SCRIPT: Sustainability, risk management and the future of seafood webinar

SCRIPT has launched a new, enhanced Policy Benchmarking Tool, developed in partnership with WWF. The new tool allows financial institutions (FIs) to compare their sustainability policies for five soft commodities against their peers, visualise their performance and receive personalised recommendations for improvement.

Ahead of the launch, SCRIPT hosted a webinar on ‘Sustainability, risk management and the future of seafood’. Key industry and financial sector specialists shared their perspectives on sustainability, risk and management of seafood production.

Financial institutions (FIs) need to build strong relationships with their clients, panelists emphasised, and that means collaborating with supply chain stakeholders. Gorjan Nikolik from Rabobank detailed how hosting a roundtable with industry leaders in Chile’s salmon industry, generated more robust, industry-wide sustainability standards.

Dr. Darian McBain from global seafood leader, Thai Union, talked about the opportunities for using sustainability standards and certification and how collaborative working could strengthen supply chain transparency. In turn, this transparency can enhance accountability among companies in the supply chain which can help raise the bar on sustainability.

Samantha Bramley from Standard Chartered summarised the key practical considerations for implementation of policies from a Standard Chartered perspective. In addition, as part of their policy assessment process, Samantha highlighted how Standard Chartered are using the SCRIPT Policy Benchmarking Tool to help establish leading sustainability criteria in the sector; to identify which policies to focus on, and understand how other banks are approaching sustainability policies.

Naomin Tan from WWF Singapore highlighted that benchmarking tools such as SCRIPT could help banks to identify risks in the sector and compare themselves against global and regional peers to determine what are best sustainability practices. Once risks are identified, FIs can engage with their clients to identify specific business areas where practices can be improved to achieve a more sustainable outcome.

The panel in full

The panelists were:

Gorjan Nikolik, Senior Industry Analyst in Food and Agribusiness Research and Advisory at Rabobank International.

Dr. Darian McBain, Global Director of Sustainable Development at Thai Union

Samantha Bramley, Director Environmental and Social Risk Management at Standard Chartered.

And Naomin Tan, Sustainable Finance Engagement Manager at WWF in Singapore

Lucy Holmes of WWF provided introductory comments on the importance of the seafood industry in South East Asia and Christ Hart of Global Canopy provided an overview of the features to expect from the new SCRIPT tool.

New tools and guidance

Try the new, enhanced free-to-access SCRIPT Regional Policy Benchmarking Tool, designed to help FIs develop stronger seafood policies that tackle risks in seafood supply chains here.

For more information on SCRIPT or to access the latest guidance documents for seafood sustainability in South East Asia follow the links below:

About SCRIPT

The platform is created by Global Canopy and currently holds two tools. The Policy Benchmarking Tool developed in partnership with WWF; this interactive tool assesses the strength and quality of a financial institution’s policy against those of peers in order to identify areas of excellence and opportunities for improvement. The Portfolio Risk Tool developed in partnership with Ceres offers a comprehensive company information system to identify, and effectively engage, clients that are failing to mitigate their exposure to the risks associated with deforestation.