Category: World Wildlife Fund

Source: World Wildlife Fund

Source: World Wildlife Fund

Source: World Wildlife Fund

Today, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Freshwater Select, in collaboration with industry partners, launched the Invasive Carp Consortium (ICC) which will propel market forces to halt the damage caused by invasive carp to U.S. lakes and rivers. By increasing demand for carp products as a source of protein for both humans and animals, the ICC unifies and amplifies the private sector’s commitment to reduce the population of this harmful species and counteract its environmental damage while contributing to a circular economy.

Invasive carp, originally introduced into the U.S. decades ago as a novel tool for pond cleaning, have infested and overwhelmed river systems in the American Midwest. The fish weigh around 30 pounds and jump high out of water, colliding with anything in their path. Their proliferation has devastated sport fishing, eliminated recreational water sports, killed off native species, and wreaked havoc on aquatic ecosystems.

“Over the years there have been several invasive carp eradication programs, but these fish continue to spread like a plague throughout our waterways,” said Ellen Dierenfeld, who leads sustainable feed innovation at WWF. “We’re coming at this problem in a totally new way that hits two targets at once. By developing market demand for enhanced carp products for human and animal feed, we create viable options for harvesting these fish on a large scale, adding to the blue economy as well as food system circularity. And we also alleviate some of the adverse environmental effects of traditional livestock, aquaculture, and animal feed production.”

“Developing markets for invasive carp is the ultimate long-term solution to what was once considered an unsolvable problem,” said Matthew Sulkowski, CEO of Freshwater Select. “Everyone benefits here. With this level of industry collaboration and support, fishers will be able to harvest carp more safely and responsibly, processors will have access to a longer-term supply of high-quality carp, and companies can support a critical environmental initiative by purchasing it.”

The ICC is an industry trade association whose members represent the broader private sector actors in the carp supply chain. Key tenants of the organization include providing education and outreach to support market growth while adhering to sustainable business practices, and creating a more robust, responsible, and transparent food supply chain market through data and transparency into the freshwater fish industry.

For more information, visit https://invasivecarpconsortium.com/

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Media Contacts:

Lorin Hancock, World Wildlife Fund, [email protected]

Matthew Sulkowski, [email protected]

About World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

WWF is one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, working in nearly 100 countries for over half a century to help people and nature thrive. With the support of more than 5 million members worldwide, WWF is dedicated to delivering science-based solutions to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth, halt the degradation of the environment and combat the climate crisis. Visit http://www.worldwildlife.org to learn more and keep up with the latest conservation news by following @WWFNews on Twitter and signing up for our newsletter and news alerts here.

Source: World Wildlife Fund

London, United Kingdom – March 6, 10am BST: Today, Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) in partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched a first of its kind environmental, social, governance (ESG) risk assessment tool for feed ingredients. The tool will improve visibility into supply chains, allowing stakeholders to better identify and address possible ESG risks. GSI and WWF designed the tool to support the salmon farming sector, but the wider animal protein production sectors, including livestock, may also benefit from its use.

The tool provides a consistent and aligned framework for farming companies to engage with their respective feed suppliers in order to get a holistic overview of possible risks in the feed supply chain. These risks could include biodiversity loss, climate change, resource use, environmental footprint, health and welfare, nutrition, human rights, and governance, among others. It can also help companies assess the scalability of future novel ingredients. With this knowledge, companies can make more informed sourcing decisions aligned with their strategic priorities and values. The tool, developed over a three-year period in consultation with the GSI members, WWF, and industry feed companies, is the first time a common methodology is available to support greater alignment in feed data collection.

“Feed ingredient sourcing remains one of the main sustainability challenges in salmon farming, and food production more broadly,” said Daniel Miller, aquaculture lead specialist at WWF. “The surprising amount of unknown information in feed–ingredient supply chains leaves the sector open to unintentional risks and vulnerabilities—even for companies prioritizing sustainable, ethical production. With this tool, GSI members are taking a proactive approach to address these risks and identify opportunities to improve the supply chain. Looking at supply chains broadly and holistically doesn’t just mitigate risk; it also facilitates more informed and strategic decisions.”

“We know we need to improve the level of transparency and traceability in our supply chains. Not only for our own knowledge, but also to provide feedback and assurances to our stakeholders whether customers, regulators, communities or long-term investors that we are sourcing from responsible and sustainable sources. By developing a common tool so producers can all ask the same questions of the supply chain which will streamline requests and improve the level of traceability, ultimately supporting accelerated improvements in the sustainability of the ingredients being used for feed,” said Tor Eirik Homme, Director of Feed and Nutrition, Grieg Seafood.

“This tool isn’t designed only for farmed salmon, or even just aquaculture, we see it having critical impact across the animal protein production sectors, and even pet feed, that all share many of the same supply chains and risks. While GSI has taken the first step to develop and trial the tool, we will now be working with other WWF partners to expand its use,” added Miller.

Sourcing feed ingredients from diverse supply chains makes it challenging to identify and mitigate all the current and potential ESG risks of our global operations. We’ve made significant progress over the past few years in addressing many of these risks, but we have more work to do and our pace needs to accelerate. We support the implementation of the ESG tool because it will help us better identify what we know and what we don’t know about the impacts of certain ingredients, and

in addressing these concerns, we will increase the transparency in our sourcing and ultimately improve our performance,” added Jorge Diaz Salinas, Sustainability Manager, Skretting.

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has also reviewed the tool and intends to incorporate it as one of its due diligence mechanisms to be part of the ASC Feed Standard certification process.

In addition to the tool, WWF in collaboration with GSI and Grieg Seafood, released a business case, Feed of the Future: Transparent and Traceable. The paper outlines the challenges inherent in feed production, the development of the tool, and Grieg Seafood’s experience applying it to their supply chain.

The tool is in its first iteration and will be updated as companies begin to use it and collect insights into their supply chains. Additionally, annual amendments will ensure the tool continues to support and deliver on its intended purpose.

All data collected as part of the tool is confidential and only shared between feed supplier and farming company. By using the tool and identifying possible risks, the aim is to utilize this knowledge to encourage innovation, spur continued developments in the sourcing of feed ingredients to minimize ESG risk, and ensure farmed salmon continues to offer a healthy and sustainable food choice.

For more information on the tool, on what it covers and strives to achieve, please view these two supporting documents:

ABOUT GSI

Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) is a leadership initiative established in 2013 by global farmed salmon producers focused on making significant progress on industry sustainability. Today, GSI comprises 22 companies that are fully committed to realizing a shared goal of providing a highly sustainable source of healthy food to feed a growing global population, whilst minimizing our environmental footprint, and continuing to improve our social contributions.

GSI member companies are Australis Seafoods S.A.; Bakkafrost; Blumar; Cermaq; Salmones Camanchaca SA; Empresas AquaChile; Grieg Seafood ASA; Huon Aquaculture, Multiexport Foods S.A.; Nova Sea AS; Salmones Austral; Salmones Aysen; Tassal; and Ventisqueros. GSI companies have a presence in Australia, Canada, Chile, Faroe Islands, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom.

GSI also has a number of supply chain Associate Members in both the feed and pharmaceutical industries, including Benchmark Holdings plc; BioMar; Cargill; Elanco; Merck, Sharpe and Dohme (MSD) Animal Health; PHARMAQ; Salmofood; and Skretting.

For further information on GSI, please visit or contact us at:

Media contact:

Sophie Ryan
GSI CEO
[email protected]

About World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

WWF is one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, working in nearly 100 countries for over half a century to help people and nature thrive. With the support of more than 5 million members worldwide, WWF is dedicated to delivering science-based solutions to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth, halt the degradation of the environment and combat the climate crisis. Visit http://www.worldwildlife.org to learn more and keep up with the latest conservation news by following @WWFNews on Twitter and signing up for our newsletter and news alerts.

Media contact:

Lorin Hancock

World Wildlife Fund Media Relations

[email protected]

Source: World Wildlife Fund

This week, the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty issued a letter to President Biden, expressing their support for comprehensive policy solutions to address the plastic pollution crisis. The Coalition urged strong federal leadership to enact policies like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), to incentivize companies to reduce their plastic footprints, design easy-to-recycle materials, and keep plastic out of nature. This letter comes after WWF and several other leading organizations called for a whole-of-government approach at the federal level to advance ambitious solutions to plastic pollution.

In response, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued the following statements from Alejandro Pérez, senior vice president of policy and government affairs; and Erin Simon, vice president and head of plastic waste + business:

“The Biden Administration has a clear opportunity to drive historic action toward solving the plastic pollution crisis. This level of cross-sector, unified support from leading American businesses, foundations and nonprofits for ambitious solutions signals strong support for meaningful and bold steps by the federal government to reduce plastic waste.

“This is the moment for the Administration to accelerate its already-significant leadership on this issue. Advancing a comprehensive and coordinated federal plan will help tackle plastic pollution in the US and is the perfect complement to the Administration’s ongoing efforts at the international level.”

— Alejandro Pérez, senior vice president of policy and government affairs

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“This surround-sound of voices advocating meaningful, comprehensive policy action on our plastic pollution crisis is too loud to ignore. This is an issue passionately advocated for by voters, nonprofits and foundations — and corporate support is making this call even stronger.

“Leading companies have made some progress in addressing their plastic footprints. To make an impact at the scale of this crisis, we need to tackle the jumble of disparate policies and inadequate recycling systems. Nationwide EPR policy, which would require companies to take responsibility for their plastic products from cradle to grave, would provide the consistency and incentives needed to jumpstart our country toward a new era in tackling plastic pollution.

“As we head into the next round of international discussions toward a global plastics treaty, we hope our leaders hear this call for action and respond. Let’s show the world that we will put our money where our mouth is and lead the way toward a circular economy. “

— Erin Simon, vice president and head of plastic waste + business

Source: World Wildlife Fund

Source: World Wildlife Fund

Today, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) joined several NGO’s and foundations to issue a letter to President Biden calling for him to institute a whole-of-government approach at the federal level to advance ambitious solutions to plastic pollution, both in the U.S. and internationally. WWF issued the following statement from Alejandro Pérez, senior vice president of policy and government affairs:

“With plastic pollution devastating our environment and threatening the economic and human health of our communities, we need bold action at all levels of society with the U.S. government leading the way. We are calling on the President to elevate this issue across his Administration, activating the full power of the federal government and signaling American leadership on an issue of global significance.

“The Administration has already demonstrated significant leadership, including by working with other countries toward securing an international agreement to end plastic pollution. We must seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to set ourselves on a course to a future where plastic no longer ends up in nature.

“By instituting a whole-of-government approach at the federal level, you can empower these growing efforts, help them flourish, and add significant momentum to efforts to advance ambitious solutions to plastic pollution in the U.S. and internationally. We respectfully encourage you to take such presidential action…” – Excerpt from Letter to President Biden

“We also need concerted action in the U.S. to put solutions in place now. Presidential action to address plastic pollution here at home will spur the regulatory certainty that leading companies are calling for to enable them to innovate and move further faster. It will also help to drive global ambition at a pivotal moment.

“President Biden has an opportunity to put the full weight of the federal government behind solutions to catalyze a circular economy and set the stage for concerted global action. We are witnessing a groundswell of support from business and the American public. It’s time to supercharge it with a government-wide approach to reducing plastic pollution.”

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Source: World Wildlife Fund

Today, the Copernicus Climate Change Service released data detailing the record-breaking temperatures recorded in January 2024, making it the warmest January on record. The data shows that Earth endured 12 consecutive months with global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In response, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued the following statement from Marcene Mitchell, WWF senior vice president of climate change: 

“This is yet another reminder that while much has been accomplished, our work to-date to address climate change isn’t enough. This warmest January on record marked the eighth month in a row of record-setting temperatures. It’s time to stop ignoring the bell that tolls for a climate tragedy, and use this data to inform our next steps, both in the U.S. and globally.   

“We must act in the next six years to bend the curve on emissions, so what we decide to do now is more important than ever before — and the solutions are within our reach. Action now must consist of activities like tripling renewable energy deployment, phasing out fossil fuels, taking gas cars off the road, electrifying our homes and buildings, and investing in green technologies to transform industry and food systems. 

“It’s going to require active intervention, but committing to these steps can significantly shift the fight against climate change in our favor. We must pick up the pace to ensure a healthier, more just, and sustainable future.”

Source: World Wildlife Fund

Source: World Wildlife Fund