Sustainability matters are becoming increasingly important both for us and our stakeholders. As a food importer, our operations generate carbon dioxide emissions that we aim to reduce. That’s why we have embarked on a systematic approach to measure our own emissions.
We began the examination of our carbon dioxide emissions in our logistics operations, which involves the transportation of the end products in our portfolio from suppliers to our warehouses and then on to our customers. The project started in the spring of 2022 when we began mapping partners for the project, and we chose the Finnish company Green Carbon as our partner due to their experience in calculating the carbon footprint in the food industry. The first-ever calculation of the carbon footprint of Fort Deli’s logistics provides us with a baseline for monitoring logistics emissions in the future.
We conducted data collection and calculation at the end of 2022, gathering information from our suppliers, logistics partners, and warehouses. In the calculation, we considered Fort Deli’s logistics emissions for the year 2021, including road and sea transport, warehousing in Finland, customer deliveries, and our ERP. Our product deliveries come from different parts of Europe by road and sea transport, as well as from North America by sea. The calculation was conducted in accordance with the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting standard and the Corporate Value Chain Accounting and Reporting standard.
The results of the 2021 calculation showed that Fort Deli’s total logistics emissions amounted to 203.33 metric tons of CO2e. Transport accounted for 94% of these emissions, including imports and customer deliveries. Our warehousing services are outsourced to three different companies: dry, cold, and frozen storage. The carbon dioxide emissions from these three warehouse properties make up 4% of our total logistics emissions. Additionally, we calculated the emissions from our ERP on a cost basis, which accounted for 2% of our total logistics emissions.
In the carbon footprint calculation, we considered logistics emissions, which are a significant part of the overall emissions for an importing company. The results of the 2021 calculation now serve as a baseline for monitoring logistics emissions. An effective metric for monitoring transportation emissions is emissions per ton-kilometer transported. Emissions in transportation can be reduced by optimizing operations, such as consolidating procurement and optimizing transport routes, including improving load factors. We can make transportation more environmentally friendly by choosing transport partners that offer low-emission solutions, such as the use of renewable fuels. In some of our transports from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, renewable diesel (HVO) is already being used. We can reflect and improve load factors and route optimization in our daily operations.
As a result of the calculation project, SeaGood Oy Fort Deli has financed additional carbon sequestration by acquiring verified climate units from Green Carbon, equivalent to the 2021 logistics emissions, totaling 204 metric tons. The projects conducted by Green Carbon enhance the carbon sequestration capacity of existing forests, and the excess carbon sequestration beyond the baseline is sold on the voluntary carbon market as climate units. The additional carbon sequestration achieved by these projects mitigates climate change and supports Finland’s objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2035.
At Fort Deli, we remain committed to continuing the carbon footprint calculation project in the future and monitoring the carbon dioxide emissions related to our operations. The primary way to reduce our carbon footprint is through continuous improvement of our operations in a direction that is increasingly low in emissions. Our parent company, Orkla, is committed to the Science Based Targets initiative, with the goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 for the entire value chain.
SeaGood Oy Fort Deli is a food import company founded in 1996. Fort Deli operates as part of Orkla Suomi Finland Oy Ab, responsible for the HoReCa and Foodservice segments.
