New Zealand King Salmon on their world-first EPD

7th Dec 2021

For more than 30 years the New Zealand King Salmon Company has been growing King salmon and is now the world’s largest producer of this unique species. The company has a strong commitment to sustainability. They see aquaculture’s potential as a positive force for the health of people, nature, and their company. Amongst their corporate commitments is a promise to be a trustworthy and transparent community partner. So, the transparency and independent verification of an EPD is a perfect fit for the organisation.

In October 2021 EPD Australasia published New Zealand King Salmon Ltd’s first EPD for their fresh, frozen and smoked products – a world first for farmed king salmon. We spoke to Brand Manager, Lauren Sheridan about the company’s EPD experience and plans for the future.

What prompted NZ King Salmon to undertake an EPD and how does this fit with the company’s overall environmental positioning?

Having previously undertaken an LCA, we viewed the EPD as the next logical step on our environmental journey and were excited by the opportunity to develop the world’s first EPD for farmed King salmon.

An EPD assesses a product across a range of environmental indicators; including the potential to emit carbon, deplete natural resources, and cause algal blooms. As they are verified by third-party experts, EPDs are a reputable, trusted source of information so we were confident it would be a beneficial tool to demonstrate our environmental leadership, in addition to further understanding our own context.

How did you find the process of finalising an EPD?

We partnered with a range of organisations and experts to finalise the EPD. From contributing to the newly created PCR, assessing the environmental impact over the products’ life cycles, to developing and verifying the EPD and of course, designing the final branded EPD document and registering it. Being the first of its kind, there were many stages involved in the process and the entire project took longer than forecast. However, it is very satisfying to see it complete and registered on the EPD Australasia website.

How do you plan to use the EPD in the months ahead?

Firstly, we will use the EPD and the LCA which underpins it, for internal benchmarking purposes; identifying and creating reduction targets for the environmental impacts of our operations.

We also plan to use the EPD to communicate the environmental performance of our products to other businesses – including supermarkets in our distribution chain. As consumers are increasingly interested in the environmental footprint of their food, we may use the EPD information in our consumer marketing too. We hope these marketing activities will build our relationships with wholesale customers, reinforce our position as a market leader in the aquaculture industry, and grow brand and retail market share.