Sanford is the only major seafood company to have maintained ISO 14001 environmental certification across its New Zealand operations for the last 14 years.

We are also the only major seafood company to have publicly produced an Integrated Annual Report that integrates environmental, social and economic performance using the Integrated Reporting (IR) framework and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI-G4) global indicators.

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

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. In order to be the best seafood company in the world, we need to recognise that our operations have an impact and put in place initiatives to manage and reduce these over time.

In order to ensure accuracy and consistency, our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) information is collated through a standardised reporting tool, used across the business.

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. Within our deepwater operations MoTeC, a data acquisition system, is installed on vessels to gather data on the amount of fuel used when steaming in various weather and fishing conditions. Our goal is to identify the optimal speed for the vessels concerned. MoTeC is also becoming a fundamental tool for engineers to assist with managing and maintaining each vessel. Our inshore vessels are also being re-evaluated to ensure optimum operational and fuel efficiencies are achieved.

By allowing the engineers to analyse systems while at sea, fuel efficiency can be improved and future engine failures can be reduced through the ability to investigate past malfunctions.

Fishing Technologies
We have successfully introduced Dyneema™ net material onto two of our deepwater vessels, San Discovery and San Enterprise, and one of our scampi vessels, Albatross.

Dyneema™ is a high-performance polyethylene fibre known to be the world’s strongest fibre. It is resistant to abrasion, most chemicals and salt, but light enough to float on water. Being lightweight and having a very low resistance, it creates significantly less drag, improving fuel eco-efficiency.

Other benefits include higher catch performance on the same amount of fuel and lower maintenance costs due the high durability of Dyneema™ fibre, as well as a reduction in the wear and tear of other equipment, such as winches and warps.

We are constantly looking at energy efficiencies from our fishing equipment, the use of hydro dynamically designed foiled trawl doors and other examples.

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.