in companies developing breakthrough technology/food tech ideas in alternative protein, functional nutrition or value chain technology. The first investment announced for the fund is in Flying Spark, a start-up producing an alternative protein from the larvae of fruit flies.
While there will clearly be a major emphasis on GHG emissions and climate change in the next iteration of the SeaChange strategy, McBain stresses Thai Union is looking to develop a holistic approach to sustainability bringing healthy diets and environmental sustainability together. “We’re looking at moving towards ‘healthy living, healthy oceans’,” McBain explains. “So, how can you have the healthy diets that also support the healthy environments, and what is our role to play in that?”
McBain also believes the scope for businesses to engage effectively in global efforts has increased greatly as international institutions such as the UN have recognised the valuable contribution companies can make.
“So, as you look at some of these major global problems that the world is going to need to solve, whether it’s climate change, whether it’s ending modern slavery, I think you find the governments and intergovernmental groups are recognising the way you operationalise any of these strategies is going to be through working with business,” McBain says. “No one sector can solve it alone but definitely business has an increasingly important role to play.”
In particular, she believes the Sustainable Development Goals have been successful in this regard. Thai Union has sought to align its sustainability strategy with three SDGs, namely SDG 2, relating to food security and ending hunger; SDG 8, which promotes sustainable and inclusive economic growth and includes a goal relating to forced labour and modern-day slavery; and SDG 14 relating to sustainable oceans. “When we go on to the next evolution of the strategy, climate change [SDG 13] will be the fourth one,” McBain says.
The global goals have been a “galvanising force”, McBain suggests. “The Sustainable Development Goals have actually been very good at gathering the support from businesses and a bit more direction towards where we need to go. I think what the SDGs have done, which the Millennium Development Goals failed to do, is engage businesses on the journey and set a direction of travel towards 2030 that everyone needs to be on, that wasn’t existing previously.”
