Nutreco’s corporate sustainability director, José Villalon, attended COP25, the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Madrid, Spain. During two panel sessions, José delivered a strong message about how private companies can – and should – work across the value chain to significantly reduce their impact on climate change in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

“The private sector should expand its reach and not only focus on profits and return on investments, but also pursue its ethical responsibilities to ensure the communities where they operate address poverty reduction, sustainable food security and societal wellbeing. Global companies like Nutreco are not only well-positioned to make a bold impact but have a clear social responsibility to do so,” said Villalon. 

During Responding to Climate Change (RTCC) event on sustainability aquaculture and food security, he spoke on behalf of Nutreco’s aquaculture division, Skretting, about the essential role that the aquaculture industry must play in feeding the growing global population. “The industry needs to earn its social license to operate by enabling farmers to increase their food production by 50% while Nutreco cuts in half its’ environmental impact,” continued Villalon. “Novel feed ingredients, such as protein from insects or from bacteria fed on recycled CO₂ as well as fermented algae producing high omega-3 are a few of several viable tools to achieve this ambition, but we cannot do it alone,” said Villalon.

During the Global Awareness for a Sustainable Future session he talked about the critical importance of how the private sector should expand its reach and not only focus on profits and return on investments but also pursue its ethical responsibilities to ensure the communities where they operate address poverty reduction, sustainable food security and societal wellbeing. Displaying initiatives from the company’s Trouw Nutrition division, Villalon showed how Nutreco’s approach – centered on creating shared value, reducing poverty and addressing food security in rural communities, achieve more by doing more with less, and measurably decreasing greenhouse gases through science-based targets (SBT) methodology.