The corporate reported that it decreased its CO2 emissions by 13.3% between 2021 and 2022 and by 9% between 2022 and 2023, noting that each are considerably greater than the 4.2% annual discount required to restrict international warming to 1.5°C as referred to as for within the Paris Settlement.
“Analyzing the entire worth chain is a very powerful side in figuring out and quantifying the CO2 emissions,” mentioned Iver Lande Kvalsvik, sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) supervisor at Epax. “Some boundaries are comparatively straightforward to beat and others fairly difficult, but it surely was essential to rethink every thing we do and the way we do it.”
He added that decreasing emission elements required a heavy funding however that it was essential to propel Epax’s formidable aim of absolute discount in CO2 emissions annually to 2030.
Attaining cuts
Epax says it has largely achieved cuts by decreasing fossil gasoline use, made doable by the set up of a brand new electrical boiler in 2021 to provide steam.
In 2023, the corporate reached a brand new milestone, reporting that greater than 95% of power consumed got here from clear and renewable hydropower, up from 17% in 2020. It goals to satisfy 100% of its power wants with hydropower in 2024.
“We at all times have used hydroelectric energy, however with the brand new electrical boiler, we are able to cowl virtually all our power demand with this renewable supply,” Kvalsvik mentioned.
Altering energy sources was an apparent transfer for Epax in direction of its 2030 objectives, he famous, including that the corporate has additionally invested in a brand new power grid and electrical energy transformers.
Reaching sustainability objectives
Epax highlighted these achievements in its second annual Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, which detailed how the corporate is working to align with 5 of the United Nations Sustainable Improvement Targets (SDGs): clear water and sanitation, first rate work and financial development, accountable manufacturing and consumption, local weather motion and life beneath water.
Different milestones to this point embody a 65% lower in the quantity of potable water used for cooling via the set up of a brand new plant that makes use of seawater—separated from the manufacturing circulate and returned to the ocean uncontaminated—as an alternative of consuming water to chill course of operations. The corporate says that it goals to cut back potable water use by 80% (in comparison with 2021) by 2025.
As well as, Epax reported a rise in circularity in using marine biomaterials to 97% by rising manufacturing yields and reworking supplies that might beforehand have been handled as waste into merchandise within the meals chain.
To make sure full traceability and sustainability of uncooked supplies, the firm can also be solely utilizing fish inventory licensed by Buddy of the Sea (FOS), a undertaking by the World Sustainability Group that certifies and promotes seafood from sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.
