INTERACTION WITH WATER AS A SHARED RESOURCE

Management and responsibility for freshwater withdrawals, waste water treatment and discharge are located locally in each company in the Group. The overall responsibility to form policies, establish KPI`s and strategies for our withdrawals, treatment and discharge of water lies with the Group management. In addition the Group have a responsibility to consolidate, and control reported water related data from all companies.

All Water withdrawal per source, and discharge per treatment type and destination are reported monthly through Cemasys (Cemasys.com). LSG have developed Apps in PowerBI to monitor, control and analyse all environmental data reported through Cemasys. Based on these tools our companies are better equipped to control their environmental accounting, see trends and implement preventive actions to mitigate negative impacts, and potensially increase possible postive impacts. In addition we can monitor if our actions have the desired effect. Actual and potential impacts, both positive and negative from our operations have been identified through Risk evaluations. We have identified that our operations do not have any significant impact on water bodies which we have permits for water withdrawal or discharge water quality. There are some potential negative impacts of our operations. If we withdraw significantly more water over time than we are allowed to, it can in worst case cause ireprable damage to local flora and fauna in the area.  This will in turn impact our operations, potensially leading to reduced capasity, employment and downstream activities. Our most water intensive operation do not withdraw water from drinking water sources.

LSG report in accordance with guidelines from several third party benchmarking organizations and stakeholders (Coller FAIIR, CDP and GRI). In 2022 LSG extended our risk assessment regarding water withdrawal, water discharge and consumption of freshwater for all locations in the group using WRI Aquaduct (https://www.wri.org/aqueduct) as a tool to identify which of our operations are located in areas with medium to high risk of Water Stress and Water Depletion. Locations identified as being at risk for Water Stress and/or Water Depletion (See table xxx below) are in a continuous process of monitoring their local impacts and form action plans and frameworks. Where policies are established on a national level, companies in the group have been informed and are in dialogue with official representatives. This is an ongoing process which have generated actions to reduce water withdrawal and improve water treatment of discharged water (See table 5 below).

LSG are committed to ensure that all our employees have their basic needs regarding fresh water available in all our operations. This includes their right to access to clean quality fresh drinking water, sanitation facilities and clean working clothes. There have been no whistleblowing cases related this topic in 2022.

The Group have not registered any violations of regulations related to use of -and discharge of water in 2022.

Fresh water related data have been audited by third party.

More information can be found in our LSG Water withdrawal and waste water discharge Policy.

CAPEX and OPEX

Table 1: Water related CAPEX and OPEX:

WATER WITHDRAWL

The worlds dependency on clean freshwater have never been greater. With an increasing global population, increased temperatures due to increased Co2 emissions and increased pollution, it has become even more important to govern our water sources in a sustainable manner.

LSG take this responsibility seriously and strive to protect and safeguard the freshwater sources we draw water from. We have devised strict protocols and procedures to make sure that we do not draw on more water than we are allowed to.

We are also in dialogue with local stakeholders and communities thorough local meetings organized by Lerøy. We need, through our ASC certification, to have meetings with local stakeholders and communities to discuss concerns and questions they have. To this date water withdrawal, water discharge and consummation of water have not been a topic at any of these meetings. We have neither had any enquiries or questions asked regarding our water management from Stakeholders.

We also continue our effort to switch all flow through systems for Salmon farming over to RAS and invest in water saving equipment in our downstream operations (See table 1). 

Table 2: Overview water withdrawal, discharged water and Water withdrawal per kg produced LSG 2021 and 2022 with % change

*Incomplete dataset for 2021

**excluding farming operations (Farming, Smolt production, cleanerfish production and parentfish production)

Our water withdrawals have increased in 2022 compared to 2021. Our smolt production operations contribute to a significant part all the increase. We also see a decrease in some processing facilities, while an increase in the total volume water withdrawn for our VAP Sales and Distribution segment. Below is listed main reasons for the increase, and decrease in water withdrawal:

• Increased production volume in our smolt production operations at Bjørsvik (16 427 490 m3 2021 and 19 464 725 m3 in 2022)
• Flatråker produced fish of larger size in 2022 compared to 2021 (9 932 731 m3 in 2021 and 12 016 080 m3 in 2022). This demands higher throughput of freshwater.
• Water saving initiatives and investment in water saving equipment have resulted in a decrease in water withdrawal in our processing plants.
  1. Lerøy Aurora processing plant have reduced their water withdrawal (473 340 m3 in 2021 m3 to 428 050 m3 in 2022)
  2. Lerøy Turkey Processing have reduced their water withdrawal (15 649 m3 in 2021 to 14 394 m3 in 2022)
  3. Lerøy Seafood Holding BV in the Netherlands reduced their water withdrwal ( 130 976 m3 in 2021 to 110 193 m3 in 2022)
• Newly acquired companies and factories late 2021 and in 2022.
  1. Lerøy Seafood Italy Srl Opened in late 2021 (3 029 m3 water withdrawal in 2021 and 8 898 m3 in 2022)
  2. Acquired Lerøy Seafood Denmark late 2021 (68 386 m3 water withdrawal in 2021 and 178 923 m3 during 2022)
  3. New factory built in Kungelv Sweden in May 2022 (5 985 m3 during May – December).

Table 3: Water withdrawal per source in m3 (2022)

The farming segment used 0,36 m3 fresh water per kg fish produced, while our slaughterhouses used 0,0093 m3 freshwater per kg fish produced, and our VAP segment used 0,0058 m3 in 2022.  Wildcatch segment used 0,0052 m3 per kg fish produced. This signifies a reduction for all segments compared to 2021.

Water related impacts and Risks

In our operations, and mainly the Smolt operations, there have been identified risks which may have a negative impact on our operations. Long term drought has the highest consequences for our operations and may cause severe impacts on both fish welfare and economics. Long term drought which will deplete our water reserves in magazines is however deemed unlikely since access to clean high quality freshwater in Norway is good. In addition we have long term permits and agreements for water withdrawal from Water sources which mitigates some of the Risk of water shortages.

In addition, all processing factories located in areas with medium to High risk of Water stress (See table 4), there can be risk associated with access to clean freshwater. To date no such problems have been reported, but we are planning for the eventuality that it may become an issue.

Our Downstream units are mainly located in industrial zones. These zones have both heavy and low water intensive industry. Our operations and withdrawal of water in these zones are considered as low compared to the other industries. Our business could however be influenced if water shortages and or regulatory changes divert water permissions to high intensive industries in periods of shortages. This has not occurred, and we se it as unlikely to influence our operations.

Water saving technology

The RAS (Recirculating Aquaculture Systems) technology allows Lerøy Seafood Group to produce fish with up to 99% reduction in water use compared to conventional flow-through systems. The Group started to use RAS-technology already in 2005.

In 2022, approximately 80% of all salmon smolt in Lerøy Seafood Group was reared with this technology. RAS technology also entails that we recycle and cleans the water before discharge. In 2022 the total volume of freshwater which was recycled and reused in RAS systems was approximately 76 537 628 m3. That is 78 % of the total withdrawn water in the group.

Tabell 5: List of water saving and quality initiatives in companies with locations in medium to High risk of water stress (WRI Aquaduct)

Units which are not in water stress areas have also implemented water reducing initatives and water quality improvements  during 2022. This will, in addtion to improve our impact one the environment, also improve food safety and finances.

WATER DISCHARGE - Effluents

We continue our work with water treatment and discharge data. During 2022 we have established new procedures and guidelines for reporting of water discharge data. We have included in the reporting the subtracting of Ice -and Brine production from the total waste water discharge figures. This way we are able to calculate our consumed water. From 2023 we will also include water evaporation from Rice cooking in our Sushi production.

In 2023 we will investigate, and implement if possible waste water discharge limits according to the World Bank Water Resource Management.  

All of our processing factories, new and old, are equipped with fat separators and UV light treatment. In some factories, where it’s necessary, we also have chemical treatment (Chlorine) of waste water in addition to mechanical treatment before discharge.

See table 4 for discharge volumes per segment, and factories in areas with medium to high water stress risks.

Management of Water discharge related impacts

The group had no water related incidents or accidents related to water withdrawal and water discharge in 2022.

Discharge water is analysed and tested in accordance with local regulations/requirements or permits (See tables 6-9), and deviations is handled in our quality management system.

Depending on location and local requirements parameters analysed can be TOC (Total Organic Carbon), N_tot (Total Nitrogen) and P_tot (total phosphor) for Juvenile fish production, or Biological oxygen demand (BOD), Chemical oxygen demand (COD) fats and solids for factories. The limit, or degree purified water for these can wary depending on permit and area of operations. The permits also describes which type of analyse must be done within each Limit (Phosporus in ml/l, Nitrogen in ml/l, fat in mg/l, COD and BOD and Settled solids (SS) in ml/l).

Below are tables showing examples of regulatory limits for operations in areas with low and medium to high risk of water stress.

Table 6: Discharge limits for a Juvenil fish production location in LSG 2022. Low risk of water stress.

Table 7: Discharge limits for Lerøy Turkey (VAPS&D segment). High risk of water stress

Table 8: Discharge limits for Lerøy France – Fishcut factory (VAPS&D segment) High risk of water stress

Table 9: Discharge limits for Brandasund (Industry - Slaughterhouse), Low risk of water stress.

Table 10: Discharge limits for Lerøy Portugal  (VAPS&D segment) medium to high risk of water stress

In Holland there are no regulations for discharge water for our operations, they are only required to analyse their waste water before release to municipal water treatment plant once pr year. 

In our farming segment our most water intensive operations are the juvenile fish production, and discharged wastewater from these operations are managed through approvals from local governments.

New technology and proximity to a biogas facility in Sweden have made it possible for one of our factories to send wastewater for treatment there, and at the same time recover biogas from the wastewater discharge. This has resulted in eliminating treatment on site which is beneficial for all parties.

Using RAS technology allows us to discharge the recycled water directly back to the source or directly to the sea according to our permits. These permits for release of discharge water have different parameters which needs to be fulfilled based on location (See table 6-10 above).

All Water related non-conformites are reported, handled and stored in our Quality Management system. This system enables us to keep track of trends and implement correct corrective and preventive actions. Lerøy had no major incidents regarding wastewater spills or unwanted/unplanned discharge in 2022.

Water Consumption

In Accordance with CDP reporting framework we started to measure consumption of fresh water during 2022. Please see table 4 above for consumption data for the entire Group. The consumption of freshwater is calculated based on water withdrawal and water Discharge (Water withdrawal – Water discharge = Water consumption). Regarding the groups withdrawal of seawater for our processing operations, all withdrawn seawater is discharged directly back to the sea or municipal treatment centre.

The consumption of fresh water are related to ice production and Brine injection in our Industry and VAPS&D segment. From 2023 the consumption of water related to Rice cooking (sushi production) will also be included in the reporting. Not all factories have these activities so the consumption are zero for these units.

Lerøy do not use any water storage (facilities or reservoirs).

Water management Suppliers

Lerøy have a collaboration with our suppliers of fish feed regarding water risk Management. It is important to determine the full risk profile and understand the actions needed to minimize risks linked with water use related to agriculture raw materials. We are in the process of finalizing a risk assessment survey to fully understand the suppliers risk profile and which actions have to been taken on water related infrastructure, sustainable water withdrawal, sustainable water supply, buffer zones and the protection of water bodies from pollution. This process has resulted in a water conservation and efficiency plan for each supplier.

The plan will include the following:

• Risk assessment of operations to identify which locations are in medium to high risk of water stress (WRI Aquaduct as tool).
• Monitoring water stress indices for each location
• Locations with medium to high water stress will implement water efficiency Programmes (WEP) to manage the risk.
• Plans to develop KPI`s for water reduction and improve water quality in areas with medium to high water stress.
• List of preventive actions implemented or to be implemented, to reduce water withdrawal and increase water quality
• Regulations and standards.