DSM looks to reduce the environmental footprint of salmon farming
The company said salmon producer, Bakkafrost, based in The Faroe Islands, was the development partner for the Sustell salmon module and is one of the first to utilize the DSM technology to model and reduce the environmental footprint of their salmon farming operations.
Regin Jacobsen, CEO Bakkafrost, said the collaboration with DSM underpins the commitment of both companies to significantly accelerate and future-proof sustainable salmon.
“With Sustell, we will have access to science-based calculation and analysis of 19 different environmental categories for our operations. This will allow Bakkafrost to calculate, using real data from our feed production and farming sites, to model and then adopt interventions to reduce the environmental footprint of salmon farming.”
Increasing demand from retailers, consumers, investors and regulators for more sustainable animal protein means that producers need to show they have accurate, reliable and transparent methods to measure and credibly reduce the environmental footprint of farmed animal protein including fish.
Simplifying measurement
David Nickell, vice president, sustainability and business solutions, DSM animal nutrition and health, said that having real, credible and accurate data will unlock opportunities for seafood producers and their value chain partners. “We designed Sustell to simplify the complexity of measuring, validating, and improving the environmental sustainability of animal protein transparently and scientifically, farm by farm, system by system. We put strong emphasis on a robust and great user experience.”
He spoke to FeedNavigator about the live cycle analysis (LCA) trend in farming and how Sustell ties into that at VIV Europe 2022.
DSM explained how it developed Sustell together with Blonk, an independent consultancy expert in life cycle analysis (LCA) in food and agriculture, with the service built around an intelligence platform that is connected to the Blonk APS-footprint tool, together with an expert center made up of a team of DSM and Blonk experts in LCA, animal nutrition, health and sustainability.
That Sustell expert center, it continued, partners with customers, assessing the baseline environmental footprint of their animal production using their actual farm and feed data rather than industry averages and proxy data sets, and then developing case-specific intervention scenarios known as ‘what-if’ models to make measurable sustainability improvements.
