As the world's population is predicted to increase to more than nine billion by 2050, there is an incredible demand placed on our food production systems, on both land and sea. To protect the sustainability of our planet and continue to supply nutritious food for the world's population, Alltech is focused on working together for a Planet of Plenty™ and has committed to nine of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a subsidiary of Alltech and a specialist in fish feed, Alltech Coppens is focused on SDG 14: Life Below Water and improving sustainable developments in the aquaculture industry.
Alltech Coppens has started the journey to reduce the environmental impact of emissions related to feed and conducted extensive research on alternative protein sources and the use of feed ingredients. The nutrition, quality and procurement teams at the Alltech Coppens Aqua Center worked together to develop a sustainability scoring system for feeds. This scoring system aims to create awareness in the market and enable fish farmers to improve environmental performance. The resulting score reflects the carbon footprint, as well as the impact on other aspects, such as water use, eutrophication and even marine resource sustainability. A better understanding of sustainability-related aspects also allows for more-informed decisions in feed formulation, which are aimed towards increasing the sustainability of fish feeds.
“Our goal is to provide a greater understanding of sustainability in the aquaculture industry while tackling emissions and decreasing our footprint by consistently assessing feed ingredients and production processes,” said Ronald Faber, CEO and global aqua lead at Alltech Coppens. “We started this project with the specific objective of working toward a Planet of Plenty and contributing to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.”
Alltech Coppens launched a webpage dedicated to aqua sustainability, focused on three main areas: Science and Innovation, Sustainable Operations and People and Communities, which are directly related to the value chain. The new sustainability webpage outlines where the company stands today regarding this topic and plans for the future.
